Backups

[RossSmart]

Help!

 

I am working with a small MAT and considering some options in relation to data back up.

 

Does anyone know how much do primaries and secondaries pay for backup on the internet?

 

Another option I found is to have SIMS host all together away from schools - on Azure? Are there any other companies that do this?

How much does this cost for an average size primary school?

How much would this cost for an average size secondary school?

 

Any help would be much appreciated...

Edited April 1, 2021 by RossSmart

[CyBeRkId2002]

This is an area I have been looking into recently and here were my conclusions:

 

* You have to be a really small amount to make web-based backups the most economic way of backing up data - locally hosted is generally going to come out cheaper - you tend to pay a premium for anything "as a service"

* Upload speeds on our FttC lines made backups to the cloud cumbersome

* If you are going for a comprehensive approach to backups (all staff data, shared areas etc. not just admin) you will possibly be suprised about how much data some of the schools have if no quotas have been in place - I certainly was!

 

The above does not mean online backups are the wrong option - if you are happy paying for the convenience, reliability and no-nonsense approach then it is certainly easier from a management perspective. Unfortunately our sites had lots of data and little money. Our solution was:

 

* Synology NAS at each site - generally between 2-4tb depending on school size (this could have been centralised for even greater cost savings but at present the internet connections are not up to the job!)

* Rotating USB backup drives cloning the with one always in safe / seperate location - maintains airgap to assist should ransomware be an issue!)

* Backups taken using Veeam and encrypted

 

If we had better connectivity we may have opted for a different solution, but at present it works well for us.

[XiJ]

You need both onsite and offsite backup.

 

Onsite is quicker to backup and restore - the risk is fire / theft / damage is still a risk. Don’t keep a nas box next to the server for example.

 

Offsite backup imo is a MUST for disaster

Recovery. That may be only critical data for the school to get back in its feet. Teacher of course see all their data as critical.

 

If you’re using sims in a mat, stop! Use arbor or another cloud based modern MIS. Benefits include mat wide access, no need for onsite servers etc. They’re also much nicer to use.

 

Investigate redstor and veeam for on offsite.

[chaplic]

Small school, only backup one machine (SIMS server), using acronis to back it up locally to another machine and to their cloud. I also have a scheduled task that dumps the SQLs database locally as a file.

I think it's about 400 bucks a year.

 

I also do a test restore once a term, takes about 24hours and works well. If you're planning backup, dont forget test restores

[Guest Guest]

We're a small special secondary, we backup 5 of our 8 VMs (the others are either secondary DCs, RDS hosts or VPN servers which I consider disposable) to a NAS in the server room, a copy is made to an old server with FreeNAS on in another building, we also use Veeam Cloud Connect for offsite copies.

 

With the offer Veeam currently have (1tb free offsite) it costs us around £500 for the additional 1Tb and £250 for Veeam.