boogster Posted March 8, 2011 Posted March 8, 2011 Can anyone recommend a good online backup solution. School want to come away from tape backups.
nicholab Posted March 8, 2011 Posted March 8, 2011 Can you afford to hold 50TB upwards with one of these companies.
EduTech Posted March 8, 2011 Posted March 8, 2011 Hi, How big are your backups at this moment in time? and how many servers do you have? Do you require mailbox level restore? so individual mailbox items? James.
Edu-IT Posted March 8, 2011 Posted March 8, 2011 What happens *if* your internet connection fails? Do you have the bandwidth to backup lots of data and restore lots of data? Do you want really want your MIS data just backed up in the cloud?
boogster Posted March 8, 2011 Author Posted March 8, 2011 It is a primary school so not too much data, 1 Server, Shared directories are around 30GB and then exchange and SIMS/FMS so max of about 45GB. As far as I understand it backs up everything 1st time then only backs up changes thereafter so bandwith should not be a problem. Do you not recommend this then? As regard internet connection failing...this is the same as a tape failing for any particular evening so as long as it does not go down for more than 1 day I am sure this will be OK.
EduTech Posted March 8, 2011 Posted March 8, 2011 What happens *if* your internet connection fails? Do you have the bandwidth to backup lots of data and restore lots of data? Do you want really want your MIS data just backed up in the cloud? If the right solution is put forward it can be done as follows: 1x Network Attached Storage Device on your LOCAL LAN 1x Space in Data Center via Remote Backup Company If you were to backup your MIS System then make sure that such company meet certain standards in regards to encryption. THEY SHOULD! ask for a SEED of the data to an Hard Disk which would then be transported to a data center or/ remote location which would then save transferring 500GB Data + over the internet in the first instance. and then ONLY CHANGE would be uploaded to the server there on. You would not ever restore from there unless something happened to the local storage. If your internet connection should then fail it would still backup to the local device, likewise if you should need to do a restore it would use the local device first oppose to the remote location. If the software works right it should compress the data properly meaning you should not need so much in regards to disk space. James.
Edu-IT Posted March 8, 2011 Posted March 8, 2011 1x Network Attached Storage Device on your LOCAL LAN That is the point I was getting at James. I'd definately considor having something on site, in a different location, as well as your remote backup.
prad Posted March 8, 2011 Posted March 8, 2011 If you buy a Netgear ReadyNAS, it has a built in online backup solution with http://www.vaultservices.net. So basically you back everything up to the ReadyNAS device, and in the background it backs up its files online... about £150 per year for 50GB. I'd recommend it. 3
boogster Posted March 8, 2011 Author Posted March 8, 2011 thanks Prad, any recommendation on which Netgear to use.
boogster Posted March 8, 2011 Author Posted March 8, 2011 That is the point I was getting at James. I'd definately considor having something on site, in a different location, as well as your remote backup. The only problem I have with a NAS drive is that if the school goes up in flames so does the drive as it is not offsite and could be prone to theft.
EduTech Posted March 8, 2011 Posted March 8, 2011 The only problem I have with a NAS drive is that if the school goes up in flames so does the drive as it is not offsite and could be prone to theft. If you have the NAS on-site but have the remote backup then it obviously would not matter if the school went up in flames? James.
mattx Posted March 8, 2011 Posted March 8, 2011 Data Backup Services, Secure Online PC & Laptop Backup, London, Cambridge, Essex Is what I have setup for our school [ last major thing I wanted in place before I left ] - good prices [ if you haggle with them ] and good support. They have a Edu type backup for schools: Education Remote Data Backup
Arthur Posted March 8, 2011 Posted March 8, 2011 You should definitely take a look at CrashPlan. The standard version lets you perform on-site and off-site backups for free if you supply the storage. As an example, you could install the software on a computer at your school and at another school down the road (or even the other side of your county), and then sync your data between them. Likewise, they can do the same if they have anything to backup (but obviously in the other direction). The software encrypts and de-duplicates your data so you don't have to worry about data protection issues or servers located outside of the EU, and it will also allow to you pre-seed your backup so you won't have to spend days/weeks/months waiting for 45GBs worth of data to be transferred over the Internet. For extra redundancy you do have the option of backing to their servers for a small annual fee. 3
SkreeM1980 Posted March 11, 2011 Posted March 11, 2011 We used to have online backup service, and it was a nightmare to deal with, ensuring that it was working properly every night. I think that if you have the local copy then a remote like everybody says it can be alright. There is a company i woulnd't recommend but would prefer not to post publicy as they failed to monitor our service accurately even though they were charging a fortune. Skr
Bruce123 Posted March 11, 2011 Posted March 11, 2011 The consensus seems to be that Disc to Disc to Cloud (D2D2C) is the ideal solution. I would say second to this is Disc to Disc to USB drive. D2D2T is good too, but backup tapes aren't ideal these days. Thanks, Bruce.
SpuffMonkey Posted March 11, 2011 Posted March 11, 2011 I always wonder how you manage the online backups. I assume you do a full backup and then incrementals ever after - as I can't see how you would upload a couple of Tb on a regular basis unless you've got SERIOUS connectivity - so what happens when you want a particular file from 18 months ago?
ctbjs Posted June 27, 2011 Posted June 27, 2011 @SpuffMonkey Most data centre online backup services will offer you a 30 day recovery of data (versioning) (effectively they are providing you with 30 days of Previous Versions. In general you would make a single full backup of your data and thereafter new and changed data is uploaded and depending on what your requirements are and which provider you use you can do multiple backups per day on this basis and some will do a backup as you write option. They can be expensive but we are looking at backing up around 2050Gb of data from our network which would cost in the region of £1200 per month but this again is dependent upon which provider you use, the cost could be even less. I don't buy this, what if your internet connection goes down scenario, I think the worst option would be if your onsite backup was burnt to a cinder then the poo would hit the preverbial. We currently back to disk on the same site but in an alternative location that is deemed fireproof but is it really? I'll add to this when I have gone through the process and advise how it all went.
wesleyw Posted June 27, 2011 Posted June 27, 2011 Try Andy at Gigasoft decent price for us should be very good value if you've only got 45GB to backup. Wes
wesleyw Posted June 27, 2011 Posted June 27, 2011 Their software can and will make backups locally as well if the internet connection is down for anytime. If you need restored files you can access them from anywhere with a internet connection so you could restore them over a 3G connection for instance if you needed everything they'll ship a hdd to you for next day. Wes
gshaw Posted June 29, 2011 Posted June 29, 2011 This is an interesting one... if you backup to cloud and using virtual servers would you... a) back up all your VMs whole to local disk then to cloud for complete recovery of servers and data b) back up your VMs to local disk then do a separate backup job just for data and send that to cloud. Downside being if you lose your site recovery time will be somewhat longer to rebuild the servers Personally I'd feel more comfortable with a) but does come at a cost for the storage, need to do some comparisons with the cost of a new tape drive I guess. The other issue is Internet speed, ours is 10Mb JANET but not sure how quick that's going to work out sending GBs of data for the backup jobs...
plexer Posted June 29, 2011 Posted June 29, 2011 What happens *if* your internet connection fails? Do you have the bandwidth to backup lots of data and restore lots of data? Do you want really want your MIS data just backed up in the cloud? Our MIS and email is in the cloud so if the cloud is inaccesible so is that. Ben
plexer Posted June 29, 2011 Posted June 29, 2011 I always wonder how you manage the online backups. I assume you do a full backup and then incrementals ever after - as I can't see how you would upload a couple of Tb on a regular basis unless you've got SERIOUS connectivity - so what happens when you want a particular file from 18 months ago? Most online software runs cdp you do an initial full seed and then you upload the changed deltas after that so like an intelligent incremental if you like. Most online providers will have the option to do the initial seed to a portable hard drive that you can then courier to them after that changed deltas are quite small. Retention times are based on how much storage you buy into I guess. Ben
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