Shulou(Shulou.com)06/01 Report--

Although small companies are less likely to face the "backup window" and recovery time goals faced by large companies. But it is limited by the manpower and budget of IT! Maintaining simple and economical data protection is critical for smaller companies.

If I ask you what's the difference between a big company and a small company, the answer you give me is: environment, human resources. Yes, further broken down, the only big difference between large and small companies in computing environments is scale. However, there is a paradox that any type of interruption to computing systems or failure to achieve data access is boring for large companies, but can be fatal for small and medium-sized companies. In either case, protecting the system and data is urgent. But what's the best way for smaller companies?

Although small companies are less likely to face the "backup window" and recovery time goals faced by large companies, they are subject to limited IT manpower and budget. Therefore, it is critical for smaller companies to maintain simple and economical data protection.

Steering disk

Using magnetic tape to save backups is still a popular practice for many small companies. In a survey of 441 data protection professionals, Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) found that tape-only backup strategies prevailed in companies with fewer than 1000 employees than in companies with more than 1000 employees (3:2). Tape is an economical long-term storage medium, but using it slows down the recovery process and requires human intervention. With the help of disk in the backup process, you can not only accelerate backup and recovery, but also bring many other optional ways to generate system backup and data protection. Although the adoption of disk storage requires investment, the savings in operation and maintenance costs can make it more attractive to replace tapes with disks. But the editor said here: the disk also has a life, once broken, the data can not be found. At the same time, the disk is also affected by a variety of physical factors, such as moisture, fire, dust and other daily disasters. In this way, all previous efforts have been wasted.

Simplify the backup and recovery process

To make things simple, you have to start with backup and recovery. One way is to capture a complete mirror of the system, including the operating system, application software, system state, and data. System-level mirror backups speed up the entire process than file-by-file checks. The real benefit, however, is the process of recovery, because it makes it easy to "resurrect with blood in place". Mulang's multi-backup is one such example. Data is automatically backed up to multiple clouds during backup and compressed and encrypted. If you encounter a data crash or if you need it, you can restore it with one click. And multi-backup supports file backup and website backup, which is a good saas cloud backup application.

Continuous data protection (Continuous data protection,CDP) technology is another good solution for small companies because it can continuously capture data changes so that they can be restored to any previous point in time. Continuous data protection captures block-level or file-level changes and mirrors data to a CDP server (usually a device). The advantage of CDP is that this technique avoids recovery in the event of a primary system outage. CDP devices can temporarily replace primary storage to work. CDP solution vendors include CA, FalconStor, IBM, Quest Software, and SonicWall.

Some backup schemes provide quasi-continuous backups ranging from seconds to minutes. Microsoft, Symantec, Syncsort, and Unitrends provide these CDP-like features because they are based on snapshot technology rather than continuous capture. It is worth mentioning that the domestic backup software-Mulang Technology's multi-backup, the backup interval can be set to minutes, and is automatic backup recovery. These schemes are sufficient and more economical for small companies to capture every hour. A snapshot backup method is not limited to software-based solutions. There are many storage system vendors that recommend backups through snapshots, including Dell, NetApp, and Nimble.

Physical and virtual device encapsulation

Packaging data protection as a single device simplifies the procurement and implementation of backups. The device-based solution integrates the required computing, storage, software, and network interface components, avoids the uncertainty of configuring and purchasing different components, and provides a more plug-and-play installation and configuration process. Moreover, because the devices are specially built for processing, they have no performance problems. Arkeia, Barracuda Networks, Dell, EMC, FalconStor, Hewlett-Packard, i365, QuorumLabs, SonicWall, Symantec, and Unitrends are just some of the vendors that provide device-based data protection.

A virtual appliance can avoid encapsulating a physical device and provide the simplest and cheapest data protection experience. It is a pre-installed, pre-configured, fully tested application that includes a customized operating system running it and delivered in the form of a virtual machine. The goal is to eliminate the material, installation, configuration and maintenance costs associated with running a series of complex software. A virtual appliance is an attractive way to implement applications because it improves resource utilization compared to physical hardware and provides more flexibility in configuring high availability, load balancing, and business continuity. Data protection virtual appliance vendors include Arkeia, EMC, FalconStor, and PHD Virtual Technologies.

SaaS and Cloud Stora

Simple and economical data protection strategies are not fully discussed without talking about the cloud. Backup Software as a Service (Software as a Service,SaaS) and cloud-based storage are becoming the preferred solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises. Why? Backing up SaaS requires no upfront investment in the backup architecture, with little or no administrative overhead. This approach takes advantage of on-demand resources from third parties on a subscription basis. Similarly, using on-demand cloud-based storage-rather than on-site storage systems-to store backup copies reduces storage capacity requirements and reduces work pressure on storage administrators, thereby reducing costs. Multiple backup is such an application: through cloud computing technology, enterprises can achieve the same effect at a cost of only 10% of traditional solutions, and no longer need to buy expensive backup storage equipment and hire professional maintenance personnel. Data exchange among multiple cloud platforms is realized based on Cloud 5 technology to help enterprises protect and manage data.

Don't compromise.

No enterprise should be strict with data protection, because you must be aware of how much you will lose data in the future. If you are worried about the cost, consider backing up more. Its high intelligence, easy operation and reasonable price are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.