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Achieving Enterprise-Strength Data Backup and Disaster Recovery for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
Analyzing modern-day backup solutions for cost-effectiveness and potential down-time prevention.
White Paper Provided by Technical Edge Consulting
ABSTRACT: The following paper is an analysis of modern data backup and disaster recovery solutions designed for small and medium-sized businesses and organizations, so business owners can understand the pros and cons of such solutions. After the analysis, recommendations are provided for the favorable solution in regards to long-term cost effectiveness, capabilities, restoration time, user-interactivity, and security. The goal of this paper is to provide business owners with a greater understanding of the solutions they need, the costs associated with downtime, and the capabilities to look for in a backup solution for their business, and the importance of having a complete data backup strategy as part of a disaster recovery plan.
© 2011, Technical Edge Consulting, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This document may not be copied or reproduced without permission from the author. For more information, comments, or questions, please email
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The Importance of Data Backup: Company data of any kind, whether it be digital records, client information, email inboxes, internal company documents, document templates, employee records, etc., are vital for the day to day effectiveness for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs). A recent study by the National Archives & Records Administration in Washington discovered that 93% companies that experienced a “major loss” of company data for 10 days or more filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster, and 50% of those filed for bankruptcy immediately. The study indicates that a major event of data loss has an enormous impact on an SMB.
A little about data storage: Hard drives are the primary storage device for data in workstations, servers, and notebooks. Typically, the device functions by spinning multiple magnetic platters. With a mechanical element (moving parts), hard drives are prone to wearing down with use and age, though they are still sensitive to surges and other events that damage other PC hardware. In a recent study by Google, 1 out of 14 hard drives fail within the first year of use.
When a storage device is damaged to a point where data cannot be retrieved, there are services available to attempt to restore data from a damaged hard drive, although there is never any guarantee that all or some data can be saved, and the costs for this can exceed the tens of thousands of dollars and still not yield complete results. Forging a Business Continuity Plan requires the inclusion of a data backup solution that is reliable and relatively fast to restore; after experiencing a major loss in data (which is often paired with downtime) a faster restoration of your data and infrastructure means less downtime and less loss. Here are a few other things to consider when laying out your Business Continuity Plan, involving your data availability.
Is the backup recent? Is the data backed up securely offsite in case of a disaster? Is the backup solution automated or is it prone to user error? Does it back up data incrementally? Can the data be restored quickly? Can malfunctioning hardware be replaced quickly? Are email inboxes being backed up? Can you test your restoration process regularly to ensure it works?
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Types of Backup: Currently, there are two comparable backup solutions on the market for small and medium businesses. The first one is Tape Backup, which has been used for decades, and Network Attached Storage (NAS), which uses Hard Disks. Lesser backup systems have been used in extreme situations, such as external hard drives, USB flash drives, DVD media, and others, but these methods are not dependable businessclass solutions.
Tape Backup The solution that has been the standard for decades has been so for its cost effectiveness. Tape media, for a very long time, was substantially cheaper per Gigabyte than hard drive storage. Often, a business could store all of their important data on a single tape, cycling out a different tape every day for incremental restore points. Tape, however, has its drawbacks. It is slow to backup and even slower to restore. It needs to be run at night, and most of the time tape backup can’t handle files that are checked out or open, and the process to restore a single file involves scanning through the entire tape to find that particular file. Tapes are also somewhat limited to the amount of data they can hold, and need to be cycled out every year or so. Tapes can be kept offsite, preserving the data in case of a disaster, such as a fire or flood, although this method can suffer from human error; the tape can be lost or left onsite. Also, tapes need to be swapped every evening by a user for the backup to run.
NAS Hard Disk Backup Hard drives, just like the ones found in workstations and laptops, were once drastically more expensive than tape media, but over the past decade, hard drive prices have dropped so storage space costs pennies per Gigabyte. Consumer-based backup devices are almost always based on hard drives, and the reliability and speed of redundant hard drive backup has been favored by Enterprise-sized organizations that can afford internal data centers to keep their storage backed up. While small and medium sized businesses typically can’t afford their own data centers, the cost effectiveness and capabilities of modern disk backup compliment Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity strategies. Hard drive storage can be redundant with RAID arrays in a single device, and the overall storage capacity is much higher compared to tape.
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Tape Vs NAS
TAPE
NAS
A significant backup window is required to complete a full backup - time lost for access to vital systems
There is no backup window... your critical business systems remain up and running during the backup.
Systems are typically backed up every 24 hours, meaning a full day's worth of work could be lost.
Data snap shots can take place every 15 minutes.
No Automation - Tapes need to be swapped manually each day
Backup runs automatically
Slow, time-consuming, labor intensive restoration process
Systems can be restored in half an hour in most cases, and single files/directories can be restored quickly.
Offsite backup requires tapes to be taken off site.
Some systems are offsite backup capable, pushing files to an outside datacenter.
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Tape Vs NAS Conclusion Tape is more portable and less prone to breaking during transit, making them better at manually taking offsite for archive storage. Hard disks are cheaper than Tape per Gigabyte. Hard disks last longer and are more reliable than Tape. Tapes require winding and seeking to find information, taking minutes while hard drives only need a few milliseconds to access data. Raw data transfer rates in hard drives is superior, although the interface the device is connected with can play a role on that too (example USB, SATA, Cat5). Hard drives can write over data instantly, whereas tapes can require erase cycles and retensioning. While tape has been the standard for a very long time, the efficiency and cost effectiveness of NAS backup using hard disk storage greatly outweighs the benefits of tape, providing more frequent backups, faster backups, higher storage capacities and most importantly, faster restore times. Restore times are vital for a good Business Continuity Strategy; the faster you can get your data back, the less downtime your company suffers. Your data is vital to keep your staff working, whether the disaster is an earthquake, a server hardware malfunction, or even user-error. Tape backup is difficult and slow to restore from, and very difficult to test, where a NAS solution would give you access to your backed up files at all times. An estimated tape recovery time from a server crash is somewhere between 16-40 hours, leading to costly business downtime. The steps involve the following:
Repair/replace the downed server Install the OS and applications if needed Tape backup needs to be compatible with the new hardware Install the exact same tape backup software Restore the data using the exact tape chain (to handle incremental). A break in the chain would result in lost data
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Optimal Disaster Recovery Solution Your solution must secure your valuable data automatically, often, and incrementally with a fast recovery. The Network Attached Storage (NAS) solution is far superior for this compared to the other leading backup solution, tape. Though not all NAS devices are considered equal, Tech Edge has put together a cost effective NAS-based solution that covers the entire Disaster Recovery spectrum from end-to-end.
Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) The Backup and Disaster Recovery device (BDR) takes advantage of the backup capabilities of a Hard drive-based NAS device while also providing several other key capabilities to complete a Business Continuity strategy. As a NAS device, the BDR is capable of backing up files up to every 15 minutes. This happens regardless if the file is in use, performing what’s called a block level archive; the bits (the 1s and zeros) on the hard drive are replicated exactly. This means a full snapshot can be taken quickly while files, inboxes, and programs are being used by staff. The snapshots are incremental; you can roll back to earlier archived versions of specific files. The data is stored redundantly on the BDR. The BDR can backup multiple servers at once, including Exchange, databases, and separate partitions. Cloud Virtualization If your server were to go down, the BDR is capable of virtualizing the malfunctioning server. It will fulfill the role of that server and continue to perform backups until the faulty equipment can be replaced. This can greatly reduce downtime while hardware is purchased or the server is repaired. When it is time to roll out the new server, the BDR can be used to restore the new/repaired hardware by performing what’s called a bare metal restore. This pushes all of the data, the applications, the operating system, and the files, to the working server. This works regardless of any hardware differences, streamlining an otherwise long and complicated process. During the entire process of a server malfunction, very little downtime is experienced when using the BDR solution.
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Offsite Data Backup The BDR boasts superior internal automated backup procedures, but for a full-fledged business continuity solution, data needs to be stored offsite. With tape backup, the option was to simply manually take a tape or series of tapes and store them somewhere safe offsite. The BDR is capable of pushing and storing data offsite to secure data centers, keeping a redundant archive offsite in case of a disaster, such as fire, flood, theft, or malfunction of the BDR. Data is encrypted by the BDR and sent securely to the data center using AES-256 level, military grade encryption. In the event of a real disaster where a new BDR is needed, a new unit can be generated at the offsite facility and shipped overnight.
BDR Recap The BDR is the single-most complete device for a business continuity solution, filling required needs such as:
Automated scheduled backups (up to every 15 minutes) Incremental backups (restore files from earlier points) Archival offsite secure storage Ability to backup open and locked out files, Exchange inboxes Easy to use interface for restoring files and directories Device can act as a virtual server to take over for a malfunctioning server while still running a backup Bare metal server install restores the new/repaired server despite hardware differences Fast, comprehensible data restoration The ability to test the virtualization capabilities daily.
The cost of downtime: It is important to calculate the cost of downtime in your organization. Combine an estimated hourly cost for all of your employees, and add that to an estimated average of revenue that could be missed if most or all of your employees cannot work. Depending on your agreements with your IT provider and the severity of the issue, add the cost of data restoration, new server hardware, server software installation and setup, driver updates, and testing. Reducing downtime and streamlining the restoration process can make a huge difference in costs just by streamlining the restoration process.
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Business Continuity Strategy Conclusion Given the analysis of the three options; tape, hard drive-based NAS, and the hard drive-based BDR, the BDR solution is our recommended solution based on the goals and needs of a solid business continuity strategy. The flexibility, performance, and functionality of the BDR accomplish all of the digital dataoriented objectives of a bullet-proof disaster recovery plan, and the features should help set a template for business owners looking to protect one of their organization’s most vital assets. Data security is vital, and the level of encryption built into the BDR has yet to be broken and is considered the gold standard, rendering your transmitted data completely immune to theft. Most importantly, the BDR offers fast and pain-free restoration, reducing the stress and downtime after a disaster takes down your server(s) or even your entire IT infrastructure. With the capability to take over for a downed server and quickly restore the new/repaired server with the OS, software, and data regardless of hardware, eliminating an extended length of downtime and the costs of installing the OS, drivers, software, and then restoring the data as in older types of backup systems. The BDR can restore a server anywhere between one and a few hours.
In Conclusion A good backup solution can bring you peace of mind, knowing that your data is always protected, redundant, and that in the case of a disaster, you can expect a speedy, hassle-free recovery to prevent downtime and further costs. When it comes to your data; having a reliable backup solution is vital to secure and protect one of your company’s most costly assets. While a managed, maintained tape backup solution (as long as it is tested often) is better than no backup solution at all, to accommodate a Business Continuity Strategy, business owners should consider utilizing a BDR solution. For more information about Backup and Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity Strategy, and the BDR device, please contact Technical Edge at (406) 896-0498 or
[email protected].
