All posts by Callum Huddlestone

What is Continuous Cloud Backup and What are its Many Advantages – Part I

November 3, 2016 Callum Huddlestone

As any user of cloud backup knows, one of the biggest advantages to backing up in the cloud is the fact that backups can be automatically scheduled, making for one less task that has to be monitored by a company’s IT department, while also avoiding any chance for human error to get in the way of the scheduled backup process. However, recent advances in cloud backup technology have brought about yet another level of consistent, dependable data backup practises, continuous cloud backup.

What is Continuous Cloud Backup?

With continuous cloud backup (also known as continuous data protection or real-time backup), your small to medium-sized or enterprise business can enjoy the peace of mind of knowing that anytime certain files are modified in any way that this change in information will be automatically sent off to the cloud backup provider’s servers, offering you true continuous protection from data loss. Indeed, even the tiniest change in a file will be instantly copied to the cloud backup servers at the time that the user makes it, and, through the use of a process called “file versioning”, previous versions of files will be available for retrieval from the cloud backup cache, even if these versions no longer exist on the company’s system! Critical to this process is the automatic generation of a time stamp to go along with each new version of a file that is being automatically saved, rendering the finding of the correct previous version of a file easily and quickly achieved.

Continues Backups and Bandwidth

Interestingly enough, despite the fact that the word “continuous” makes it sound as if continuous backup is indeed “more backing up” than scheduled backups, continuous backups actually take up much less bandwidth and system resources, with only the parts of files that have been changed being backed up, and not the whole file. These changes are often quite small, sometimes only amounting to a few bytes of data, so system resources are thus preserved at both ends. For this reason, continuous data protection is the ideal backup solution for any company that finds it difficult to find consistent times when their networks are dormant enough to perform all their backups at once, without detracting from system performance. In the same way, companies that are generating large quantities of highly important data 24 x 7 also benefit greatly from this cutting edge data protection technology.

In Part II, we will further discuss the many advantages of continuous cloud backups.

Transisioning Legacy Systems to the Cloud

October 17, 2016 Callum Huddlestone

Transitioning legacy systems to the cloud and creating integrated backup scenarios has become simple. Backup Technology Limited (BTL) Cloud Backup and Recovery, powered by Asigra Software, offers a fast alternative, and highly reliable replacement for legacy tape based, remote site backup and recovery system.

BTL’s agentless software with built-in superior security and WAN optimisation protocols realises every data administrator’s dream. Agentless software reduces administrative costs; offers pay-as-you-go scalability; minimises business risks focusing on Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs), and ensures a reliable local and off-site, cloud backup.

BTL supports a wide range of operating systems and databases, such as Windows, UNIX, Netware, Linux, and Oracle. Users acquiring a one-time license have the freedom to backup application specific files from Exchange Servers, Oracle databases, Groupwise or SQL Servers.

Experts

BTL is staffed with experts and professionals, who have many years of experience in backup and recovery industry. The experts deal with all the issues surrounding backup and recovery, including de-duplication, compression, differential or incremental backups, and RPO and RTO.

Seeding

Seeding the initial backup from legacy systems is a long and complicated process. To make the seeding process faster, BTL offers disk drive shipping to the customer or if preferred, seeding can be initiated using the Internet. BTL engineers work with the data owner to ensure that their initial seed process is completed successfully; the data is backed up into the vault with minimal issues. Going forward, future backups are incremental.

Data Centre and Security

All customer data is stored in state of art data centres, with UPS systems, redundant storage networks, and fire suppression systems. BTL’s latest technology sends alerts when any unauthorized person attempts to access the data centre. As an additional layer of security, data is encrypted during flight and rest. Further, data transmission is disk-to-disk, and it is never archived to tape in order to avoid the risk of any data recovery failures or degradation.

Technical Support

Technical personnel are available 24x7x365. BTL’s support team can be contacted via phone for emergency support during holidays and off-office hours. BTL promises to deliver support services as per the pre-defined SLA.

Cost

BTL calculates storage costs based on compressed file sizes, but not on the amount of raw data. Compression can reduce file size by more than 50%, giving you a huge advantage, especially if you have large volumes of data. In addition, BTL offers further discounts for volume and multi-year commitments.

BTL’s cloud backup software is user-friendly, and can be set up easily. To learn more about BTL, please visit www.backup-technology.com

Why BTL’s Cloud Backup Outperforms the Competition?

September 28, 2016 Callum Huddlestone

People in search of great cloud services are always asking the same questions and expecting to find new answers! There are no new questions. There are only new answers. Let us look at some of the common questions that are asked:

How does this new technology advantage me?
How is it different from the current technology I use?
Where will my data reside?
Will my data be secure?
How will I have control over my data?
What kind of tools will I have for managing my data?

Backup Technology Limited (BTL) has not been asked anything significantly different or new. But, it has a lot of new answers to tough questions that are frequently asked. BTL has created a cloud platform that addresses the most recalcitrant problems of customers and resolves them to their satisfaction! This speaks volumes on how BTL has been taking its mission seriously!

The cloud computing infrastructure proposed by BTL Cloud Backup is exciting. BTL is committed to the task it has undertaken. It has partnered with leading technology vendors to provide customer friendly solutions. The integration and interoperability of the product further delivers a combined solution to frequently encountered customer problems and provides a high level of data protection solutions. The methods of deployment, the virtualisation options, simplification of provisioning, application services, increased availability, reduced environmental impact, and business continuity are some, not all, of the compelling reasons for adopting this great technology from BTL.

BTL’s Cloud Backup is an affordable option. It delivers a number of financial advantages to its users. It brings, in its wake, cost advantages and flexibilities that are rarely enjoyed with other IT innovations. Customers signing up for the platform can replace CAPEX with OPEX as the infrastructure is rented not owned. This results in reduced hardware investment and maintenance costs, reduced capacity needs, reduced technology risks, increased productivity, and improved user experience. Furthermore, BTL’s innovative approach to IT supports green computing and accommodates the globalisation aspirations of enterprises.

BTL’s Cloud Backup is easy to deploy. The software almost configures itself and wizard screens guide the user over the humps and bumps of installing and commissioning the software and initiating the backup. Administrators can create, edit, run backup sets, restore and delete files or view user-activity logs from a central management console anywhere, anytime, using a web-browser-based interface that merely requires input parameters for authentication and authorisation. The easy to use dashboard comes with robust features and functionalities, smart defaults for effective and efficient management of your data. The data itself resides in an encrypted format on secure physical or virtual servers that are systematically and dynamically replicated/mirrored for high availability and disaster recovery.

BTL offers multi-level support to users of their cloud platform. Customer satisfaction is very important for BTL and it has shown its eagerness to help its customers by deploying dedicated service personnel.

Customers, who want to know more about how the service works or how they can optimise on the cloud storage platform, can take advantage of the elaborate knowledge base BTL has developed. Trial versions of the software can be downloaded and tested free of charge for a period of 30 days before any buying decisions need to be made!

BTL utilises 256-bit AES security and multiple data centres located on two continents to ensure data protection and availability. BTL offers IT service providers a secure data solution combined with a robust partner program, the efficiencies of full web-based account management, and an industry leading technical support team. Visit www.backup-technology.com

Finding the Balance Between Value and Cost of Data Protection

September 4, 2016 Callum Huddlestone

The need to align value to cost of data protection is not new. What is new is the pressure for data protection in cost effective ways. The emergence of cloud computing is largely responsible for increasing pressures and redefining ways in which data can be protected.

IT administrators in charge of Information governance strategies in the cloud must:

Streamline processes;
Reduce costs and risks;
Leverage information effectively, and;
Evolve effective information delivery protocols.

IT Administrators migrating data to cloud storage servers, begin by assessing the available backup and archiving infrastructures in use and match it with policies and processes to arrive at an understanding of what needs to be done. They prepare a recovery service catalogue that aligns business needs to backup and archive solutions. This leads to the creation of high level architectures for the environment and development of business cases for illustrating current and projected costs, estimated savings and firm recommendations to the management for investing in cloud based backup infrastructures.

Therefore, cloud solution architectures that align value to cost of data protection, are considered to be critical to business processes and decisions that impact organisation growth, risk and profitability. Information optimised cloud backup and storage solutions are built around concepts of appropriate infrastructure, data management and data delivery. Tiered storage and information centric data storage solutions and services that pan across heterogeneous environments are desired for driving down costs and aligning value of data to protection of data. In short, the cloud platform is viewed as a means for storage managers to logically transmit data to secure storage tiers for matching information attributes, establishing enterprise wide business continuity and managing data stores from a central location with user-friendly application interfaces.

Businesses need to take care of their information assets in cost effective ways. Forward-looking organisations take this stewardship seriously and ensure quality, compliance and information protection in the cloud. The cost of data protection is rightly aligned with data protection as they appreciate that data breaches are expensive in terms of reputation, brand image, customer satisfaction and litigation under the different regulations that govern the enterprise. They leverage the best practises of the cloud to meet industry standards and data security objectives. They create value based information governance objectives that clarifies individual roles and responsibilities and provides necessary guidelines for effective management of information in the cloud across the enterprise.

Backup Technology Limited is proud to provide a value-cost balanced cloud backup services to small and large enterprises globally. Why not give our services a try? Contact BTL for more details — www.Backup-Technology.com

The Role of Alerts in Automatic Cloud Backup Systems

August 19, 2016 Callum Huddlestone

Automatic backup of crucial application types and data files is the ideal. However, the identification of what is crucial to you is a manual process that cannot be avoided. You need to spend some time and effort in identifying the crucial file types and instructing the backup system to automatically backup the files identified by you every time the backup schedule kicks into action.

Before launching on to a discussion of automated backup systems, let us clear away some cobwebs.

Automated backup systems are computer programs designed by human beings with limited knowledge of your business or any other business. The person designing the program can, at best, apply some generic information in creating the logic of the program. Therefore, most automatic backup solutions are programmed to assume that all documents, images and some pre-specified generic file types might be important to you. Consequently, the automatic backup system will–in default mode–backup any documents, images and generic file types that are available on your system.

However, these programs are also designed to receive inputs from end users that can override the default and create a system that automatically backups all files, folders and applications types that you consider crucial to your organisation. To this end, many online backup service providers offer user-friendly screens to end users for selection of files, folders and application types that they consider important for regular, scheduled or automatic backup.

Alternately, they offer snapshot backup for those who are unsure about what they want to backup and what they would prefer to leave out. Snapshot backups will create point in time snapshots of your entire system and backup it up to the online backup server.

How does all this work? Online backup service providers require you to download a client component when you sign up for their service. The client component contains a set of wizards that allow you to select Backup sets for scheduling your automated backups. A backup set is a set of files, folders and applications that you want to backup at scheduled intervals automatically. The wizard screens are similar to the Windows Explorer and some of them even have a drag and drop facility for identifying and selecting files and folders for automated backup.

Alternately, you can specify file extensions for backup and the wizard will select all the files with the specified extension for backup. It is also possible to identify specific folders to the program by specifying the folder path. Once a backup set has been created, you will need to specify whether you would like these files or folders backed up continuously or at specified times. Thereafter, you can sit back and relax and the automated backup will happen on schedule.

But, online automated backup failures are not uncommon! Since it is automated, you may forget to check whether the backup really happened! Automated backup systems acknowledge these possibilities. The automated backup system will alert you if an automated backup schedule has failed with a pop alert that draw your attention or will create a report on the cause of the failures for your consumption when you check back on the backup.

Most online backup service providers also have an inbuilt alert facility on their server side program to alert you via email if your automated backup has failed. If you choose to ignore the email or fail to check on your email, a few online backup service providers have a system of live help on phone to inform you about automated backup failures; the causes; what you need to do to rectify the problem at your end or how the problem is being rectified at their end and so on.

In other words, while automated backup of crucial files and folders is convenient, it is a freedom that comes with a different kind of responsibility. You need to choose the files and folders for automated backup with care and application of mind (failure to select a file type or folder could result in data loss); you need to react to backup failure alerts instantly; constantly monitor the backup system and study the different logs to ensure that the automated backup is happening regularly and on schedule without hiccups. You will have to work with your service provider to ensure that hardware and software problems do not interfere with the automated backup system.

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) Vs. Traditional Disaster Recovery (DR)

July 13, 2016 Callum Huddlestone

Disaster Recovery (DR) systems are difficult to operate, harder to configure. They also get quickly outdated, and cost much more than just backups. To the contrary, DRaaS is a cloud based service, which offers testing flexibility, costs much less than DR, easier to deploy, keeps pace with the company changes and strategies, and offers the ability to test the ongoing plans on a regular basis.

How Do You Make a DR Plan?

You can make DR plans with the help of cloud based methods. You will need to consider the potential threats present to data centres while devising and testing disaster scenarios. Such threats as employee sabotage, hazardous weather, systems downtime, hackers, breaches and power outages should be outlined as potential disasters. Identify the most common apps that need to be restored immediately. Go over the list again and prioritise by importance. You are also suggested to make the plans to limit the activities against the data centre and its efficiency. Users can develop the basic infrastructure with the help of servers, network connections, applications, software and storage devices. All these parameters have vital roles in the development of good infrastructure for disaster recovery.

Appointing staff having relevant professional experience can help in the development of DR plans and infrastructure required. IT professionals know how to manage according to the requirements of clients. IT departments spend more time for the development and maintenance of DR plans. New applications and approaches are invented by developers working on disaster recovery options and protocols. IT admins also test these DR plans in order to find the best efficiency level for optimised performance.

Developing New DRaaS Solutions:

Cloud always provides better options for the data protection and recovery. The cloud is most efficient, providing latest updates in order to create better data recovery and storage. The cloud has introduced modern automation and virtualisation for high level flexibility.

Cloud’s Limitations:

DRaaS might have limitations, especially, when cloud vendors do not have complete system redundancy. Suppliers can’t justify the cost of building new data centres that cater to the needs of each user’s infrastructure setups. As a result, they cut corners. A good DRaaS will develop systems that resist outages to some degree.

Even though cloud based DR increases the company network bandwidth, it is better than conventional options. The users are also required to choose the right DR plans favourable for their business and activity. It is no longer a question of how cloud backup service providers can assist the clients in the matter of disaster recovery.