This is the ninth in a new series for IT pros to share what they use on their network. Read the other articles in the series here.
I asked these SpiceHeads what products they prefer for their company's online backup, and why. These are their answers:
Interview: Sean Donnelly
Tell us a bit about the business you work for (Service Point USA)
We are a global reprographics company that does everything large and small format printing, offset printing, Managed Print Services, and online document management solutions tailored to Architects, Engineers, and Construction companies.
What do you use for online backup?
Zetta.net and soon to add Barracuda Backup appliance for local backup and then pushed to Barracuda’s remote Data Centers.
The main reason for this is that the three servers being backed up to Zetta are located within Terremark’s cloud hosting. The systems that will be backed up by the Barracuda are located in our Corporate Data Center.
How much data do you backup?
We are currently backing up Exchange 2010 and 2 2008 R2 Active Directory Servers. The total space consumed by these servers is around 150GB and we have a one month retention policy.
When the Barracuda backup is added in Q3 of this year we will expand that to our SQL servers (home grown apps, Microsoft CRM, and more), corporate documents, customer files, and the code for core web apps. This will total around 2.5TB of data.
What other options did you consider?
I tried to keep the list to a minimum of 5 potential vendors due to the fact that there are numerous cloud based backup solutions today. I reviewed Carbonite, Amanda Enterprise, and IBackup.
The obvious key for us was the ability to backup systems like Exchange and SQL Server.
What are the pros and cons of the solution you chose?
Having our critical data available to us anytime, anywhere is a major plus. Knowing the storage location is geographically remote is also a plus in the event of weather related events where we have a presence along the eastern seaboard.
Data Dedupe is also a key feature to ensure we’re not backing up the same file in a dozen different locations. I received excellent service from pre-sales to implementing the solution, and know I can expect the same when Barracuda is implemented from the talks I have had with them.
One con is this is being used a method for Disaster Recovery you never truly know how the process will go in a real world scenario. I feel I have provided my company with the best solution that fits within our budget and needs, but I guess the unknown is my biggest worry. No matter how many times we run through our DR plans, it always seems easier in a test environment.
Another potential con is “losing” that control over your data and moving to the cloud. Though at the end of the day if you have doubts in the vendors ability to secure your data then you should likely not go with them.
Interview: DeWayneChapman
Tell us a bit about the business you work for (Seneca Health Services, Inc.)
I work for Seneca Health Services, Inc. We are a behavioral health center in Central West Virginia. We serve 4 counties in our area. We have a large network consisting of 7 locations of which 4 are a minimum of an hours drive away. All locations are connected to the Regional Office via Metro Ethernet connections. We have approximately 15-20 servers within out IT Department. We run Netsmart’s myAvatar as our Clinical/Billing Software.
What do you use for online backup?
For our backups we currently use multiple scenarios. We use MozyPro for backing some of our critical data within Seneca so that we can have an offsite backup if needed.
We have also begun using ShadowProtect to create images of our servers each evening and storing them on Western Digital’s My Passport portable drives. This allows us to take the drives offsite each day and rotate them out with another drive. We also use Veeam to backup our Hyper-V server that hosts 3 Citrix servers.
How much data do you backup?
About 1,546 GB
What other options did you consider?
I tried using Backup Exec 2012 but just had too many issues with it.
What are the pros and cons of the solution you chose?
The pros are definitely the amount of time it takes to restore data. By creating an image of the drive I am able to quickly restore that image or mount the image as a drive and restore single files if needed.
I have not run across any Cons other than having about 6 MyPassport drives to carry out every evening.
Interview: Limey
Tell us a bit about the business you work for (municipal department, Warren County, NJ)
I work on the side for a local police department handling their IT needs
What do you use for online backup?
JungleDisk backing up to Amazon S3
How much data do you backup?
At this point 10GB, but initially under 1GB.
What other options did you consider?
None, really. This replaced a functioning tape backup that was run only three days per week, never went offsite, and was overwritten in two weeks.
What are the pros and cons of the solution you chose?
Pros are the reliability, cost, and encrypted backups.
Cons would be restore time for a major disaster and speed for large backups. Can also be challenging to find the backup files, for example to move them to cheaper, archival storage.
Now that you've had a peek behind the curtain at these SpiceHeads' networks, please jump in and share your online backup choice. What are you using for online backup and why? You can start by answering the same questions they did:
- Tell us a bit about the business you work for
- What do you use for online backup?
- How much data do you backup?
- What other options did you consider?
- What are the pros and cons of the solution you chose?
We have a new Product Selector for Online Backup. If you are using or have trialed an online backup solution, please take a moment and write reviews on the relevant products. If you are shopping for a solution, then you can use this list to help you evaluate your options.