How to Handle Backup and Disaster Recovery in the Cloud

“If time to recovery is what is important to you, then you want to have virtualization capability and that comes with image backup,” says Steele. In the case of Datto, the vendor takes an image of a device and creates a virtual drive, and then spins up virtual machines in its cloud. Backing up folders and files in the cloud is only one part of the equation; without the ability to spin up virtual machines in a data center, full system recovery can take hours if not days.

Steele’s office setup – appliances that backup his server and laptop every hour and then send that data to the cloud – is similar to what he deploys for his clients. Using a backup agent which is typically on a server, end users store important files on that server which is backed up every hour to the Datto cloud. The cost of such a setup is $150 per month, Steele says.

Calculating Cost

While pricing for various BDR solutions vary, cost is primarily based on a subscription basis; some providers charge based on the volume of data, while others charge on a per seat or per device basis. In addition, costs can range widely based on RTO expectations – some industries such as financial services have regulated RTO mandates, Stapleton says, making it necessary to deploy solutions that can enable a company to remain in compliance. Expect to pay a premium in such cases.

“If you want your RTO as close to zero as possible, it’s not unreasonable for you pay 20x what a company that doesn’t care about its RTO is paying,” Stapleton says.

No matter the subscription fee, BDR in the cloud does not require an investment in the storage infrastructure and IT personnel needed for backup and restore functions, as those capabilities are offloaded to the cloud provider. In terms of flexibility, BDR systems can allow clients to backup data both locally and in the cloud – an important capability to facilitate recovery in a range of scenarios. If the data on one machine is corrupted, restoring from a local backup may be sufficient.

“Locally, the backup is a little bit faster,” says Chris Crellin, senior director of product management at Intronis MSP Solutions, a provider of security and data protection services in Chelmsford, Mass.

Intronis provides a software solution as well as an appliance-based backup service, both of which perform local backups as well as send backups to the cloud. For situations where an entire site is affected – think natural disaster or a power outage – restoring from the cloud is often the best option. “Whether you want to back up locally, in the cloud, or both really depends on your critical data needs,” Crellin says.

The Deployment Process

Determining what those critical data needs are can often be the most difficult part of a BDR initiative.  Since BDR is typically managed by an IT service provider, an organization has to do very little in terms of implementation.

“The cloud makes BDR so much easier,” says Crellin. “It’s easy to set up and then it just works versus having to maintain tape drives, hardware and scale out the infrastructure with all the electrical and cooling costs.”

The IT provider needs to configure the networking locally; define data to be backed up as well at the frequency, and potentially do some integration – activities that can take no more than an hour.

Indeed, among the more challenging aspects of getting started with BDR in the cloud are tasks that occur prior to deploying the technology.

“It’s important first to have a very frank conversation among the various decision makers in the company or departments that will consume the service to make sure that everyone is agreement as to where the core business problems will be in the event of a disaster,” says Messer.

It is in these areas where attention to data protection should be prioritized, so an organization can match their requirements to the right solution as well as the right budget.

Thoroughly vet vendors and their approaches to BDR. Stapleton recommends that companies seek out similar organizations by asking their IT providers for reference accounts in order to see BDR solutions in action. Organizations in industries with specific compliance requirements – such as healthcare and financial services– should make sure that their BDR provider understands the regulations and ideally has a track record of meeting storage and recovery parameters.  Datto, for one, offers time-based retention plans that allow an organization to pay a monthly fee for keeping data archived in its cloud even if current backups no longer occur.

For those who are concerned with data security, Messer recommends asking vendors for copies of security audits prior to signing on with them.

“That’s a great rubber stamp to ensure that the data center facility practices good security controls,” he says. “If a cloud provider can’t show potential clients that it is audited, look for another vendor.”

Ignoring BDR is not a recommended option, and the cloud now makes such important tasks affordable to most SMBs. “BDR is something that a lot of companies don’t think about until they need it,” Crellin says.

With BDR in the cloud, SMBs now have an insurance policy of sorts allowing them to rest easy about their data.

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