Developing a Storage

Backup Strategy

an Storage eBook
contents
[ ]
Developing a Storage Backup Strategy

This content was adapted from Internet.com's

Enterprise Storage Forum, Enterprise IT Planet,
and InternetNews Web sites. Contributors:
Drew Robb, Mike Harwood, Henry Newman,
and Paul Shread.

2 Don't Let Backup

Take a Backseat
2 Drew Robb

4 Getting Backup Right

Henry Newman

7 Backup Strategies
Mike Harwood
4 7
13 Finding a Disaster Recovery
Solution That Won't Break
the Bank
Drew Robb

16 Small Businesses Turn

to Online Backup
13 16 Drew Robb

Developing a Storage Backup Strategy, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.

1
 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]

Don’t Let Backup Take a Backseat

By Drew Robb

“What people should do, but often don't, is start with

W
ith storage requirements moving into the tera-,
peta- and exabyte ranges, companies need to
refine their backup strategies to ensure availability
of their growing data stores.
the recovery requirements,” says W. Curtis Preston, vice
president of Framingham, Mass., storage consultancy
GlassHouse Technologies, Inc.

“Many data centers still perform This means determining the

backup operations the same they Recovery Time Objective (how
have for decades – and it does quickly the data needs to be
not work any more,” says Lauren restored) and Recovery Point
Whitehouse, an analyst at Objective (how current the data
Enterprise Strategy Group. “It is must be) for each class of data
time to re-evaluate the capabili- and creating a plan that meets
ties and requirements, and reset those requirements.
expectations – just because a
4GB Oracle database could be 2. Save files to disk before
recovered in three hours in 1987 migrating them to tape.
doesn't mean it can be today
when the database is 4TB.” “Disk staging makes a huge dif-
ference, shrinking backup win-
Accordingly, Enterprise IT Planet dows by as much as three quar-
interviewed several storage ters,” says Ramon Kagan, manag-
experts and gleaned the follow- er of UNIX services at York
ing tips for improving your own University in Toronto. “We are
backup and restoration proce- able to do backups much faster
dures. from the server standpoint and
Jupiterimages
then cycle it to tape during the
1. Plan in Reverse. day, saving people and servers a lot of time.”

figure out what needs to be restored, and how fast, 3. Eliminate excess.
and then devise an appropriate backup plan.
Do you need to store daily copies of a file that hasn't

“
Many data centers still perform backup operations the same they have
for decades – and it does not work any more

2 ”
Developing a Storage Backup Strategy, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.
 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]
changed in six months, or the personal copies of an e-
mail the CEO sent to all employees? Deduplicating
files reduces the amount of storage needed and
speeds backup times.
“We have commonly seen 20-to-1 capacity reduction
using data de-duplication,” says Whitehouse.
4. Have backups stored outside the disaster impact
zone.
At a minimum, backup tapes should be stored off site.
Better yet, all data is mirrored to a disaster recovery
facility far enough away that it is still on line when the
flood/hurricane/earthquake/blackout brings down the
primary data center.
5. Track down and eliminate any network bottle-
necks.
Bottlenecks will slow down backup and restoration. This
is particularly an issue with server virtualization, where
multiple virtual servers are using the same network
interface card and network connection.
“Make sure that you walk through the whole chain from
client, to network, to server, to tape drive to ID bottle-
necks,” says Preston. “You may be surprised to find
that the bottleneck is Gb Ethernet to the tape drive.
Tape drives are often too fast for the network inter-
face.”
6. Minimize the number of backup products.
There can be advantages to using a best-of-breed
product for a particular type of server, but make sure
those advantages outweigh the cost and time of sup-
porting multiple products.
7. Use multiple layers of protection, where appropri-
ate.
“Depending on the business value, time sensitivity, and
criticality of the data involved we apply different back-
up methods,” says Dan Funchion, senior manager of IT
Infrastructure/Operations for SunGard Availability
Services, who is responsible for backing up or replicat-
ing 30TB of data daily. “In many cases we will imple-
ment multiple solutions for the same data sets (for
example, remote replication combined with tape back-
3 Developing a Storage Backup Strategy, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.
up).”
8. Store a copy of the recovery plan with the backup
data.
Particularly when there is a major disaster, those who
normally handle backup/restoration may not be avail-
able. Storing a copy of the plan with the tapes allows
someone else to take the necessary steps.
9. Test the restoration process before it is needed,
and test it on the actual equipment that will be
used.
This is particularly critical when you are planning on
using a disaster recovery site that contains different
servers or a different network architecture. When talk-
ing about a multitiered service, it doesn't do any good
to restore only one part. Or, if the application is used to
looking for a piece of code or a file on a particular serv-
er in order to complete an operation, what will happen
if it's on a different server? So test the entire system,
not just whether the files restore properly.
10. Set up routine file restoration as a help desk
function.
It doesn't take a high level of expertise to restore
someone's accidentally deleted Word file.
“It is important to push as much of the restoration func-
tion to the help desk so storage professionals can work
on improving levels of service,” says Robert L.
Stevenson, Managing Director, Storage, for TheInfoPro,
Inc. in New York City. “That will give you more flexibility
to handle growth and address areas where there are
inadequate backups.” I
 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]

Getting Backup Right

By Henry Newman

started to gather their backup requirements and then

I
was recently at a customer site working to architect a
backup solution for a large environment that contained their restoration requirements.
scientific data. At this site, a majority of the data is under
hierarchical storage management (HSM) control, but depart- The discussion led to some detailed information on
mental network-attached storage servers for home directo- which machines were critical servers and which
ries and smaller site-specific tasks were not being backed machines were not. We determined that the service
up. agreement with the hardware
vendor determined whether a
The customer and I started machine was critical or not. If
talking, and I realized that they have four-hour hardware
both of us were approaching response around the clock,
the backup problem back- then it was a critical machine,
wards. We were looking at the and if a machine was next-day
problem from the reference hardware service on weekdays
point of how to back up the only, then it was not critical. I
data, which is the wrong asked what their service-level
approach. The problem with agreements with the user
looking at things from the community were for software
backup side first is that you restoration, including the
might wind up planning an operating system and user
architecture that cannot sup- data in the event of a disaster.
port your restoration policy. The customer had not thought
Jupiterimages
So let's explore the reasons about how fast they had to
why I think restoration is the most important thing that restore the data.
needs to be planned, and some of the issues involved
in planning and creating a restore policy. It dawned on me that the issue was not backup time,
but the time it would take to restore the data. Backup
Gathering Requirements is pretty easy — you can buy software from a variety of
companies that can deal with big and small backup and
I'm a big believer in gathering requirements at the start restore problems, but the hardware and other software
of the process. When I was visiting this customer, I that is needed to restore the environment and meet

“
The problem with looking at things from the backup side first is that you might wind up
planning an architecture that cannot support your restoration policy.

4 ”
Developing a Storage Backup Strategy, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.
 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]
the expectation of the organization for coming back
after a disaster are far more difficult. We have all delet-
ed a file that we wanted to get back, so you need to
consider not only the restoration of the system, but the
process within the software for restoring a single file.
Gathering requirements for restoring data should
address two issues:
• How are you going to restore the operating system
and what are the expectations for how long this will
take?
• How much user data will need to be restored and
what are the expectations for how long this will take?
I once worked with a customer that wanted to use
backup and restore for a critical system that required
99.995 percent uptime. I told them that it would be
impossible to get the 4TB of data restored in the
required time frame without hundreds of tape drives.
Once they understood the technology issues, they
changed from backup/restore to HSM because it met
their operational requirements better — with the HSM
system, they could get back online faster even though
all of the data was not available on the primary storage.
The customer determined that not all the data was
needed when the system was booted. A complete
understanding of the service-level agreements you
have with the users is one of the first and most impor-
tant steps for the architectural planning process.
Some of the areas that must be planned are:
• Network configuration
• The number of incremental backups compared to
full backups
• The backup medium.
Network Configuration
As part of the architecture process, the architect must
consider a numbers of areas of network architecture. I
am assuming that you are not doing a backup for each
machine with a separate tape drive, but a network
backup for a group of machines. Some of the network
issues include:
• How much data will be backed up and at what
intervals?
• What is the current and planned network infrastruc-
ture?
• What is the current and expected excess capacity
available for backups?
5 Developing a Storage Backup Strategy, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.
The key to all of these network issues is bandwidth and
latency. If you have a large amount of data, you are
going to need a large amount of bandwidth to support
the backup process. If you have many users that are
active when you are using large amounts of network
bandwidth, you have the potential for a significant
latency problem for the user community. Add to this
what happens if a machine needs to be restored in the
middle of the day, and you could affect the whole busi-
ness by using up all of the available network bandwidth
for the restore.
Understanding the network topology and usage pat-
terns and the impact that both an inopportune restore
and your standard backup will have must be consid-
ered. Sooner or later you will have to do a restore at
the worst possible time. If this is a critical business
issue, then you need to consider an architecture con-
cept we often use called "Engineering to Peak." What
this means is that you develop an architecture with a
set of worst-case scenarios in mind. These scenarios are
documented and agreed to by all parties.
A good example might be that you use four-trunked
GigE for your network interface to the backup/restore
system to meet your required restoration time. As part
of this architecture, you have a single GigE as a hot
standby in case one of the four GigEs fails. If two GigEs
fail, you cannot meet your restore service-level agree-
ment. Since the chance of two failing are very low, as
long as this is documented and you have "engineered
to peak," you have met your service-level agreement
with management because everyone agreed that the
failure of two GigEs was not planned.
Incremental and Full Backups
Incremental backups allow the backup process to take
far less time, but they lengthen the restoration process.
As part of the backup and restoration planning process,
you need to determine how much time you have to
restore a machine. Given that information, you can plan
how many incremental backups you can have before
you have to do a full backup. Remember to include
tape pick, load, position, rewind, unload, and robot
placement of tape as part of this time calculation.
Backup Medium
What is the backup medium? For the most part, tape is
still the backup medium of choice. MAID technology,
 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]
or massive array of inactive disks, is being used more
and more in the large environment backup market.
One of the tradeoffs with MAID is that the MAID ven-
dors do not currently support hardware compression,
which tape drives support. Of course, your compres-
sion mileage may vary depending on data type.
Whatever technology you use, it is important to ensure
that the technology is cost-effective and meets your
performance requirements. Having lower-cost DLT
drives, compared to higher-cost drives from the likes of
IBM and StorageTek, might not make sense when you
consider that the compression of the drive and the
higher performance allow you to have fewer drives,
fewer tapes and potentially a smaller robot.
There are no simple answers because without good
knowledge of your requirements, your data and the
compressibility of that data, making decisions in this
area is difficult. Add to this that some backup packages
have the option of compression within the backup soft-
ware, and you have a very confusing situation. The only
way to figure this out is through real-world data.
6 Developing a Storage Backup Strategy, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.
Conclusions
Architecting for backup correctly means basing your
architecture on your restore requirements. Those
requirements will often vary for each machine in an
environment, depending on how critical they are for
your business. What many organizations' IT depart-
ments do is set up a set of services for all the machines
in the environment. This is often based on the hard-
ware maintenance plans for the machines, since this is
often a very good measure of the criticality of a
machine.
Whatever you decide, it's important to look at the
restore requirements first before you consider the back-
up issues. You will need to test your restoration time at
least once a year to make sure that the process works
as planned, but we'll save that topic for another col-
umn. I
 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]

Backup Strategies
By Mike Harwood

ing with the backup window.

I
t is certainly not news to say that the amount of
electronically stored data is growing. It's because of
this increase in storage space requirements and the Dealing with Shrinking Backup
trend toward data centralization that our backup solu-
tions must scale to SAN and NAS storage demands in
Windows
terms of speeds, reliability, and security. Because of A backup window refers to the time it takes to com-
the importance backups plete a given backup. This
play in the design and backup window is deter-
implementation of a storage mined by both the amount
strategy, they must be care- of data that must be backed
fully considered. up and by the speed of the
network infrastructure that
As we know, a backup is handles the data. For some
simply a copy of electronic organizations, the backup
data that is used as a means window doesn't present any
of recovery should the data real problems. Such organi-
become lost, corrupted, or zations typically have the
compromised. Though the ability to complete data
definition of a backup may backups in the off hours
be straightforward, the actu- without running into produc-
al implementation of a stor- tion time.
age backup solution can be
a difficult task that encom- However, as the amount of
passes many obvious and data grows, so too does the
Jupiterimages
not so obvious considera- time it takes to perform the
tions. backup, and soon backups will run into production
time. Further, many organizations today do not have
Lets explore some of the factors to consider when an off hours period — they require network access
implementing a backup solution for a storage area 24/7, leaving a very small or even nonexistent backup
network, starting with one consideration that dates window.
back to the origin of the Local Area Network — deal-

“
Because of the importance backups play in the design and implementation of a storage
strategy, they must be carefully considered.

7 ”
Developing a Storage Backup Strategy, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.
 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]
There are many ways to address the backup window
issue, and the one chosen will depend on the needs
of the organization, budgets, and of course the
amount of data that must be backed up. Some of the
methods used for operating within a backup window
include using differential and incremental backups,
snapshots, hardware and infrastructure upgrades, and
potentially modifying the network backup design
using server-free and LAN-free backups.
Backup Alternatives
Starting at the beginning, some of the oldest methods
of dealing with the backup window are using incre-
mental or differential backups instead of regularly per-
forming full backups. Before designing a backup solu-
tion with these methods, it's important to first have a
solid understanding of backups in general and what
each of the alternatives is designed to do.
A full backup saves all directories and files, and while
it might sound ideal to perform a full backup every
time we back up our data, the backup window often
prevents this. Because of the time and media space a
full backup can take, they are often restricted to a
weekly or monthly schedule, although the increasing
speed and capacity of backup media is making nightly
full backups a much more realistic proposition, even
for those with hundreds of gigabytes of data.
Full backups, if you have the time to perform them,
offer the ultimate in data protection. In effect, a single
tape, or set of tapes, can provide the ability to com-
pletely resurrect a server to its current state. Full back-
ups are not, however, without their drawbacks; one of
which is security-related. Each tape contains an entire
copy of the data on a given server. If the tape were to
be stolen, the thief would then have an entire copy of
the data.
The Incremental Backup
The incremental backup provides a much faster
method of backing up data than a full backup. During
an incremental backup only the files that have
changed since the last full or incremental backup are
included. Because of this, the time it takes to conduct
the backup may be a fraction of the time it takes to
perform a full backup. To determine whether a file has
changed since the last full backup, the backup soft-
ware checks a setting known as the 'archive bit.'
8 Developing a Storage Backup Strategy, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.
The Data Pileup: Save
Money or Save Data?
G
By Judy Mottl
iven how cheap storage has become, it's
understandable enterprises are expanding
arrays to house growing data. But stocking
up on hardware and software to hold more and
more information is a costly misstep, according to a
Gartner report.
New regulations and legal concerns are likely
prompting IT to keep every bit and byte of data just
in case some litigation issue arises, and since stor-
age costs are decreasing, the urge to push another
box into play can be tempting.
The problem is that data growth will very quickly
outpace the savings in storage, according to Whit
Andrews, an analyst at Gartner.
"It's time for companies to modernize storage
strategies and understand how information access
technology can be a good tool for making sure they
need what they're keeping," Andrews told
InternetNews.com.
According to Gartner, the highest reported price in
the first quarter of this year for managed storage
was $12.50 per gigabyte per month, and the lowest
was $0.29 per gigabyte per month for archive stor-
age needs.
A recent survey of Gartner clients reported that
none expected its storage budget to decrease this
year, and that 67 percent expected the budget for
storage hardware to increase. Of those polled, 64
percent also expected storage software costs to
increase as well.
Just a quick look at backup storage provides a clear
view of how storage costs are decreasing. Prices
dropped by about 30 percent from 2006 to 2008,
according to Gartner.
But then cheap storage isn't really cheap when
additional management costs and increased power
and cooling costs are factored in.
Enterprises that choose to retain everything run
the risk of significant future costs, Gartner report-
ed. Also, the longer information is saved, the hard-
er it is to discern value, according to the survey.
continued
 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]
When a file is changed in any way or copied from one
area of the disk to another, the archive bit is set to
indicate that, at the next scheduled backup, the file
needs to be copied or archived. Full backups do not
concern themselves with whether or not the archive
bit is set before backing a file up, but they do clear
the bit after the file has been copied to tape. Any files
that then change have the archive bit set, indicating
that they need to be backed up again.
Unlike differential, which does not clear the archive bit
after copying a file, incremental backups clear the bit
so that unless the file changes again, it does not get
backed up unnecessarily. The use of the archive bit
also allows you to visually see which files do need to
be backed up.
The convenience of quicker backup times comes with
a price — in this case, the restore time. When restor-
ing from an incremental backup, you need the most
recent full backup as well as every incremental backup
since the last full backup. For example, if you were
doing a full backup Friday and incrementals on
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and the server
crashes Thursday morning, you would need four tapes
— Friday's full backup and the incremental backups
for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
The Differential Backup
Differential and incremental backups often get con-
fused, but there's a clear distinction between the two.
Whereas incremental backs up all the modified files
since the last full or incremental backup, differential
backups offer a middle ground by backing up all the
files that have changed since the last full backup.
Restoring differential backups is a faster process as
only two tapes are needed — the last full backup and
the latest differential.
Differential backups work well in environments that
have a reasonably large window to conduct backups
and that have the capacity to do so. In the case of dif-
ferential backups, they work by looking for files that
have the archive bit set, and then back up only those
files.
As stated above, because differential backups copy
any data that has changed since the last full backup,
which would have cleared the archive bit, it does not
9 Developing a Storage Backup Strategy, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.
Information-Access tools
Companies need to create a clear distinction on
which data should be saved on primary storage and
what data should be housed on cheaper secondary
storage, as the costs vary greatly in terms of hard-
ware and software.
Gartner provided a scenario, using a rough estimate
of $5 per gigabyte for backup storage and a genera-
tion rate of 10 gigabytes per employee per year. A
5,000-worker company faces annual costs of $1.25
million for five years of storage with those finan-
cials. Cutting the amount of data by 80 percent
could save about $1 million for five years and lower
the organization's liability, noted the report.
Information-access technologies include a wide
range of tools such as enterprise search, content
analytics, and social search. Integration and deploy-
ment typically require some expertise, such as an
information architect, to get the tools in place and
working well, Andrews explained. And it's not
cheap, either, as products can range from $10,000 to
millions for advanced applications.
Still, companies can offset the costs through stor-
age savings, as well as benefits from improved busi-
ness processes.
The first step, according to Gartner, is to initiate
and develop a content valuation process. "This is
determining what's important to keep and how a
company decides what to keep," explained Andrews.
"It means establishing criteria on what data is to be
stored, where and why," he added. "Cheap storage is
expensive when it's storing data that doesn't need to
be stored," he noted.
A good best practice is establishing a content-valua-
tion policy on legacy data and making sure what's
stored requires that storage investment.
While some enterprises are using information-
access technologies, the majority isn't at this point,
according to the research firm. But sooner or later
companies will realize the waste taking place in
storage and the costs of retaining data that has no
value, Andrews said.
He adds, "Is what you're storing on tape valuable at
this point, because if it's not, then you don't need it."
I
 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]
change the state of the bit. The upside of this
approach is that only two tapes are needed to effect a
complete restore. The downside is that at each differ-
ential backup, there's a high probability that some
data (that which has changed since the last full back-
up but not since the last differential) will be backed
up more than once.
Synthetic Full Backup
One final backup method worth mentioning is the
synthetic full backup. Synthetic full backups are used
when the backup window is too small for the other
options. In a synthetic full backup, information is
taken from a full backup and the differential or incre-
mental to create a new full backup tape. This allows a
full backup to be created offline, allowing the network
to continue to function without any performance
degradation or disruption to network users.
File System Snapshots
As data continues to grow and our backup windows
continue to shrink, new technologies are needed to
augment what we can do with the previously men-
tioned backup methods. In the latest UNIX versions,
we have a strategy called file system snapshots.
A file system snapshot is a frozen image or picture of
a file system at a given instant of time. Snapshots
allow for many important features, including the abili-
ties to provide:
• Backups of the file system at several times during
the day without needing large amounts of addition-
al storage media
• A way to perform file system integrity checks on a
running and changing file system in an effort to
reclaim lost blocks
•Perhaps most importantly, reliable off media back-
ups without the need for long backup windows.
File system snapshots offer system administrators the
freedom to create reliable backups of their systems
without needing to shut down running applications for
fear of data on disk changing while the backup is hap-
pening. Some vendor implementations of snapshots
have the ability to mount this Point In Time Recovery
10 Developing a Storage Backup Strategy, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.
(PITR) image as a read-only file system that you can
then easily recover individual files from. According to
Darcy Buskermolen, a network administrator from
Wavefire Technologies:
"The frozen point in time image is extremely useful
when it comes to being able to back up databases,
allowing you to make a perfect backup of the data-
base without needing any sort of maintenance win-
dow, thereby increasing your product/application
accessibility uptime, as well as providing you with the
reassurance that you are better protected from both
system failure and user mishaps.
"I recently used snapshots to recover from a botched
system upgrade that without them would have result-
ed in 100s of hours of customer downtime, a sleep-
less night spent restoring files from the full and incre-
mental backups, and the usual barrage of phone calls
complaining of downtime," continues Buskermolen.
Volume Shadow Copy Technology in
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003 introduced its own snapshot
technology known as Volume Shadow Copy
Technology (VSCT). The basic function of VSCT is
threefold: applications can continue to write data to
the volume during a backup; files that are open are
no longer omitted during a backup; and backups can
be performed at any time, without locking out users
or having to worry about the backup window.
VSCT allows you to create shadow copy backups of
volumes — exact point-in-time copies of files, includ-
ing all open files. For example, databases that are
continually held open and files that are open due to
operator or system activity are backed up during a
volume shadow copy backup. In this way, files that
have changed during the backup window are copied
correctly.
LAN-Free and Server-Free Backups
Let's review two types of network designs and how
they impact backup traffic.
When designing a network, careful consideration must
be given to the location of backup devices, as their
physical placement on a network has both perform-
 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]
ance and security implications. In a traditional network
design, a backup device is located on the same seg-
ment as all of the other network devices.
As you might imagine, there are both advantages and
disadvantages to this approach. When network
devices are on the same segment as the backup
device, it's relatively easy to configure all network
devices, including workstations, to back up to the
backup device. It’s also a low-cost solution, as backup
devices can be added to a segment without major
changes to the network infrastructure.
However, because the backup device is on the same
segment, there's a greater security risk, as worksta-
tions may be able to directly access the backup serv-
er. Furthermore, if backup devices are located on the
same segment, the volume of backup data being
transferred can negatively impact the speed of the
network. This is why backups are often performed in
the off hours to prevent impacting network users.
Removing Backup from the LAN
For those organizations that transfer huge amounts of
backup traffic, there is another option — physically
remove the backup device from the LAN. In this sce-
nario, the backup device is located on a dedicated
Fibre Channel segment. This network design is typi-
cally more secure, as access from Ethernet network
devices can be limited and controlled by the storage
or network administrator.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of removing the backup
device from the production LAN is in performance.
LAN bandwidth is preserved for the production net-
work, and backups can be performed at any time
without impacting users.
On the downside, when backup traffic is taken off the
regular LAN and placed on a high-speed alternative,
it can be costly in terms of both dollars and adminis-
trative overhead. However, when in place, it provides
the ability to provide two unique backup strategies: a
LAN-free backup and a server-free backup.
In early storage development, a common backup
strategy was to have backups performed to locally
attached tape devices. For larger network environ-
ments, this approach had two significant drawbacks —
11 Developing a Storage Backup Strategy, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.
cost and management. Maintaining a large number of
decentralized tape drives and media became difficult
and inefficient. This lead to the development of soft-
ware that allowed designated servers to act as central-
ized storage devices. While this approach allowed
backups to be managed from a central location, it
also meant that all backup traffic had to travel over
the LAN to the backup server.
In many environments, this can still be an effective
backup design as long as the LAN can support the
amount of traffic that the backups generate. However,
in many of today's modern environments, the amount
of backup traffic that must cross the LAN is simply too
great for the LAN regardless of the LAN technology
used. The solution in this case is to take the data off
of the LAN.
The LAN-Free Backup Solution
A LAN-free backup solution allows you to use a stor-
age area network (SAN) to create a shared, central-
ized backup and recovery point. It offers the manage-
ment capabilities of a centralized backup solution
while at the same time also delivering the perform-
ance of distributed backup solutions. LAN-free back-
ups take the backup traffic off of the LAN by using
dedicated links to network servers with centralized
storage devices.
Each server maintaining data that must be backed up
requires a Fibre Channel adapter that connects to a
Fibre Channel hub or switch. The hub or switch is con-
nected to a tape library or disk array.
In this configuration, a single server or server cluster
can act as the central backup point for all servers on
the network. All backup traffic travels through dedicat-
ed high-speed links, reducing the load on the regular
LAN links and all but eliminating the limitations of the
backup window.
The Server-Free Backup Solution
LAN-free backups increase backup speeds and cen-
tralize management, but what if it were possible to
take backups one step further and transfer backup
data directly from disk to tape without using a server?
This option is known as a server-free backup.
When we talk about a server-free backup, we are
 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]
referring to a process where the backup data path
does not go through a server. While a server is need-
ed to control the overall process and maintain the
backup software, data is passed between disk and
backup library without requiring a server's CPU. This
frees server resources to be used elsewhere on the
production LAN.
There are several advantages to implementing a serv-
er-free backup solution, including offloading traffic
from the LAN, reducing the load on server system
resources, and high-speed data transfer. As with most
areas of technology, though, there are also a few
drawbacks. A server-free backup solution is more cost-
ly and complex to design and manage, and when
something goes wrong, they can be very difficult to
troubleshoot.
Other Backup Alternatives
While a LAN-free or server-free backup solution may
be the answer to eliminating the backup window
issue, they are often too costly for many organizations
to implement. This can lead to rather creative meth-
ods of increasing the speed of the backup process or
working within limited backup windows.
One method that keeps surfacing is replacing tape
with hard disks, as backups to disks are faster. While
12 Developing a Storage Backup Strategy, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.
there isn't the space in this article to fully explore the
tape vs. hard disk debate, we can say that in most
environments, tape is still the leader. While hard disks
are able to store and retrieve data faster than tape
and provide real-time transmissions, tape media is the
clear choice in terms of better portability and security.
While hard disk transfers may be faster, newer tape
devices are able to transfer large amounts of data at
reasonable speeds.
Tape backups do have some drawbacks, including a
shorter media and drive lifetime than their hard disk
counterparts. Hard disks, however, are often viewed
as a security vulnerability point, as data on the hard
disk can be live and accessible to the network. Still, if
the backup window for a network is a real concern
and time is critical, a combination of tape and hard
disk backups may be the solution.
In summary, coping with the issue of the backup win-
dow can be a costly endeavor for an organization. As
the traffic generated by backups continues to grow,
solutions will be needed that can handle the load
without disruption to the production LAN. While some
band-aid solutions, such as hard disk backups, may
buy some time, the trend is certainly toward taking
the backup traffic off of the LAN. I
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 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]

Finding a Disaster Recovery

Solution That Won’t Break the Bank
By Drew Robb

Cost or Complacency?
I
t's been observed throughout human history that
you generally have to get kicked in the teeth before
The situation isn't solely based on complacency. Many
you see value in the art of self-defense. It certainly
of the companies involved want to be able to recover
seems to be true in the case of disaster recovery,
rapidly in the face of an event. But they just can't afford
where vendors experience far more interest in their
it. Say you wanted to set up a large-scale back-
DR wares immediately following events such as 9/11,
up/recovery architecture such as that used by
Hurricane Katrina, floods, and tornadoes.
Salesforce.com. Salesforce has to have the type of
backup and DR platform
"We see spikes of interest
that doesn't lose a single
from time to time when an
transaction no matter what
event occurs, and that does
happens. That takes a total
drive more communication
of nine copies of the data,
with our customers," said
each with different recovery
Brian Regan of IBM's infor-
points for failure. The com-
mation protection services
pany's complex array of
unit.
tape libraries, disk arrays,
servers, and databases cost
A recent study by
around $20 million.
Aberdeen Group found
Continuous data protection
that 34 percent of compa-
(CDP) is achieved via regu-
nies have yet to implement
lar shadow images of pro-
any kind of DR solution. Of
duction data shared
the remaining 66 percent,
between mirrored SANs on
25 percent don't perform
separate coasts. Oracle
regular disaster plan tests. Jupiterimages
databases are also continu-
And when you get down into the SME sector, Jeffrey
ously protected. Other scenarios are deployed ranging
Hill, an analyst with Aberdeen Group, reported that
from four hours to recover all the way to 48 hours for
nearly half of those in the 100 to 1,000-employee cate-
less critical systems.
gory don't have a BC/DR plan in place.
Of course, not everyone needs that level of protection.

“
A recent study by Aberdeen Group found that 34 percent of
companies have yet to implement any kind of DR solution.

13 ”
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 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]
Accordingly, multiple degrees of DR have evolved,
ranging from the "Remain live or die" category through
more prioritized approaches on down to economy class.
Let's look at what may be considered basic -- some
kind of regular backups occurring along with a plan to
recover systems and data within a reasonable time. It's
important to differentiate these two.
"It's hard to imagine that a company wouldn't have a
data backup system, but just backing up data alone
doesn't constitute a disaster recovery strategy," said
Hill.
Yet as the Aberdeen numbers prove, many don't make
it beyond backup to the point of instituting some kind
of DR plan. And on the other extreme, you have those
who are so fed up with the hassles of backup technolo-
gy that they have implemented DR without any kind of
underlying backup setup.
The Department of Consumer Affairs of the City of
New York, for instance, uses StorageX from Brocade
specifically for DR. Its main office in Manhattan stores
data on an EMC Celerra NS500 NAS box. Its other
major site in Queens has another NAS filer. Users at
Queens actually write to the EMC box and then every-
thing at Manhattan is replicated to Queens using
Microsoft DFS. Brocade StorageX aggregates the file
data into one logical file system. If Manhattan goes
down, users are directed to Queens automatically.
So confident was the IT department that it conducted
the ultimate test -- unplugging the EMC box in the
middle of a workday. Even more surprisingly, the
department does not even use a regular backup sys-
tem. It relies on this DR set up to safeguard all its data.
"When we tested it, everything worked beautifully,"
said Matthew Miller, the department's LAN administra-
tor. "The system failed over to the secondary location
and users didn't notice a thing."
Bunker Mentality
At the other end of the spectrum comes Pella Corp., a
manufacturer of windows and doors based in Iowa. It
runs its business on Oracle E-Business Suite applica-
tions and Oracle Database 10g using a centralized
architecture. It also deployed a remote data center for
recovery known as the bunker.
14 Developing a Storage Backup Strategy, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.
"Prior to the bunker, we had a lot of equipment for
component failure and documented plans for a site dis-
aster, although it would have been a lengthy process
had we lost our data center," said Jim Thomas, Pella's
director of IT operations.
HP supplied its StorageWorks XP24000 arrays, one at
each of the two data centers. Both systems are inter-
connected using Fibre Channel to replicate continuous-
ly between the two locations. The bunker is hardened
to protect against tornadoes, and it has the ability to
run all vital systems if the primary data center is
destroyed.
That effort took several years and multiple millions to
establish. But you don't necessarily have to spend in
that order of magnitude to protect your systems.
Lipscomb & Pitts Insurance LLC, based in Memphis,
went the appliance route. This type of solution fits best
for SMBs or organizations that are shorthanded, or for
larger organizations that don't want to bring in further
DR/storage expertise.
Lipscomb & Pitts purchased the appliance from
STORServer of Colorado Springs. The company's vice
president of finance, Mike Yates, said the move wasn't
prompted by the experience of a particular event.
"You do not know when a disaster will happen, so you
have to make contingency arrangements," he said. "If
you lose your data, your business shuts down and you
cannot serve your clients."
The 100-employee company uses a combination of
EVault InfoStage and EVault InfoStage DualVault from
Seagate, all operated by masterIT, an IT managed serv-
ices firm from Tennessee. It looks after Lipscomb &
Pitts' backup/recovery and IT operations. Over 250 GB
is backed up each night.
Yates says bunkers, massive automated tape libraries,
and expensive replication gear are fine for large enter-
prises companies, but are out of the question for many
SMEs.
"For a fraction of that cost, we're just as prepared and
didn't have to pay an arm and a leg," he said. "It's a
comfort knowing the data is going out every night to a
different region in a way that is largely transparent to
our staff."
 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]
No Time to Waste
There are many different strategies and technologies
that can be employed when it comes to DR, all at dif-
ferent price points. The choices made are often based
upon the cost of achieving various recovery point
objectives (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO).
"If you have an unlimited budget and resources, an
RTO and RPO of zero or close to it would be great,"
said Greg Schulz, senior analyst and founder of
StorageIO Group. "But in reality land for many environ-
ments, implementing the right tier of protection to
applicable threat risks is a means to maximize budgets
and spending."
Schulz suggested that small and mid-sized businesses
look to protect essential and time sensitive material
with the lowest RTO/RPO they can afford while looking
at how to leverage different RPOs and RTOs for other
data.
Whatever DR scheme is required, though, it should be
deployed sooner rather than later.
"SMBs cannot wait until a disaster of company-ending
proportions occurs before allocating the resources to
do this right," said Aberdeen's Hill. I

15 Developing a Storage Backup Strategy, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.
 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]

Small Businesses Turn

to Online Backup
By Drew Robb

O
nline backup seems to be all the rage as of
late. Vendors are springing up either catering "It's still a relatively smallish market, but with lots of
to a specific niche or claiming to do every- opportunity for growth in the SMB space," she said.
thing for next to nothing. While such services aren't "More vendors continue to enter this market."
likely to attract enterprise users, they are certainly lur-
ing many SMBs. All you have to do is sign up, decide What's Out There?
which files to backup, set a schedule and your files are
There are lots of online backup options out there. For
automatically backed up daily.
those with only a few staffers
and a small amount of data to
But the online backup market
back up, a simple service like
isn't just attracting small start-
Backup.com (recently purchased
ups. The big boys, too, are
by Symantec) is sufficient. I use
rolling out inexpensive services
this and it costs about $50 a
aimed squarely at the SMB
year for my relatively modest
market.
needs. Any new files or
changed files are backed up
"Enterprise DR market growth
each day. Any time I've needed
is stalling, so vendors are look-
something, I've been able to
ing for ways to reach new mar-
recover it in seconds.
ket segments," said Laura
DuBois, an analyst at
Mozy.com from EMC is another
International Data Corp. (IDC).
such service. According to
"Online backup services are Jupiterimages
Vance Checketts, the company's
particularly attractive to the SMB market, as this meets
COO and vice president of products, it signed up more
some of their unique needs."
than 6,000 businesses customers in eight months.
So sudden is the upsurge in online backup that IDC
"Businesses are realizing the only way to ultimately pro-
does not yet monitor it as a separate category. The
tect corporate data from permanent loss is to store an
analyst firm has no idea how much the of the $2.68 bil-
additional copy off site," said Checketts. "They recog-
lion data protection and recovery market is taken up by
nize that it's more cost effective for them to outsource
online backup. But DuBois said IDC is working right
their backup and archive services than it is to build the
now on sizing it.

“
But the online backup market isn't just attracting small startups. The big boys, too, are
rolling out inexpensive services aimed squarely at the SMB market.

16 ”
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 [ Developing a Storage Backup Strategy ]
infrastructure and hire the team to manage backups in-
house."
Mozy.com provides up to 2 GB free, and unlimited
space for $4.95 per month. This allows business cus-
tomers to restore files by downloading them from the
Mozy Web site or by ordering a DVD with next-day air
shipping.
ThetaBackup.com, on the other hand, is focused mainly
on mid-size SMBs. Online backup costs a little under
$50 per month. But the company prefers to offer more
sophistication to those that require it.
"We provide general network planning, maintenance
and trouble-shooting for these businesses beside the
online backup service," said Attila Kozma, president of
ThetaBackup.com. "It helps us to create the most accu-
rate and efficient backup regimen for their needs that
won't leave any chance for failure."
Remote Backup Systems (RBS) of Memphis, Tenn.,
boasts more than 1.5 million clients in 68 countries. Its
Rbackup software has mirroring capabilities that can
automatically back up RBS server data to a secondary
location, message-level support for live Microsoft
Exchange databases, multiple-instance support for live
SQL databases and automatic remote updates to the
RBackup client software. RBS CEO Rob Cosgrove is dis-
missive of lower-cost services.
"Services like Carbonite and Mozy are inadequate for
SMBs because of several factors, including the slow
speed of backups, the cumbersome restore method,
the lack of built-in agents to properly back up
Exchange, SQL Server and Lotus Notes," said
Cosgrove. "Our RBackup software was designed from
the ground up for SMBs. Other services that are ade-
quate for SMBs include Asigra and LiveVault."
How Good Is Good Enough?
How good a DR option is an online backup service for
SMBs? DuBois believes many of these services are
good enough in terms of general protection. But she
cautions that online backup service providers should be
required to serve as a partner in event of true disaster.
That means asking for more than just backing up a few
files each day.
17 Developing a Storage Backup Strategy, an Internet.com Storage eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.
Kozma suggests several tips to help SMBs select an
appropriate vendor:
• The transferred data need to be encrypted and
compressed before transmission
• The online backup and data recovery practices of
the online backup company should be verified to
determine if they store SMB data securely
• Recovery times must be rapid
• On-site professional help should be available when-
ever requested at an affordable rate
• Open files should be backed up
• Many versions of files should be saved online, as
opposed to only the last saved version
• The online backup client software should verify the
sent data for its correctness.
"SMBs are aware of the necessity of backing up their
company data, but it is rarely done properly," said
Kozma. "The main thing that is usually missing is the
understanding of what needs to be backed up and
where it is safe to store those data."
Cosgrove agrees with the above points, and stresses
reliability, security, file versioning, good scheduling,
automation, compression and strong encryption as nec-
essary components of a good online backup solution
for any SMB, regardless of size.
"Depending on the type of business, there may also be
a need for assistance with compliance regulations like
HIPAA, for archiving, and for data discovery," he said.
I
This content was adapted from Internet.com's
Enterprise Storage Forum, Enterprise IT Planet, and
InternetNews Web sites. Contributors: Drew Robb,
Mike Harwood, Henry Newman, and Paul Shread.