Online backup is great because it automates the old-fashioned manual daily process of having to transfer data over to DVDs, tapes or portable hard drives before trucking them off-site. This automation not only frees up time for IT workers, but it also eliminates many of the leading causes of data disasters such as human error or mechanical defects.
But even online backup wasn’t perfect.
For years, 2 of the biggest problems plaguing the backup industry had been “Data Loss Windows” and “Recovery Speeds”. And although online backup offered the convenience and productivity benefits of automation, it was a long time before this industry actually began to actively address these more serious business problems.
Data Loss Windows
Data loss windows have always been a challenge because scheduled end-of-day backups, although fairly comprehensive, always placed about 24 hours worth of data at risk. This is further compounded by the fact that recent data is usually much more critical than older data. (A Word document from this morning will probably be more important than a PowerPoint file from 3 weeks ago.)
As a way of minimizing the amount of data that could be lost in an emergency, online backup providers began increasing the frequency of their incremental uploads thought the day. Today, it’s not uncommon to find solutions that offer “Continuous Data Protection” where file changes are uploaded to the backup server every time someone hits the Save button.
This continuous backup methodology is now fairly standard amongst online backup providers, since it reduces the potential data loss window down to just a few minutes.
Recovery Speeds
The other big challenge has always been the time required in order to resume operations after a crash. According to a recent study, the average time to get back up and running after an outage is about 4 hours.
If this outage takes place within business hours, 4 hours of downtime can be very expensive. And for companies that operate in a 24-hour business environment, this downtime can also have more serious consequences.
One obvious solution would be to set up multiple redundant systems. That way, if one server goes down, the other units can take over without interruption. This is the logic behind “high availability” systems that instantly switch over to a temporary failover facility in the event of a disaster.
Although this is an excellent solution to the problem, it does have one major downside: cost
For smaller companies with limited budgets, these temporary failover facilities might not be economically feasible. One of the leading proposed solutions to this problem is “Rapid Recovery” technology.
Rapid Recovery is different from traditional online backup in the same way that music CDs are different from cassette tapes. Instead of downloading your recovery data in sequential batches, Rapid Recovery allows for fully-automated random access to your data while the recovery download is taking place.
This means you can begin using your server again within minutes of starting your recovery download. If an application requests data that hasn’t yet been transferred, those packets get prioritized and moved to the front of the line.
Although this technology is still fairly new, it’s quickly gaining in popularity and should be much more common in years to come.
Where to from here?
Now that online backup has solved 2 of the biggest data protection challenges for business (Data Loss Windows and Recovery Speeds), the next logical step would be to tackle other strategic business problems such as application integration, granularity and regulatory compliance.
Although a lot of our data is stored as simple “flat files”, it’s easy to forget how much critical business information is kept on databases like SQL, email systems like Exchange, or enterprise systems like SharePoint.
And this isn’t just restricted to businesses. New consumer applications such as social media, mobile technology and the growing popularity of desktop Linux will certainly push advancement in the development of new niche online backup services.
Online backup has changed a lot over the years, and it’s now reaching an exciting point in its evolution where we should begin to see this technology being applied in many new ways. The best is yet to come.
About The Author:
Storagepipe Solutions is a provider of online backup services that also helps other companies develop and launch their own backup software.
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