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For most SMEs, the future of backup technology is undoubtedly in using outsourced online backup services, states Brett Raynes, CEO of Backup Direct.
Online backup is becoming more popular because it offers multiple advantages over traditional forms of backup, like tape or hard-drive.
Carrying out manual tape backups, in addition to storing them safely and efficiently, is time consuming and it doesn't add any significant value. Online backup removes this chore because it automatically backs the data up and is easily manageable. This gives an in-house IT administrator more time focus their attention on improving IT efficiency.
Concerns around storing data ‘in the cloud' via online backup services are usually focused on security, but it's much harder to ensure the security of data stored on tapes than data stored in the cloud. Tapes need constant rotation, enforced encryption and have to be stored in fire-proof safes. For SMEs worried about the sensitivity of their data, online backup is a cost-effective solution. Data stored online is protected, as it is encrypted when it is sent and when it is stored. The only time that information becomes visible is when it resides on in-house machines that contain the designated encryption keys, mitigating the risk that the data will be exposed to unauthorised users.
At the moment, the main disadvantage of online backup is cost. If you're planning on backing up large amounts of data you might find that it could prove expensive as online backup is usually charged per gigabyte stored. However, those using online backup tend to identify data that is most critical to their everyday operations and back that up online to ensure maximum security and availability.
We do feel that cloud based approaches will have some impact on backup and archiving. But will there be a wholesale move into the cloud? We don't think so, says Tony Cotterill, President and CEO at BridgeHead Software.
We're working on the assumption that most organisations will want to keep operational backups – those they need to restore quickly due to small corruptions or minor breakdowns - on site and within their own control for the sake of speed and convenience. They might be willing to move their disaster recovery copy - for recovering from major failures or disasters – to a remote location via the cloud.
Even then, there are two big hurdles that cloud based providers need to overcome. Firstly, there is still a bandwidth issue. For moving large volumes of data the cloud will remain uneconomical for many.
Secondly, will people entrust their data to a third party? Some will, but many will need a lot of convincing that it will be looked after as diligently as they demand. Will customers believe cloud providers will be able to generate a faithful restore in the time required? And is the data completely safe from prying eyes? In some sectors, such as healthcare, where we specialise, there are obviously legal issues around ensuring data cannot be seen by anyone that's not authorised.
And if you‘re extending the cloud argument to archiving, which might involving organisations handing over the only copy of a set of data, we feel fewer people will switch to the cloud. Although some will certainly choose to use the cloud for the secondary or tertiary copy of the archive whilst keeping the primary archive locally.
In healthcare, where data related to a specific patient treatment plan is seldom accessed once treatment is completed - but needs to be retained many years into the future - this is a big issue. This static data issue affects most other market sectors.
2. Security is a big issue when it comes to stored data. When backing up sensitive or important data it is vital that only authorized personnel should have access to it. It is no good, in my view, keeping data completely secure within an organization and then, for the purposes of backup, allowing it to reside on the servers of some anonymous 3rd party, located on a different continent where data protection laws are different and outside the data owner's control.
3. Many organisations have lots of excess disk space on all their PCs and desktops that is not in use but then are happy to pay for offsite storage when they essentially have a massive RAID at their fingertips, for free.
4. My opinion is that a number of these issues can in fact be solved by utilising unused data already stored on people's machines. We are currently working on a technology that utilises this in a way that allows each person to own their own cloud using a peer-to-peer format, where unused storage space can be utilised by a trusted group of people with documents being safely encrypted for only those who are granted access to view them. In this way, security and control of your backed up documents are in your hands, not those of a third party. You can access your cloud, your way... I think this is where the future of cloud computing lies.
It's safe to say that backup technology has a bright future. Data is crucial for a business's survival and profitability, and given the current economic conditions, being in a position where data isn't fully protected is a precarious position to be in, says Paul Hickingbotham, Hammer's solutions manager.
An element of data backup is disaster recovery, and having no such plan in place is risky business. However, business continuity from an IT standpoint is also the assurance that data is manageable and accessible, as well as in the case of unforeseen disasters, recoverable.
A paramount consideration when building a suitable business continuity plan is what impact downtime will have on the business. How do factors such as time and financial limitations play a part in this? As you move through the options of no protection through to real time data protection (RDP), the impact on downtime for a business moves from weeks, to days, to hours, to minutes, to seconds.
Take the example of a bank – imagine what the impact of no data replication or backup strategy would have on the company, staff and customers. You could pay the staff whilst you recover your data, but would have to deny any business and personal customers access to their accounts.
The alignment of the optimum data recovery procedure with the specific requirements of the company in question is at the heart of the granularity of business continuity. Utilizing the optimum strategy can mean efficiency in both time and space, and an increase in resilience and agility, whilst minimizing the risk of ineffective data management and, potentially, loss.
The cloud computing model is being hailed as the future of IT, but despite the attractiveness of on-demand computing which is a great option for many businesses, there are also a few problems that need to be addressed before businesses can consider cloud as an effective option for anything other than cheap archiving and server power, warns Dominic Monkhouse, MD UK, PEER 1.
When storing data in the cloud, security, availability and redundancy are major considerations to managing business risk. Some cloud providers offer back-up as part of the deal, but the frequency of this may not be sufficient for some businesses, and may never be an option for primary data. Restoring data must also be considered which means the type of backup the cloud provider offers is critical. Tape is unlikely, but users should check what backup is in place for integrity and compatibility with its own hardware and workflow requirements.
A security issue to consider is that meeting PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards) is not a cloud forte. The cloud is not secure enough to host or process credit card or transactional data. It is therefore not a viable option for a business looking to move into e-commerce and meet the online payment standards. Any business trading online needs to make sure its system is as secure as possible.
When any company decides to move data into the cloud, it first needs to decide what data is appropriate. While the cloud has its benefits, sensitive information that needs to be backed up constantly is not well suited. Customers won't care that a businesses can access cloud applications from anywhere if their data has been lost due to back-up issues or accessed in a security breach.
Tim Dunger at Plan B DR talks about the benefits of a fully managed, virtualisation-based, IT disaster recovery and backup service.
Virtualisation's promise comes from its ability to provide a consistent computing environment regardless of the underlying hardware. This means that a system image can be made to work on any hardware, and because of the consolidation advantages of virtualisation, multiple workloads can be run on single physical machines. So, if a company's live systems run on a virtual platform already, it is much easier to take their virtualised system images and run them elsewhere on other virtual machines. They still have to make this work in a crisis, but it's a much easier prospect both to achieve and to practice.
Virtualisation can deliver significant advantages for disaster recovery because it can dramatically reduce the hardware costs for the recovery platform. As a result companies can now purchase products that would allow them to make a virtual warm standby solution from a physical live server. Handy and clever, because this has solved both the drawbacks of traditional methods - by being a lot cheaper to implement an effective fast recovery provision.
DR companies are starting to see the benefits of a virtualised recovery platform and deliver a managed service around it. For example, an appliance would go onto a company's network, which takes server snapshots on a nightly basis, ships the data to off-site systems, where they build and continually update virtual copies of the primary systems. Everything that would need changing to make the systems run in the offsite facility is updated every time the data is updated. This means that they're ready to go immediately.
This should be backed by automated 100% testing, and this is where virtualisation really helps again. By its nature it makes testing a complete machine image relatively simple, and therefore it can be easily automated, giving users complete confidence that systems will work in a crisis." 
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