Introduction

 When looking to protect your vital business or other important data, there is no one strategy to rule them all. There is however, the concept of strength in depth. This means take a hybrid approach and layer the protection to ensure that all the different things which can affect your data are eliminated in one of the layers.

 With this layered approach it doesn’t matter which layer eliminates a risk just that it does. When used in conjunction with a Disaster Recovery Plan and periodic testing, it is possible to have the ideal strategy.

Layer #1

With the first line of defense, we are looking to ensure that in the event of a disaster the system as a whole can be recovered. This means restoring all of the operating system, programs and applications.

 The whole system backup should be performed once a month, the end of the first Monday of the month just as you go home. The backup to your external hard drive will be complete by the next morning. This hard drive needs to be stored off-site in a safe and secure location, perhaps with an IT company, and in a fire safe.

Layer #2

The second line of defense is to keep versions of your data. This is so that in the event of an accident, perhaps an accidental save, the original data can be retrieved.

 Versioning of your data should occur as often as possible. For practical reasons, this will most likely be stored physical close to the machine being protected.

Layer #3

The third line of defense is to keep a copy of all your important data in at off-site location. This means should something untoward happen the latest versions of your important files are safe.

 This has to be a frequent backup, once a day is generally sufficient. An ideal location is with a cloud backup provider. The upload volume should in general be manageable and can be done at a time when the connection to the internet is idle.

Summary

Taking a hybrid approach as shown here, it is possible to devise an inexpensive solution to protect your vital business or personal data in a way which ensures that no matter what happens, it will be recoverable.

Disclosure: Dvana creates cost effective hardware and software products that help home and businesses users backup and restore a PCs or Workstations along with files and folders. Comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plans are part of what we do!

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Backup Methods

There are many different ways of having a spare copy of your data, today we will look at a few of the common methods. There is no intention of naming names or shaming any companies, I just want to have a dispassionate look at different methods. Some of these methods will suite some people and not others.

Backup to DVD, Blu-ray, CD or Tape

I have grouped these all together because they really fall foul of the same problem, the optical methods; DVD, Blu-ray and CD while being cheap to purchase have little capacity. Tapes at the expensive end of the spectrum have reasonable capacity. Tapes also require a specialised piece of software to read and write to them, if the software is lost then the tapes is unusable.

Collectively, they are all unreliable. Statistics put tapes at less than 60% reliability. The reliability of the other media is about the same. The problem is that unlike a film or music, the loss of a single data bit is significant when it comes to your data, even though in other situations, it might not be noticeable.

The more capacity one of these media have, the greater the chance of a failure in retrieving the data when you need it. They tend to degrade with time, so the longer data is left, the less likely it is to come back when read. Optical backup methods are prone to scratches making the media unreadable.

These methods are definitely NOT recommended.

USB Memory Stick

This is perhaps the most common way that people backup and protect important data. They copy some folders and files onto the USB drive and carry them around in their bag or pocket. This is reasonable for a few files. The risks however are great, the USB drive can be easily lost, stolen or broken depending upon how it is looked after.

As a way of carrying a few Giga Bytes (GB) of data around with you this is a good idea, but not for the safe storage of data you want to protect in the medium term.

The USB Flash Drives have a limited life in terms of their ability to write data. They also tend to be fairly slow, when compared to a USB Hard Drive.

This method is definitely NOT recommended.

USB/Eternal Hard Drive

This is the second most common way that people backup their data; it is quite fast and fairly easy to do. Many hard disks come with a backup program and it is a reasonable way of getting a copy of your data stored off the machine. Most modern Operating Systems come with some kind of basic backup system which will save a copy of the data to the External Drive.

The down side to this method is that it needs to be done frequently and if the data is to be protected offsite, that is at a different location to the source of the data, then the hard disk needs to be brought back to the site periodically. If there is discipline to do this, then for a single machine this is a good solution.

This method is recommended for a single computer.

Cloud Services

There are many different Cloud Services which will take a copy of your data and store it offsite. Some even allow versioning.

The fundamental problems with Cloud Services:

1. Where is your data stored? Does it contravene Data Protection Laws?
2. Broadband speed.

Taking these point in turn, if the data is stored within the EU and you are European, there is no problem with Data Protection. It of course must not travel outside the EU or any company that is approved of by the EU as a Safe Harbour.

The second point is perhaps more significant, the quoted speed of a broadband connection is something like up to 8Mb/s (Megabits per second), as we all know, the reality is that they do not run that fast and even worse, this is the speed for download. The speed for upload is much slower, typically 256kbs (kilobits per second) which is about 8 times slower.

So the data that backs up to your external hard disk in a few hours will take days or weeks. You can do the calculations yourself, but depending on a couple of assumptions, to upload 30 GB of data will take about 293 hours, which is just over 12 days. This of course assumes that no other traffic is using the broadband connection.

The more professional cloud services will allow you to send a copy of the data on a hard drive which will ‘seed’ the data to the storage system and bypass the need to upload all the data over your broadband connection. This is something which you should definitely look out for. Note, many cloud backup services try to reduce the appearance of the long upload time, by restricting the data that will be copied by file extension, generally document files only are copied.

It is important to know with the Cloud Services, what files are copied out to the cloud and how long it will take to get them back.

Typically Cloud Services backup your documents but none of your Operating System or Programs; these also tend to be the cheapest options. Be aware that this will count towards any Fair Usage Policy limits. Typically only a single computer or two low usage machines can be used in this manner over a single connection, due to the volume of data.

This method is recommended for a single computer on a standard broadband connection.

Please note, it is possible to get software which will allow versioning onto different devices, but that tends to be a more expensive option, so is not the main way that people use the media. Cloud Services is an umbrella term, the cheaper versions of the service are shown in the table above, at higher price points, many of the yellow boxes become green. I.e. A high volume of data can be stored on-line, but that will generally cost more. Some services will backup the complete system, while the cheaper ones only the “My Documents” section.

Conclusion

There are a wide range of options, which go towards making a backup strategy and this should be one component of your wider Disaster Recovery Plan. Each of the methods outlined above have their own strengths and weaknesses. In general the best method involves some kind of local backup or protection and then an off-site version of that data.

The off-site provision could be to a cloud service, a hard disk drive taken off-site and stored in a safe and secure location or a fully replicated storage system which will automatically synchronize data between two locations.

Remember, that this is an insurance policy against losing your data and therefore your whole business.

Disclosure: Dvana creates cost effective hardware and software products that help home and businesses users backup and restore a PCs or Workstations along with files and folders.

The Definitions

There are many different way of having a spare copy of your data, today we will look at a few of the common methods. Before we can adequately talk about the benefits and disadvantages for different backup methods, it is necessary to have a common understanding of the terms, so this instalment of the blog, I will concentrate on that, then we can move into looking at the details. Presented below are the key concepts we need to understand.

Reasoning

Perhaps the most important aspect of any backup or disaster recovery strategy is the why. What are you trying to protect yourself or your data from? Once you know this, then the choices for the rest are much easier to make. I would suggest that the following is the minimum:

• Hardware failure, such as the loss of a hard disk
• Viruses
• Data corruption, this might be from a virus or application
• “Fat Fingers”, accidently deleting a file or editing a file but not changing the filename
• Disk deletion or formatting

Make a list and update it when you find new reasons to protect your data and your business or once in a lifetime pictures. Then each time the list is updated, make sure that the backup or disaster recovery strategy is covering all the needs you have now, with the newer list.

Versioning

The concept of versioning is that there are many different copies of the data over time, so the version of this file today is complete, but yesterday when I was working on it, it was mostly complete, the day before less complete etc. The idea is that I should have access to each of these versions of the file over time. It protects the data from accidental corruption or a save which was better not made.

The basic premise is that with multiple versions over time, there should never be a time when you cannot get to an older version of a file and the data it contained. This should be thought about on a file by file basis.

Snap-Shot

A Snap-Shot is a complete copy of the data at a point in time. This is usually applicable to high end storage systems, which are able to take a copy of all their data and keep it safe. It is a similar concept to versioning, but happens with much larger sets of data, such as all the stored data. It is important that the Snap-Shot is not kept on the storage system it relates too for too long, as it would be vulnerable to a failure of that system. It should really be backed up.

Backup

A backup is a copy of your data which is stored usually in a separate system; this might be a backup file on an external hard disk or a copy on a Cloud Backup Service or on a dedicated backup server.

There are techniques like:

• Full Backup which creates a copy of all the data to be saved, it is typically slower to perform, but fast to restore.
• Incremental Backup which finds the changes from a Full Backup and only saves the difference. It is quick to perform, but slower to restore, the more increments between the full backup and now, the longer the restore takes.
• Differential Backup is similar to an Incremental Backup but there is only ever one extra step in the restore after the full backup. Quite fast to perform, faster to restore and more robust than an Incremental Backup, but takes more space.

In the extreme case and if this is done often enough, a Versioning or even Snap-Shot system can be implemented. The disadvantage to this however is that it is typically slow and fairly manual in the creation of the copies.

Restore

This is the process of getting data back from one of your saving systems. So depending upon the system, you might be able to restore a

• Single file
• Folder
• Whole machine

It will all depend upon the capabilities of the system which stored the data in the first place.

Conclusion

When you know what you are trying to achieve, it is possible to obtain that goal. Disaster Recovery as an activity is only as good as the last attempt at implementing that plan. To that end, you must know why you are going through this process and what you want to achieve. Keep this at the forefront of your mind and choose the techniques which will work best for you.

In the next part of this series, we will look at different methods of storing the data and compare them for suitability in a modern business.

Disclosure: Dvana offer servers, storage products and software which can assist in Disaster Recovery.

Introduction

We all understand the importance of a backup of our computers. The statistics show that 66% of home users have lost critical data within the last year. There are I think, two important points here:

1. What is a backup?
2. How does this apply to business?

What is a backup?

A reasonable idea of what a backup is can be found on the Wikipedia page on backups, as follows:

“In information technology, a backup or the process of backing up refers to making copies of data so that these additional copies may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb is back up in two words, whereas the noun is backup (often used like an adjective in compound nouns). Backups are useful primarily for two purposes. The first is to restore a state following a disaster (called disaster recovery). The second is to restore small numbers of files after they have been accidentally deleted or corrupted.”

From the above it is clear that a backup is a copy of data that can be used should the original version of the data be lost or corrupted. It doesn’t really matter how the data is lost, whether from a virus or hard drive failure, the result is the same, data loss.

The use of a backup is therefore to protect against data loss. This can only be achieved if the backup is physically separate from the machine being backed up. It is not possible to back up data to the same physical disk that the data resides on, because in the event of a disk failure, the original and the copy are both lost together. This is a common mistake, because it is quick and easy.

It is recommended that a backup be placed on external media that is, on something other than the computer which is being backed-up.

How does this apply to business?

On the face of it, there is no correlation because all businesses backup their data. Well, that is the theory anyway. In practice most small small businesses and those without dedicated IT staff, rarely backup their data and run in a very similar way to a home user, which is why the statistic above is very relevant.

Take a look around you, how often do you backup all the data on your computer? Do you backup every day? What about the businesses that your friends work in, do they even know?

This information which is not being backed up is vital to the running of the business. This implies, if it is important, then it should be safeguarded. Conversely, what happens if the data is lost, what is the impact on your business then? It can range from the loss of a job, lost sales to the loss of the business. This will depend where you sit within the business.

In practice backup is like insurance, nobody likes it, it costs money, time and effort, but the day disaster comes calling, we are all so happy that we had it.

Conclusion

If you don’t have a backup plan, now might be a good time to have a think about what data you have and what the impact of its loss would be on you and your business, or home for that matter.

There are many different ways of protecting your data and in a later blog post, I will go through some of the pros and cons of different methods.

Disclosure: Dvana creates cost effective hardware and software products that help home and businesses users backup and restore PCs or Workstations along with files and folders.

Microsoft Essential Business Server Dies

Microsoft has announced that it has discontinued development of Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS) and will no longer offer it for sale. There is an upgrade plan, which Microsoft has put in place, but it requires users of Windows Essential Business Server 2008 to act quickly to secure the licenses they need to migrate to stand alone products.

The gist of the upgrade plan can be found on their Migration Kit page, which will step you through the process of getting updated software licenses, either from Microsoft or from your OEM supplier.

The most significant part of this announcement is that support will not be terminated until the full life-cycle of the product is exhausted. This means that all the components in the suite will be supported going forward. This means there is no need to panic and to switch immediately.

With all that being said, as a specific product EBS 2008, development has already been stopped, but this does not apply to the individual items in the suite. For example, if you use Microsoft SQL Server, then it will still be available, because it is a product in its own right and will continue on unaffected.

Microsoft has expanded the FAQ to include information about the discontinuation of future development and that should answer the majority of questions. If you have additional questions, talk with your Microsoft Partner, they should be able to help. The process of migrating enables customers to have licenses of the standalone versions of the individual software products.

Please be aware, that any migration issues which were present with migrating for example Exchange from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010 will still be present regardless of the change in the licensing as the product remains the same.

Follow best practice if any migration is planned to the standalone products.

It is worth mentioning here that there will be changes to Small Business Server in the near future, so it is worth paying attention to that product too if you use or plan to use it in the future.

Disclosure: Dvana is a Microsoft Partner and sells both Microsoft software alone and as an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) which utilizes Microsoft software in part of its product range.

Welcome to the Dvana Blog

The first thing that needs to be addressed is, ”What is Dvana?” and, why are there more than one company on this blog?

Dvana is split into several parts. While each part has something in common with the other parts, they do not necessarily stand well together within the same brand.

Digital inPrint

Take Digital inPrint, www.digitalinprint.co.uk, this is our printing and communications brand. Here we help businesses to utilize their image and brand by showing them in a good, professional light. This is done through printed materials and through website design and maintenance. We can handle all the usual business and identity printing, along with special items, such as custom shapes, and special papers. Our current favorite paper is waterproof, greaseproof and tear proof. Can you think of any uses for it?

Dvana

Dvana www.dvana.com, on the other hand, is much more of a technology focused brand. With Dvana we concentrate on helping people to make the best use of the available technology. This means that we will help with setting up systems, which have been designed specifically for them. Most people are familiar with the large household computer brands, like Dell or HP. They assume therefore, that something tailored specifically to their needs will be very expensive, when invariably this is not true. Our solutions are generally cheaper to buy, commission, maintain and manage. This is simply because we operate on a personal one-to-one manner and do not bounce you around the world on the phone. If you call you can easily talk with me and I will happily give you the best advice possible (assuming of course that it is relevant to our business. Note: The teleporter and time machine still don’t work.)

Under the Dvana brand we also help businesses keep their software up to date. That is either software bought off the shelf or something more bespoke which we can create from scratch. The software design part of the company specializes in applications for PCs and the Web; we can also help with any LINUX or Mac development. We are happy to integrate with mobile platforms, such as Windows Mobile, Windows 7, Symbian or iOS.

As I hope is clear from this, it makes sense to split the identity of the company into several parts, but we operate as a single business, so it is easy to move from having a hardware platform created, with custom software to run on it and the printed materials to back it all up. To a client, this would be a single package brought together through Dvana.

There will be a couple more posts filling out the ethos of the company and how we work, which might be nice to know.