Cloud server backup?

Peterdalkey

Is backing up the in-house server on a cloud service a good idea?
If so, what would be the most economical service for say - 2000gb Capacity setup running MS Windows Server 2012.

Graham

what's your internet connection like Peter? Specifically, what transfer rate can you get for uploads?

How long would it take to complete your initial backup over your existing connection and how long would it take to transfer the total of each days changed data?

I know that doesn't answer your question. Take a look at Backblaze.com, that might.

As in anything, you will get what you pay for. Look for an operator with a good track record. Find independent reviews from people that have used the service and more importantly find reviews from people that have used the recovery element of the service.

Personally I would also avoid white-label resellers of most of the services. Mostly because I wouldn't want to be discover tech support for my backups is provided by a 1 man computer shop/tattoo studio combo in Ballygonowhere.

Peterdalkey

At present, The 12 or so PCs on the network back up to the server and the server is backed up manually . Have no idea how long that takes! Good point about the connection now it is only 7download and 0.625 up! We are getting eFibre in the ind est in Q1 14.

Graham

Until you have eFibre, forget it. Any backup would take weeks and that urgent restore you need to run your payments/invoices/payroll............

Can you imagine watching your download progress bar over an entire weekend knowing your staff won't get paid until it's reached 100%. Overly dramatic example I know but you get the idea.

Cloud is fine when everything works but when the S%$t hits the fan, there's a lot to be said to having everything around you and being able to pull people in to sort things out. In the cloud you might get an apology from Doogol Apps Service for the inconvenience with a promise to keep you updated.

When you have your own infrastructure in your own premises, you are THE big fish and YOU control the pond. You are considering renting a share of a small fish in someone else's pond.

Peterdalkey

Thanks Graham. Not much love out there for the cloud among the techies, it seems!

Cheers

Peter

BailMeOut

So you have 2TB of data?

Check out Mozy as the initial backup can be shipped overnight to them (Mozy Data Shuttle) and thereafter you are just sending incr changes over internet.

Mozy (part of EMC) are based in Cork so you get very good support and service from them in Ireland.

Peterdalkey

Thanks BMO

New server will have 2.8tb to allow for future demands, but obviously the space now being used includes a lot of historical data and the various programmes. As you correctly point out, the daily additional data would be tiny in comparison!

Graham

Peterdalkey wrote: »

Thanks Graham. Not much love out there for the cloud among the techies, it seems!

Cheers

Peter

Quite the opposite Peter, I'm a big fan where the benefits outweigh the risks and the additional costs. I'm working on a project of my own at the moment and the entire operation could be classed as cloud based.

Cloud is perfect for commodity type computing. The economies of scale that the cloud providers can potentially achieve can be significant IF the cloud providers own overheads don't eat the entire cost advantage.

I don't know how much your current backup solution costs but using the previous posters suggestion as an example you're talking €970 per year for 250GB plus €199 for your initial data shuttle.

I certainly wouldn't recommend Cloud solutions on the basis of saving money alone, there would have to be other benefits too. Don't be surprised if the Cloud solutions turn out not to have a cost benefit at all.

Peterdalkey

Thanks Graham, I am learning your last lesson as I do my research. It reminds me of 97/98 and the costs of getting a simple frames website up there in those days. Few suppliers and sky high pricing!

The only reason I am looking at cloud now is that we need an IT upgrade, existing server at capacity and generally nearing the end of it's serviceable life, MS SBS on the way out and the majority of our PCs are still on XP Pro! Our experiences of cloud to date have Been with two of our eCommerce sites/CMS and it is great value and quality! Probably what surprises me most is the cost of cloud email, miles miles cheaper and more flexible to do it in-house!

johnmd01

200 gigs will be fine,you will need to do an initial seed load of the master data and send that to the provider first.
From that point on you will only4 be incremental changes so as long as its not serveral gigs per day you should be fine.
I would also do a local encrypted copy to external USB for faster large restores.
We have loads of customers in similar situations on standard bband works fine.

Thanks

edanto

Peter, something else to consider is the vulnerability of cloud based backups to emerging threats like cryptolocker that encrypt all the files they can get access to (including your cloud backup) pending payment of a ransom to decrypt.

I think your best solution would include some cloud backup (for actively changing files) as well as regular backups to external media that is physically connected and disconnected to the server when required. Legacy files that aren't being changed don't need to be included in the cloud backup as long as they are backed up somewhere off-site.

When it comes to the vendors for cloud backup:

Backblaze is an excellent company, but I don't think they support backup from servers. Check with them http://www.backblaze.com/business.html

Crashplan do support backing up from servers, but are more costly than Backblaze. http://www.crashplan.com/business/features.html

Mozy would be the most expensive of the group.

It's hard to know without a bit more detail what the best option is for your specific set-up. It sounds like you have an email server hosted locally, and also that you may be planning to replace servers soon? If that's the case, you and your IT consultant/staffer will probably be looking at virtualising the servers, and in that case you'll want to use something like Veeam to take a regular full backup of the virtual machines and include that backup in the cloud backup to speed up the recovery after a large disaster.

As with all of these things, your budget will dictate the level of risk that you can mitigate.

Hope that helps.

Peterdalkey

In the end, on professional advice and strong bumps from on here we decided to keep it all in-house. New server and software scheduled to go in over this coming weekend. New setup designed/spec'd and being installed by a regular boardsie poster on these matters. I found him on here too! Saved a lot of grief and money. Happy days!

edanto

Good stuff.

RangeR

Cloud Backup can be astronomical. I got a quote from one vendor for about €6000 a year [€500 per month] for 400GB. I dumped that idea and am now looking at putting a rack of NAS drives in a friendly customer site across a few counties.

However, I still don't think it's possible too get of Tape Backup for regular nightly backups just yet. There is just no other reliable alternative that I've found.

edanto

Private cloud ftw! What do you plan to use to do the incremental backups?