Backup Fundamentals in The Age Cloud

E-guide
Backup
fundamentals in the
age of cloud
Backup fundamentals in the age of cloud
In this e-guide
In this e-guide:
Backup product approaches
In backup many things are pretty much as they have always
vary as they take aim at the been. But many things have also changed, with the latest being
cloud the advent of the cloud. This brings the possibility of the cloud
as a backup target but also the need to backup applications
Using snapshot backups to
replace your traditional data
that run in the cloud. In this e-guide we look at backup
backup system fundamentals like choosing incremental or differential backup
as well as using snapshots to replace traditional backup. We
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What also provide an overview of strategic considerations for backup
it is and why you need it
in the age of the cloud as well as surveys of the key backup
products for SMEs and enterprise deployment.
Modern data backup strategy
involves integration
Antony Adshead, storage editor
SME backup products offer

diverse routes to the cloud
Backup 101: Incremental vs

differential backup
Page 1 of 34
In this e-guide
Backup product approaches vary as they
Backup product approaches take aim at the cloud
vary as they take aim at the
cloud Antony Adshead, storage editor

Use of the cloud is a natural fit for backup and archiving use cases where the
replace your traditional data vast bulk of backed-up data falls into the category of secondary data.
backup system
That’s not to say it is not important or valuable, however, and backup remains a
key task for IT departments.
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What
So, how are the key backup software product suppliers – Veritas, Veeam,
CommVault, Dell EMC and IBM – adapting to the age of the cloud?
involves integration The cloud as a target has been universally available for several years now,
although not all suppliers have connectors to all three of the big public cloud
SME backup products offer providers – Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud
diverse routes to the cloud Platform (GCP) – with the latter the least well-served of the three.
For some backup products, cloud readiness doesn’t stretch much more than
cloud or object storage as a target through (most often) Amazon’s S3 protocol
differential backup
and (sometimes) Azure Blob storage. In this bracket we can include CommVault
and IBM.
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Dell EMC’s Networker and Avamar add the ability to backup to the cloud
In this e-guide through some of their own backup (Data Domain) or cloud-focused appliance
products too.
vary as they take aim at the Where frontiers are being pushed is in the provision of cloud-native – or cloud-
cloud to-cloud backup – backup and platforms that offer the ability to orchestrate data
protection across a variety of on-premise and cloud locations, with notable
Using snapshot backups to mentions here being Veritas and Veeam.
backup system Veritas
Out of the longer-established backup product providers, Veritas has most

obviously adopted the multi-cloud message and is clearly working to the
assumption that customers will work across a number of cloud environments in
addition to their own datacentres.
involves integration NetBackup – as the more developed enterprise product – arguably offers a
more rounded set of features than the midrange Backup Exec, and has
SME backup products offer connectors to numerous public cloud providers beyond the big three.
The NetBackup CloudPoint platform offers end-to-end data deduplication,
Backup 101: Incremental vs automated discovery and backup without agents, visibility of data across
differential backup multiple clouds, data classification and migration of data to other geographies.
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Meanwhile, the NetBackup Resiliency Platform offers the ability to restore data
In this e-guide from multiple cloud and datacentre locations. Applications are placed into
different resiliency groups and given priority for restore should an outage occur.
vary as they take aim at the Automated simulations take the place of backup/disaster recovery testing, from
cloud virtual machine to datacentre level, and there is integration with vSphere
application programming interfaces (APIs) for I/O filtering (VAIO).
replace your traditional data NetBackup’s CloudMobility targets organisations that want to work in multiple
backup system clouds and move data into, out of and between clouds and on-premise
locations. It aims to make these operations automated and offers the ability to
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What test migrations before carrying them out in anger to see if data and
it is and why you need it dependencies will come out as expected.
By contrast, Veritas’s midrange-oriented Backup Exec product seems less

widely integrated with cloud operations than Netbackup. It is true, however, that
the big three’s public clouds can be a backup target while disaster recovery can
be orchestrated from the cloud in a link-up with Microsoft’s Azure Site Recovery.
diverse routes to the cloud So, what’s available via the big three cloud providers’ market places?
NetBackup is available in Microsoft Azure and the IBM cloud, AWS offers
Backup 101: Incremental vs Resiliency Platform and Backup Exec, and Google Cloud Platform offers Cloud
differential backup Point.
Page 4 of 34
Commvault
In this e-guide
Commvault Complete Backup & Recovery software can protect data from
Backup product approaches enterprise datacentres and remote offices to the AWS cloud via S3 APIs, as
vary as they take aim at the well as make use of S3-based cloud storage or Glacier “cold” storage. Backup
cloud can be hybrid with on-premise capacity or “all in” with backup direct to cloud
capacity.
replace your traditional data Commvault’s backup environment can use the public cloud as a backup target,
backup system while cloud appliance versions of Commvault components are available in the
big three’s marketplaces.
Complete offers data deduplication and encryption of data in-flight and at-rest
and is also available as HyperScale physical appliances and as an as-a-service
offering for virtual machines, as well as for native cloud applications such as
Microsoft Office 365 and Salesforce.
Veeam
diverse routes to the cloud In 2018, Veaam said: “It’s the year of the cloud.”
The company allows backup to the cloud as a target via Veaam Cloud Connect.
It allows cloud to be added as a tier/target with data reduction and encryption
differential backup
from customer sites with full visibility of on-premise and cloud locations from its
user interface (UI).
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Veeam’s most recent Availability Suite product updates have focused on tiering
In this e-guide and migrating data to public clouds.
Backup product approaches Availability Suite’s Cloud Tier allows automatic tiering of data to object storage
vary as they take aim at the in Amazon S3 storage, Azure Blob Storage, IBM Cloud Object Storage and
cloud other S3-compatible service providers’ cloud and on-premise storage products.

Meanwhile, Cloud Mobility allows migration and recovery of on-premise or
replace your traditional data cloud-based workloads, while Direct Restore allows customers to restore data
backup system directly to the cloud and works with AWS and Microsoft Azure.
Veeam added cloud-native AWS backup functionality in 2017 with the

acquisition of N2WS and has since re-packaged it as Veeam Availability for
AWS.
Modern data backup strategy IBM Spectrum Protect

IBM’s long-standing data protection suite – formerly IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
SME backup products offer – allows for the cloud as a backup target or migration to object storage in “cloud
diverse routes to the cloud container storage pools”.
Targets can include IBM’s cloud and those of AWS and Microsoft included, as
well as third-party object storage/cloud products such as those from Scality, Dell
differential backup
EMC, Huawei and Hitachi.
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Inline data deduplication and encryption are built in and backup information can
In this e-guide be replicated between IBM Spectrum Protect servers.
Backup product approaches Dell EMC

cloud Dell EMC’s backup products are Networker, aimed at enterprise customers, and
Avamar for the midrange.
Both products can use public cloud (Amazon and Azure) and private cloud S3-
compatible object storage as a target using Dell EMC’s Cloud Boost appliance
backup system
functionality, as well as via Data Domain Cloud Tier.
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What Networker and Avamar are both available as cloud appliances in the AWS and
it is and why you need it Microsoft Azure marketplaces.
Modern data backup strategy Micro Focus (formerly HPE) Data Protector
Micro Focus Data Protector offers public cloud as a target, specifically to
Amazon S3 and Azure, plus private clouds that use Scality and Ceph object
storage.
In 2018, Data Protector added Cloud Bank object storage support for HPE
Backup 101: Incremental vs StoreOnce storage. Cloud Bank allows users of HPE StoreOnce storage to
differential backup upload deduplicated backup data to the Amazon and Azure clouds.
UK-based Micro Focus bought HPE’s software business in 2017.
Page 7 of 34
In this e-guide
Using snapshot backups to replace your
Backup product approaches traditional data backup system
cloud W. Curtis Preston, guest contributor

Snapshot-based backup systems can literally change the game for anyone
replace your traditional data interested in using them as their primary method for backing up and restoring
backup system critical data. Snapshots offer significantly easier and faster backups than any
traditional backup system can provide, and they offer recovery time objectives
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) that are also impossible with a
it is and why you need it traditional backup system. In this context, a traditional data backup system is
one that backs up files by placing them into some kind of backup format (e.g.,
Modern data backup strategy Symantec Corp. NetBackup image, EMC Corp. NetWorker saveset, IBM Corp.
involves integration TSM aggregate), and then places that format on tape or disk. However, not all
snapshot backup systems are alike, and not all of them have what it takes to
SME backup products offer completely replace a backup system. In the following, we'll help you understand
diverse routes to the cloud the benefits and drawbacks of such a system and allow you to make your own
decisions as to whether or not you might want to investigate using a snapshot
backup system for your organization.
differential backup
When discussing snapshot-based backup systems, there are a number of
misconceptions that must be dealt with before beginning the conversation. The
first of these misconceptions is that snapshots aren't backups at all -- they are
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point-in-time copies. There are those that believe that if a copy of data doesn't
In this e-guide change form -- such as being put inside a tar image -- then it's not a backup. It's
unclear where this idea came from, but changing form is not a requirement for
Backup product approaches something to be a backup.
cloud How are snapshot backups defined?

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) defines a backup as "A
replace your traditional data collection of data stored on (usually removable) non-volatile storage media for
backup system purposes of recovery in case the original copy of data is lost or becomes
inaccessible; also called a backup copy. To be useful for recovery, a backup
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What must be made by copying the source data image when it is in a consistent
it is and why you need it state." The only part of this definition that snapshot-based backups might have
trouble with is the "usually removable" part, but this is simply SNIA stating the
Modern data backup strategy obvious that most backups are placed on tape.
SNIA's definition does bring up one very important aspect of snapshot-based
backup systems -- a snapshot is not really a backup until it has been replicated
to another storage system. This is because a snapshot is a virtual copy of the
data, not an actual copy of the data. If something happens to the volume upon
which a snapshot resides, the snapshot of the volume will be of no use -- unless
it was copied to another volume via replication.
differential backup
In a traditional backup system, backup software and tapes create the ability to
restore multiple points in time. This is a critical function of a backup system, as
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data corruption or other factors may require us to restore the system to a point
In this e-guide in time other than the most recent backup. In a snapshot-based backup system,
the snapshots provide this functionality. Multiple snapshots -- each created at
Backup product approaches different times -- are used to present multiple virtual views of the file system as
vary as they take aim at the they existed at different points in time.
cloud
Another important function of a backup system is to provide a copy of the data
Using snapshot backups to in case of disaster. A traditional backup system does this by sending tapes off-
replace your traditional data site via an off-site vaulting vendor such as Iron Mountain. A snapshot-based
backup system backup system accomplishes the same thing via replication. In fact, a snapshot
backup system can place multiple copies of the data in multiple locations using
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What replication. For example, operational recoveries may come from an on-site
it is and why you need it storage system that is physically different than the storage system being backed
up, and disaster recoveries may come from an off-site storage system that
Modern data backup strategy receives a replication stream from the same system. This may be accomplished
involves integration by having the primary storage system replicate to both systems, or having it
replicate to the on-site storage system, and having that system replicate to the
SME backup products offer off-site storage system. There are advantages and disadvantages to each
diverse routes to the cloud approach.

The last part of the SNIA definition of backup is that the data must be in a
differential backup consistent state when it was copied. With traditional data backup applications,
this is usually done via file system and database agents, and snapshot-based
backup systems must also figure out a way to make sure that data is copied in a
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consistent state in order for the backups to be worth anything. It's not
In this e-guide acceptable simply to make a snapshot of the database and ask the crash
recovery system of that database to make the image consistent during recovery.
Backup product approaches The snapshot must be created in a way that is supported by the database
vary as they take aim at the application. One example of this would be snapshot systems that integrate with
cloud
Windows Volume Shadow Services (VSS), as it acts as an intermediary
between a snapshot system and the applications that need to be placed in a
Using snapshot backups to consistent state. Before considering any snapshot-based product as the core of
your backup system, make sure the product has a good answer to this particular
backup system
requirement.
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What Another area where snapshot backup systems often fall short is the vendors
it is and why you need it that make them feel that since all you have to do is "cd" into a certain directory
and grab the file you need, there's no need for any centralized backup catalog
Modern data backup strategy or index, the way traditional backup systems have. While it is true that a
involves integration snapshot backup system is somewhat "self-indexing," it is also true that
sometimes people don't know where the file they need to restore resides, and a
SME backup products offer backup catalog can help with that. With some products, this functionality may
diverse routes to the cloud actually be provided by marrying a traditional backup product and a snapshot-
based product, as some traditional products offer indexing of snapshot-based
Backup 101: Incremental vs backups via NDMP.
differential backup
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Make sure your snapshot backup product can scale

In this e-guide
Where the rubber meets the road is in configuration, monitoring and reporting.
Backup product approaches What works for a small shop with one storage system isn't going to work with an
vary as they take aim at the enterprise with hundreds or thousands of them. When examining this area of
cloud functionality, be sure to ask yourself how well a particular product's capabilities
will scale if the size of your data center grows drastically over time. Some
Using snapshot backups to systems require you to maintain snapshot and volume relationships via the
replace your traditional data command line where others have sophisticated Web-based user interfaces to
backup system do that for you.
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What The most important question for any backup administrator to answer every day
it is and why you need it is "Did the backups work?" Larger shops may actually have a staff of operators
watching backups as they are performed, and smaller shops may have a single
Modern data backup strategy person who checks last night's backups first thing in the morning. Either way,
involves integration the monitoring functionality of the backup system must be able to answer this
question quickly and efficiently.
Reporting is slightly different, as it helps to understand backup trends over time.
Are there certain volumes that have difficulty backing up on a regular basis? Is
there enough capacity for snapshots and production data? Are there any
snapshots that are taking up significantly more room than other snapshots?
differential backup
These questions are answered by the reporting functionality of the product.
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One final thing to consider if you are thinking about replacing your traditional
In this e-guide backup systems with a snapshot backup system is that most of the former are
host-based and most of the latter are storage-based. The significant increase in
Backup product approaches server and storage virtualization increases the difficulty of doing storage-based
vary as they take aim at the backups. In a world where a "server" can magically move from one physical
cloud
server and its associated storage to a completely different server and storage
resources with a single mouse click, host-based backups are the easiest way to
Using snapshot backups to ensure that that server (actually a VM) is backed up no matter where it resides.
Storage-based backups need to account for this particular phenomenon.
backup system
It's possible under certain circumstances to completely replace a backup system

Cloud-to-cloud backup: What and all of its functionality with a snapshot-based system. Just make sure you
it is and why you need it think through all of the things that your backup system does for you today, and
make sure that your new system can do those things as well.
Next Article

differential backup
Page 13 of 34
In this e-guide
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What it is and why
Backup product approaches you need it
cloud Stephen Pritchard, guest contributor

Spending on public cloud services will reach US$236bn by 2020, according to
replace your traditional data Forrester.
backup system
It’s a trend driven by increasing numbers of applications being delivered from
the cloud.
Cloud computing is sometimes so easy that users and IT teams assume it “just
works”, and they are happy to leave data protection and backup to the provider.
involves integration So why are we seeing the emergence of cloud-to-cloud backup?
Data protection risks in the cloud

Moving applications, workloads or IT infrastructure to the cloud poses risks. It
means handing over control of a large slice of an organisation’s capabilities
Backup 101: Incremental vs to store and protect data to a third party.
differential backup
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A cloud service will – or should – have multiple datacentres and multiple

In this e-guide redundant data stores to ensure business continuity and the ability to recover
data. It should also provide enterprise-grade security for data.
vary as they take aim at the But there have been outages among cloud services. These are relatively rare,
cloud but CIOs that fail to consider how their cloud data is backed up will put their
organisations at risk.
replace your traditional data For businesses that use the cloud, the question is not whether cloud services
backup system will fail, but how the business will cope when they do. Although cloud services
may offer a high degree of resilience, this will not be enough for all
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What organisations’ backup needs.
Cloud versus on-premise service levels
Modern data backup strategy Cloud services do what they can to keep services running. But CIOs should
involves integration check the details of service level agreements. Public cloud services are unlikely
to guarantee availability or recovery times, and only offer a “best endeavour”
SME backup products offer commitment.
When it comes to the data itself, businesses are even more at risk. Software-as-
Backup 101: Incremental vs a-service (SaaS) suppliers typically take responsibility for infrastructure
differential backup availability, but data loss is the sole responsibility of the client.
This could leave customers with a complex, costly and time-consuming data
recovery exercise after an outage.
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Nor will a cloud service provider take responsibility for accidental data deletion.
In this e-guide Human error – from accidentally overwriting one field in a customer record to
the wiping of an entire dataset – is the customer’s problem. Backupify, a cloud-
Backup product approaches based backup provider, estimates that one-in-three companies lose SaaS data.
vary as they take aim at the Human error is the most common cause.
cloud
Cloud services may also delete data for any user whose subscription ends.
Using snapshot backups to Microsoft, for example, wipes all data for users 30 days after their subscription
replace your traditional data stops. Unless a business has a robust plan to capture users’ files when they
backup system leave an organisation, vital data can be lost for good.
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What Cloud backup options

In small-scale scenarios, users can copy files from, for example, Office 365 and
G Suite to a local volume, or if security rules permit, an external drive. But this is
a manual process that might not be reliable, and will struggle to scale.
For larger files and larger applications, this is rarely practical. Enterprises using
SME backup products offer infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) or SaaS applications can use application
diverse routes to the cloud programming interfaces (APIs) or third-party software to back up to local
servers, network-attached storage (NAS) equipment or their own datacentre.
differential backup But backing up cloud services to local storage is a step backwards. Instead of
taking advantage of the cloud, it forces companies to retain on-site
infrastructure, increases costs and limits flexibility.
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Enterprises that back up software-as-a-service applications will have the

In this e-guide reassurance that they have copies of their data, but they will not be able to
replicate or run the SaaS environment in-house. This limits the usefulness of
Backup product approaches local backups. At best, a business will face a lengthy recovery or migration to a
vary as they take aim at the new platform.
cloud
Backing up cloud services to the cloud should be a better option.
replace your traditional data Currently, just one in 10 businesses backs up their data to an IaaS supplier,
backup system according to Gartner. But the firm expects this to double by 2020, as businesses
realise the importance of backups and more suppliers offer cloud-specific
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What services.
Cloud-to-cloud backup benefits
Modern data backup strategy Cloud-to-cloud backup promises several advantages over local backups and
involves integration SaaS providers’ own offerings, including lower infrastructure cost, faster backup
and recovery, and far greater flexibility.
diverse routes to the cloud As with cloud infrastructure itself, cloud backups are accessible anywhere. And
organisations can also use re-use backups for data mining and analytics, for
Backup 101: Incremental vs example, without putting the original data at risk.
differential backup
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Broken clouds
In this e-guide
Unfortunately for IT decision-makers, the cloud-to-cloud backup market is
Backup product approaches fragmented and relatively immature. Given the diversity of cloud computing
vary as they take aim at the environments on offer, backup services vary quite widely in capabilities.
cloud
Gartner says that in the past two years, backup providers have improved
support for cloud services, making it easier to protect IaaS data, and to back up
replace your traditional data SaaS applications.
backup system
The area that has developed most over the past couple of years is backup for
infrastructure as a service. The main backup suppliers now have, or plan to add,
support for cloud copies of entire virtual machines (VMs).
For backups of private clouds, cloud gateways are an option. These use a cloud
Modern data backup strategy service APIs to enable backup and data recovery. Suppliers also provide
involves integration virtualised backup and deduplication applications that can run in the cloud.
SME backup products offer The market is moving from providing a simple “data dump” to cloud storage, to a
diverse routes to the cloud more sophisticated, managed service provided on a pay-as-you-go or per-user
model.
Fail to plan, plan to fail
differential backup
There are pitfalls, however. Backing up SaaS applications, in particular, remains

complex.
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Native data backups from Salesforce.com, for example, are not exact copies of
In this e-guide the application’s internal data. These so-called “one-directional” backups may
miss metadata or be less rich than the original datasets. They can be restored
Backup product approaches back to the SaaS, but data needs to be reformatted first, and reloaded as new
vary as they take aim at the datasets.
cloud
And with any SaaS application, if the original service is not available, customers
Using snapshot backups to will have no way to use their restored data.
backup system Nor are backups of application data from IaaS services truly platform-
independent. “There are enough differences between data formats on the main
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What platforms to make restoration a significant task,” warns Forrester
it is and why you need it analyst Naveen Chhabra.
The limitations of cloud backup even extend down to personal productivity

applications. Some applications in Office 365 are hard to back up. Sharepoint,
in particular, is only supported by a subset of backup suppliers.
SME backup products offer Organisations need to do their own due diligence and testing. Although the cloud
diverse routes to the cloud backup landscape is developing, not all cloud copies of data are “visible” to on-premise
backup applications
Perhaps the easiest backups are for enterprise applications that can run on-
differential backup
premise, or in public or private clouds. IT teams should be able to restore their
data to any provider that supports the application, to a VM running in the cloud,
or a local datacentre.
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Organisations need to do their own due diligence and testing. Although the
In this e-guide cloud backup landscape is developing, not all cloud copies of data are “visible”
to on-premise backup applications.
vary as they take aim at the Forrester’s Chhabra says organisations must always back up their data, so they
cloud at least have copies. Restoring data in the cloud should be faster than an on-
premise data recovery operation. But CIOs should not assume it will be easy.
replace your traditional data Cloud-to-cloud backup products and services are available from companies
backup system including Cohesity, Commvault, Dell EMC (Cloud Data Protection), Rubrik,
Veeam, Backupify, Datto, Keepit.com and Skykick.
Next Article


differential backup
Page 20 of 34
In this e-guide
Modern data backup strategy involves
Backup product approaches integration
cloud Brien Posey, guest contributor

As information technology evolves, an organization's data backup strategy must
replace your traditional data also evolve to ensure that the organization remains protected against data loss.
backup system The mainstream acceptance of technologies such as virtualization and cloud
means that legacy backup tools and techniques may not be up to the challenge
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What of addressing modern data protection requirements, and a new platform may be
it is and why you need it in order.
But which type of data protection product should you be using? There are
several different types of integrated products available, each with its own
strengths and weaknesses, for your data backup strategy.
SME backup products offer Backup software running on physical servers

Numerous vendors offer backup software that is designed to run on a physical
Backup 101: Incremental vs server within an organization's own data center. The primary advantage to using
differential backup this type of platform for your data backup strategy is flexibility. Backup software
running on a physical server -- or even on a virtual server -- in a data center can
be outfitted to meet the organization's unique needs. The IT department can
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decide what type of hardware will be used by the backup server and can also
In this e-guide choose the type of backup medium.
Backup product approaches Using an on-premises backup server is a good option for organizations that
vary as they take aim at the need to protect data and workloads that primarily reside on premises. While an
cloud on-premises backup server may be able to protect data residing in the cloud,
bandwidth constraints limit the volume of cloud data that can be backed up.
replace your traditional data Data protection-optimized backup appliances
backup system
Data protection-optimized backup appliances have a lot of similarities to
backups based on backup software running on physical or virtual servers. After
all, a backup appliance is essentially just a highly optimized, self-contained
backup server.
Modern data backup strategy Because integrated data protection appliances have been preconfigured by the
involves integration backup vendor, administrators are freed from the task of installing backup
software and then trying to get that software to recognize the backup target. The
SME backup products offer vendor has already done all of the work. In the case of a physical appliance, the
diverse routes to the cloud vendor has also already selected hardware that is certified to be fully compatible
with the backup software.
differential backup As a data backup strategy alternative, some vendors offer virtual appliances.
They work almost identically to their physical counterparts, except that they are
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designed to run on an organization's virtualization hosts rather than using

In this e-guide dedicated hardware.
Backup product approaches Backup appliances are widely varied in terms of capabilities, but many vendors
vary as they take aim at the include target storage in their physical appliances. In many cases, backup
cloud appliances can also act as cloud storage gateways, enabling backups to be
replicated to the cloud.
replace your traditional data Secondary storage systems dedicated to integrated data protection
backup system
There are currently a small number of vendors that provide hyper-converged
systems, which include secondary storage, as the basis for their backup
products. These integrated products tend to be more expensive than backup
appliances because they require a substantial amount of hardware. However,
hyper-convergence offers several advantages.
involves integration One benefit is scalability. As an organization's data grows, the backup capacity
can easily be increased by adding modules.
diverse routes to the cloud Another advantage is that hyper-convergence is well-suited to providing instant
recovery capabilities. Modern backup products based on the use of physical
Backup 101: Incremental vs backup servers or backup appliances usually include instant recovery
differential backup capabilities. Instant recovery enables failed virtual machines (VMs) to be
immediately brought online, running directly on the backup server, while a
restoration is performed in the background. The caveat to this process is that
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the backup server must have sufficient memory, network, storage and CPU
In this e-guide resources to be able to run the protected VMs. Since hyper-converged products
are usually made up of several servers, they often have far greater capacity to
Backup product approaches host instant recovery workloads than an appliance or a physical backup server
vary as they take aim at the might.
cloud
Cloud-based products
replace your traditional data Not surprisingly, there are several vendors that offer cloud-based backup
backup system services. These services are great for backing up data and workloads that are
running in the cloud. Although some of these services are also able to protect
workloads residing on premises, organizations must consider the bandwidth that
it is and why you need it will be required for the data backup strategy.

Next Article


differential backup
Page 24 of 34
In this e-guide
SME backup products offer diverse routes
Backup product approaches to the cloud

Computer Weekly recently surveyed the main backup software providers and
replace your traditional data those that supply a new breed of backup appliances, all built for the cloud era
backup system as a target.
Here we look at the rest – all small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)/mid-
market products – and find a mixed set of suppliers and products that include
Acronis, Druva, Nakivo, Zerto and Barracuda.
Modern data backup strategy The first three of the five fit into the backup software model, although they differ
involves integration significantly in terms of offer and origins.
SME backup products offer Acronis has the widest spread of source and target compatibility, including
diverse routes to the cloud cloud-to-cloud backup, and made its name with image-level backup that allows
it to restore to any platform.
Druva’s origins are in endpoint backup, but it has diversified to provide a broad
differential backup
platform that also includes cloud-to-cloud backup.
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Meanwhile, Nakivo offers specialised virtual machine backup and backup to

In this e-guide public cloud.
Backup product approaches The last two providers offer some diversity from regular backup products. There
vary as they take aim at the is Zerto, which builds around replication rather than “traditional” backup, and
cloud then Barracuda, which concentrates on on-premise physical appliances with the
cloud as a replication target.
replace your traditional data Acronis
backup system
Acronis Backup protects data on virtual, physical, cloud and mobile platforms
and can use local capacity and the cloud as a backup target. It incorporates
inline and global data deduplication, and management is from a web
management console.
Modern data backup strategy Acronis Backup includes backup for Microsoft Azure virtual machines (VMs) and
involves integration Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud instances, as well as cloud-to-cloud backup for
Microsoft Office 365.
diverse routes to the cloud Workload migration between different clouds, virtual systems and physical
machines is also possible, as is recovery to different systems.
Acronis Cloud Storage provides disaster recovery by storing backups in one of
differential backup
Acronis’s datacentres. The Acronis Cloud supports the backup of
disks, partitions, servers, data and mobile devices and recovery of files, folders,
applications or an entire system.
Page 26 of 34
The supplier bases many of its products on the Acronis AnyData Engine, which
In this e-guide handles virtual and physical server protection and is compatible with many
forms of data.
vary as they take aim at the It supports several forms of data migration, including virtual to virtual, virtual to
cloud physical, physical to virtual, and physical to physical.
Druva
Druva made its name providing backup for endpoint devices such as mobiles
backup system
and laptops, but has broadened out to virtual and physical server backup, cloud
server backup and archiving, and disaster recovery.
it is and why you need it Its original product, Druva inSync, backs up endpoint data and cloud
applications, such as Microsoft Office 365 and Salesforce. It also provides
Modern data backup strategy archiving, data compliance monitoring, legal hold management and e-discovery.
Meanwhile, Druva Phoenix is a software agent that backs up and restores data
SME backup products offer in the cloud. Use cases include cloud backup, recovery and archiving for VMs
diverse routes to the cloud and physical servers.
Druva CloudRanger provides protection and management of data in Amazon

Web Services (AWS), with management of an organisation’s complete AWS
differential backup
footprint from one dashboard.
Page 27 of 34
Nakivo
In this e-guide
Nakivo Backup and Replication offers VMware and Hyper-V backup, including
Backup product approaches to public cloud. It had historically targeted SMEs, but in the past few years it has
vary as they take aim at the also aimed at enterprise customers.
cloud
Other VM backup specialists, such as Veeam, have embraced physical
machine backup, but Nakivo is yet to do so, and it also lacks support for tape as
replace your traditional data a target.
backup system
It offers backup to Amazon EC2 via S3 and to Microsoft Azure.
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What On first deployment, Nakivo takes a full backup but after that, it only
it is and why you need it takes incrementals. A self-backup feature automatically backs up the system
configuration.
involves integration Zerto
Zerto offers a multi-platform hybrid cloud data protection product centred on

replication that includes bi-directional operations between on-premise virtualised
datacentres and AWS, Azure and IBM clouds, as well as with more than 350
cloud service provider offerings.
differential backup Core to the environment is Zerto Virtual Replication, a hardware-agnostic,
hypervisor-based replication tool that uses continuous replication and
automates failover and failback in VMware environments.
Page 28 of 34
Traditional array-based replication requires homogeneous storage systems, but

In this e-guide Zerto Virtual Replication allows for replication to any storage system, as well as
hybrid and public clouds.
vary as they take aim at the It can perform intercloud and intracloud data movement, using AWS, Microsoft
cloud Azure and IBM Cloud environments. Last year, Zerto Virtual Replication 6.0
expanded its replication capability to protect applications and data to and from
Using snapshot backups to clouds and between multiple clouds.
backup system Zerto aims to bypass traditional backup altogether with a single environment
across on-premise and the cloud in which users can search for files and recover
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What from any point in time.
Barracuda
Modern data backup strategy Barracuda majors on backup appliances that replicate to the cloud.
It offers 12 different appliances that range in local capacity from 1TB to 112TB.
SME backup products offer The option of encrypted appliances up to 96TB is also available to protect
diverse routes to the cloud against physical theft of hardware.
A virtual appliance, Backup Vx, is available for deployment as a VM.

differential backup All Barracuda appliances offer inline data deduplication and software replication
to the Barracuda Cloud, a remote physical or virtual backup appliance, or AWS.
Page 29 of 34
Restores can be to bare-metal servers or image-based restores to virtual

In this e-guide environments.
Backup product approaches Barracuda also offers cloud-to-cloud backup, with protection for Microsoft Office
vary as they take aim at the 365, Exchange and Sharepoint Online, as well as Onedrive.
cloud

Next Article
backup system




differential backup
Page 30 of 34
In this e-guide
Backup 101: Incremental vs differential
Backup product approaches backup

Incremental or differential backup: Which should you choose? In this article, we
replace your traditional data take a look at these two key concepts in backup, looking at the pros and cons of
backup system each, as well as point to resources that can help with other backup methods,
such as synthetic full and incremental forever backups.
The most fundamental type of backup is a full backup, which copies all data in a
given system. Differential and incremental backups are defined by how they
build on that full backup.
involves integration A differential backup copies files that have changed since the last full backup
was taken. So if a full backup was done on Monday, the differential on Tuesday
SME backup products offer will copy files changed since Monday’s backup copied everything. Then,
diverse routes to the cloud Wednesday’s differential will copy everything that changed since Monday’s full
backup.
differential backup The big advantage of differential backups is that when data needs to be
restored it can be built from the full backup and the latest differential copy.
Page 31 of 34
The key drawback is that the size of the differential backup increases every time
In this e-guide one is made until the next full backup job. That can lengthen backup window
duration and will impact on storage space needed to store the differentials.
vary as they take aim at the Where differential backups copy everything that changed since the last full
cloud backup, incremental backups copy everything that changed since the last
backup. So, if a full backup was carried out on Monday, the incremental on
Using snapshot backups to Tuesday will will just copy what has changed since Monday. Likewise,
replace your traditional data Wednesday’s incremental copies only the changed data since Tuesday’s
backup system incremental took place.
Cloud-to-cloud backup: What The main benefit of incremental backups is that less is copied every day than if
it is and why you need it you carried out differential backups. That means you get a shorter backup
window on days between full backups, and less storage space is needed for
Modern data backup strategy them.
The key disadvantage of differential backups is that when you want to do a
complete restore, it has to be built from the most recent full backup and all
incremental between then and the point to which you want to restore.
Look out also for variants on full, incremental and differential that may be
Backup 101: Incremental vs offered by some backup product providers.
differential backup These include: Synthetic full, which builds a “full” backup from a real full and
subsequent incrementals; incremental forever, which stores fulls and
subsequent incrementals to allow restores to chosen points in time, and;
Page 32 of 34
reverse incremental, in which a synthetic full is the default, but incrementals are
In this e-guide kept to allow rollback to a specified point.

cloud

backup system




differential backup
Page 33 of 34
In this e-guide
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differential backup
Page 34 of 34

Backup Fundamentals in The Age Cloud

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E-guide

SME backup products offer

Backup 101: Incremental vs

Using snapshot backups to

Out of the longer-established backup product providers, Veritas has most

By contrast, Veritas’s midrange-oriented Backup Exec product seems less

Using snapshot backups to

Veeam added cloud-native AWS backup functionality in 2017 with the

Modern data backup strategy IBM Spectrum Protect

Backup product approaches Dell EMC

UK-based Micro Focus bought HPE’s software business in 2017.

Using snapshot backups to

Using snapshot backups to

Backup 101: Incremental vs

Make sure your snapshot backup product can scale

It's possible under certain circumstances to completely replace a backup system

Backup 101: Incremental vs

Using snapshot backups to

Data protection risks in the cloud

A cloud service will – or should – have multiple datacentres and multiple

Cloud-to-cloud backup: What Cloud backup options

Enterprises that back up software-as-a-service applications will have the

There are pitfalls, however. Backing up SaaS applications, in particular, remains

The limitations of cloud backup even extend down to personal productivity

SME backup products offer

Backup 101: Incremental vs

Using snapshot backups to

SME backup products offer Backup software running on physical servers

designed to run on an organization's virtualization hosts rather than using

Modern data backup strategy

SME backup products offer

Backup 101: Incremental vs

Using snapshot backups to

Meanwhile, Nakivo offers specialised virtual machine backup and backup to

Druva CloudRanger provides protection and management of data in Amazon

Zerto offers a multi-platform hybrid cloud data protection product centred on

Traditional array-based replication requires homogeneous storage systems, but

A virtual appliance, Backup Vx, is available for deployment as a VM.

Restores can be to bare-metal servers or image-based restores to virtual

Using snapshot backups to

Cloud-to-cloud backup: What

Modern data backup strategy

SME backup products offer

Backup 101: Incremental vs

Using snapshot backups to

Backup product approaches

Using snapshot backups to

Cloud-to-cloud backup: What

Modern data backup strategy

SME backup products offer

Backup 101: Incremental vs

Cloud-to-cloud backup: What

SME backup products offer

Backup 101: Incremental vs

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