Look Past the Price Tag

The online backup market is a mess! Companies are coming out of the woodwork offering great deals on backup services. With cloud-based disk space providing cheaper storage, the downward pressure on price seems unstoppable.

For businesses, where do you begin? As recovering consultants, we always advise businesses to start with requirements.

• Why are you creating backups?
  To protect users from document errors? To recover user-deleted files? To recover from system failures? To recover from a larger disaster?
  
  
• How many versions of each file do you need?
  For recovery from disaster or system failure, you really only need one. To recovery from user error, you may want more.
  
  
• For how long do you need backups available?
  Days, weeks, months, years?
  
  
• How quickly do you need to be able to recover?
  Hours, days, or longer?

These questions are important, as the answers often eliminate the low cost providers. Backups at 50 cents per GB is attractive, unless you need retention for more then 30 days. If one version on backups is not enough, then the unlimited space for $50 per year per machine is not the solution. If you may need to restore whole servers or large data sets, services without off-line recovery options will leave you waiting, literally, for your data.

When evaluating online backup solutions. Look past the price tag at how well the solution meets your needs. Whether from a reputable service provider or an in-house attempt to build a solution that saves money, if the backup solution doesn't meet your needs, you are wasting money.

Backup Axiom #1 - Recovery is Hard

In his IT Project Failures blog, Michael Krigsman bemoans his "Failing with Online Backup" in his effort to backup 350 GB using two popular consumer online backup services (. While many of the comments teased him with "you get what you pay for" taunts, the real issue is ...

Backup Axiom #1: Backups are Easy; Recovery is Hard;

In his search for a cheap answer, he neglected to consider is upload speed, the size and nature of his data, the retention points and period, the restore methods of the services, and the likely nature of his restores.

While in the comments he states he is fine with an long initial seed, selecting a service with an offline method of seeding would have avoided the bandwidth and connectivity failures he experienced. And while his intent was to be able to recovery individual files, should he need to restore 20GB, 50GB, or more of his data, he would have been more than frustrated in the process and speed.

Anybody can provide cheap, secure, off-site backup storage. The key is selecting a service that meets your reliability and recovery needs.

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Answers You Need about Online Backup Services

The recent agreement for HP to provide a free trial of Norton's Symantec Backup on new consumer PCs demonstrates the growing acceptance of online backup solutions. When looking at online backup, please remember the following.

Backup is Easy; Recovery is the Challenge

If you keep this in mind, the focus of your comparison shifts from price to how well the service will help you recover from a lost file, failed disk, or system catastrophe. Having answers to the following questions will help you make a better choice.

1. How many generations does the backup provide?

Many of the low cost services only provide a single generation of each file. Even if the retention period is 30 days before deleted files are removed from the backup set, only the most recent version of the file is available. This type of service fails when you need a version of a file from Tuesday that you also edited on Wednesday.

Look for services that keep multiple generations, at least daily, of your data.

2. How long is the retention period?

Some of the most popular online backup services limit retention to 30, or as few as 7, days. In doing so, recovering a files may not be possible if you are unaware they were deleted more than 30, or even 7, days prior to the attempted restore.

Look for services that let you select the retention period you need for each type of data you need to protect.

3. What restore methods are available?

Every online backup service offers online restores. Even with broadband, FiOS, or other high speed connections, restoring large amounts of data over the Internet takes time. Some services limit the size of each restore, requiring multiple iterations to restore a full system. While some services will ship DVDs for an added fee, restoring from multiple DVDs is time consuming and requires constant monitoring.

Look for services that offer services like MobileVault, which will deliver a full copy of your data vault by courier or FedEx. Restores run computer-to-computer over the local network in a fraction of the time required for restores over the Internet.

4. How secure is your data?

Nearly all services provide advanced encryption to standards such as AES128 and AES256. If the service, however, offers a back-door for restores should you forget your encryption keys, your data may not be truly secure.

Look for services using one-way encryption methods that do not allow the service's employees to access your data.

Taking these considerations into effect, the number of online backup services from which to choose narrows greatly. And when you look at price, you will see the "enterprise" class services are not much more expensive than "consumer" and "cheap" solutions. When looking at online backup services, you get what you pay for.

Last Minute Invitation

If you are in the area and can leave work a little early, please join Horizon Info Services at the Corridor Nine Chamber's Open for Business Expo.

It is a great opportunity to see our Cloud Computing solutions first-hand, including Google Apps Premier Edition, Google Security and Compliance Solutions, and our industry-leading online backup and recovery solutions.

WHERE: Doubletree Westborough, MA
WHEN: 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM
COST: FREE

We hope to see you there.

NetGEAR Rolls out ReadyNAS with Online Storage: We Have Questions

As reported on bMighty.com, NetGear has introduced a new ReadyNAS storage device aimed at the SMB Market. The device includes the capability to use an integrated online backup service with packages as low as $1/GB per month.

As always, we have our questions:

• Is the fee based on native or compressed space?
• Is the online storage a vault or just a copy of the onsite backup?
• What are the retention options and limitations?
• Is the online storage a full backup service? Or, just a 'most recent copy'?
• What is the method for offline restoration?

Backup is easy; Recovery is hard.

NetGEAR is positioning the box as a bridge between online and in-house backups -- trying to satisfy customers at all points on the comfort scale. Time will tell which parts of the market they can satisfy.

Is Consolidation in Online Backups Beginning?

PC Magazine is reporting that HP is discontinuing its online backup services, known as Upline. Without any public press release from HP, customers have received notice of the service termination and will be receiving full refunds.

While generally regarded as a slick service, Upline had significant service quality issues.

This announcement follows Yahoo's announcement that the Yahoo Briefcase service would also come to an end. Yahoo Briefcase, a free service, limited users to 30MB of data -- an amount the marketplace deemed to lack any real value.