Your Computer Network Solution
In Pursuit of the Ultimate Backup Solution

In the never ending pursuit of the ultimate backup solution, we are always exploring new and different approaches to protecting network data. There are certainly a wide variety of options available today, ranging from conventional tape, to disk-based solutions, to internet backup services. All of these approaches have benefits… and shortcomings.

In search of the holy grail of backup, we are looking for a lot of things:

• Reliability – It has to work
• Ability to recover data over long term (Recover old data when and if needed)
• Ease of use (hands off)
• Abilty to recover after a disaster (off-site storage)
• Large capacity (both for data and history)
• Speed
• Low impact on daily operations
• Security
• Compliance
• Granularity (The ability to recover small amounts of data like a single e-mail message)
• Cost

One of the fundamental changes in backup requirements that has taken place over the past few years is the importance of email. In the past, most companies would say that their most critical data and application was their accounting or line-of-business system. Well, that has changed. Most companies say that the importance of constant e-mail communication with their clients has become the most critical application. Sure, your accounting data is critical - even essential, but the availability of e-mail has surpassed that in terms of urgency. Compliance and history has also become an ever increasing factor.

All of these requirements have helped change the backup landscape. Tape solutions are expensive and relatively slow in comparison with newer disk-based options. What tape does offer is an easy, inexpensive way to keep long-term history. A single tape is relatively inexpensive once you have made the initial investment.

Increasingly, we have done more disk-based solutions. Generally these are solutions that sit on top of a Windows server. The advantage of this approach is that they can back up large amounts of data, expansion is inexpensive, and recovery of data is fast and easy. The downside of this approach is that they require a fair amount of attention. Jobs can stop, agents hang or systems become out of sync. Add to that, the expense of a server, operating system, and backup software.

We recently came across a product from Netgear that promises to address some of the challenges that we face with existing backup solutions. We evaluated a product called ReadyNAS NVS that provides conventional network attached storage, and some very intriguing backup capabilities.

Out of the box, this unit appears like a toaster; designed to be a network appliance, the chassis is very compact, but is loaded with features. Basic setup could not be easier; plug it in and the front LED panel displays the IP address of the machine it picks up from your network.

Configuring the unit is fairly straight forward for a network engineer with settings that are easy to find and intuitive. Several configuration options that impressed me were the ability to have a backup job started by simply pressing a button on the front of the unit. (I can see using this to take a snapshot of an accounting system just before a posting or month-end closing for example).

The unit can backup across a WAN to another ReadyNAS, providing redundancy as well as an off-site copy of the data. In addition, there is an option to add backup to a low-cost internet backup service. This really has appeal for companies needing off-site protection who don’t have multiple locations available to house a second unit.

Another nice feature of this system is the ability to back up directly to a USB device. Even a flash drive could be used to provide some daily off-site storage. Simply press the button and a copy is made.

Initial configuration of the unit includes two 1.0 TB drives that are mirrored. This can be easily upgraded by adding additional off-the-shelf drives. In fact, Netgear claims that disks can be added while the machine is running and capacity will be increased automatically. That’s impressive.

What is missing from this system is a server grade continuous backup agent with the ability to back up Exchange server information stores. Yes, it does come with some Continuous Protection Software (CPS) for PC workstations, but it is not a good solution for server environments. There are several 3rd party products that could be used to augment the system, but that would greatly increase the cost. The core backup software included does a good job at backing up data however, and that can be made to work with Microsoft’s internal backup utility to protect Exchange. Not as elegant as we might like, but certainly workable.

Overall however, I think this solution offers excellent value. It reduces hardware/software costs and implementation would certainly be less expensive than some of the other solutions we have used in the past. Furthermore, we will keep looking for some other 3rd party CPS products that might fit well with this device and provide an even better solution.

If you have any questions about this solution or would like assistance setting one up in your organization, call Chris Faist, Integrated Computer Systems Support, at 425-284-5410.