By Jane Evans, Sales Director at Backup Everything
Mar. 08, 2019

Cloud Backup Expert Tips: Should I Transfer my Data to the Cloud or Not? If Yes, How Do I Go About It?

If you are now ready to transfer your data to a remotely based cloud backup server over the Internet, it is time you understood how your data will actually be transferred.

Data Medium

Before you start transfer data to the , you must first find out where your current data resides. Information stored on disk drives can be easily transferred compared to data stored in tapes. However, transferring tape based data is not easy. Although tape technology is in the verge of becoming history, it could still be orchestrated for backup; the process could be tedious and many service providers might not be ready to handle tape technology.

Tape and D2D2T

Modern data transmissions focus on disk-to-cloud and do not allow for easy online transfer of data from tapes to the remote cloud based server. In some instances, the tape based data may need to be transferred to disk drives before it can be sent to the cloud. In this case, it is advisable for you to follow up with your service provider to confirm that they are able to accommodate your needs to transfer your data from tapes to the cloud before you agree to sign up on the dotted lines.

Many cloud backup service providers offer disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) backups for data archival and additional backup requirements of enterprises. The cloud backup service provider transfer my data stored in the their cloud servers, copy it back into tapes, and ship them to the enterprise for on-premise archival and local data restores. Such local based data recovery definitely help reduce cost by eliminating the need for expensive bandwidth, by making the data available for immediate recovery from the tape archives. Freed cloud backup resources could instead be used for other backup jobs.

You can also enquire if your cloud backup service provider allows you to plug your tape drives to their network and possibly orchestrate an on-premise and cloud based backups at the same time. Therefore, a very useful feature in Cloud backup and recovery is Disk-to-disk-to-cloud.

Seeding

Your initial data backupdata seeding, may take a long time to complete and could be a tedious task. Bandwidth costs will add up quickly if you decide to transfer Terabytes of data from your local servers over the Internet. However, many cloud backup service providers offer data seeding services. Some even send you storage medium in the mail and instruct you to seed your disk and ship it back to them on a tape or disk depending your agreement. The cloud backup and recovery software must support this for first level seeding of information in the cloud or for storing data locally before vaulting it to the cloud.

Process Changes

Data being backed up to the cloud actually goes through some changes during transmission to the cloud. Cloud based data these days go through steps before they are actually stored in their final destination servers. The uploaded data is compressed, de-duplicated and encrypted using the commonly used algorithms, such as: AES 256, Triple DES or Blow Fish 448. These encryptions can not be easily penetrated and are industry standards.

E-Discovery

To transfer my data in heterogeneous environments, standard protocols can be implemented, assuring data integrity. For an easy e-discovery, data — including files and folders — can be converted into objects using metadata.

Company Strategy and Growth Plan

Now that you have some information on tape based data, data transmission, seeding, encryption, and e-discovery, the next question is ‘What do I need to do before I sign up for a Cloud Backup and Recovery service’? It is now 2019! Cloud backup is no longer an option, but mandatory. An organisation’s strategy and growth plan determines how effectively they can ride the whole cloud computing and backup and storage offers. However, factors like the kind of user you are, de-duplication, your data structure, archival needs, etc. play important roles:

Transfer My Data to the Cloud – The Kind of User you are

Your organisation may be using on-premise built software, off-the-shelf software, a number of operating systems, applications, databases, and technology stacks. As a medium to large corporation, you may be wanting to link up to the cloud based backup and recovery data management console from different devices like, mobiles, desktops, laptops and servers. It should be stressed that the cloud backup service you sign up for must provide you with multiple platform support. This means, your system must work and get connected to all kinds of computing environments, like application servers, virtual serversdata servers and replication servers. The system should be capable of managing multiple environments and allow you to store data from a number of connections, using a centralised console.

De-Duplication

Without getting too technical, there are two types of de-duplication based on where the actual de-duplication takes place.

The first is source based de-duplication is the removal of redundancies from data before the data is transferred to the backup target. The second is the removal of redundancies while the data is in flight to its target (as it passes through an appliance sitting between the source and the backup target). Source based de-duplication is better as it uses bandwidth usage is optimised through out the network for the purpose of cloud backup and storage services, resulting in lower overhead.

How do i Transfer My Data – Backup is as Good as its Recovery

Data backed up in the cloud is as good as its recoverability. Such cloud based data is useful if and only if it can be restored to the local, on-premise network with in the time frame specified by the organisation. In addition, recovery must include facilities for bare metal restore to similar or dissimilar hardware. Various levels of backup and recovery should be implemented, such as block level, file level, image level, or message level.

Dispersed Data

The cloud backup service vendor should provide for a continuous data protection (CDP) and replication by allowing a global data management with in the distributed environments. The eventual goal of the system and service is to provide a unified disaster recovery system with geographically dispersed replication for high availability of data.

Data Archival

You must also insist that the service provider archives your data to a less expensive storage servers, freeing resources for hot data. Data archival should be part of the data life cycle management features provided with the cloud backup and recovery system.

Software Updates

Finally, the cloud backup vendor should be proactively conscious of future market shifts and must constantly update the software to meet the emerging demands of the market. For instance, the shift from tape to disk should be factored in, and support for tape-to-disk-to-cloud should be implemented.

Backup Everything, a UK based cloud backup and storage firm, is here to help you migrate your data to the cloud by assisting you from the start, all the way to the end, until all of your data is transferred and backed up to the cloud. You have come to the transfer data, cloud backupdata storage, and data recovery experts … You are at the right place! Visit www.BackupEverything.co.uk

About Backup Everything
London, UK based and industry leading company, Backup Everything (BE), provides automated cloud backup services for affordable and pre-determined prices. BE is not a location dependent service and its fee structure is the same no matter where in the world you are from. BE provides scalable space, meaning your backup space can be scaled up or down based on your needs. It also provides automated and scheduled backups, file versioning, with data encrypted during transfer and storage. BE does not charge data retrieval fees, it only charges for amount of data stored in its servers.

For a comprehensive and reliable service, it is prudent that the end user chooses services from an independent cloud backup company, like BE to backup their sensitive data. This way, the user will know their actual cost, where the data is being backed up to, and get the best bespoke service according to the Service Level Agreement (SLA) executed.

For more information, please visit www.BackupEverything.co.uk

About the Author: Jane Evans is a Sales Director at Backup Everything, a London, UK based, leading cloud backup company that offers bespoke services to global businesses and consumers.

 

 

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