By Rob Morrison, Director of Marketing at Bacula Systems
August 06, 2020
Network backup is a way to transmit backup data from the selected device or devices to the backup server via network (Internet). The backup server itself may be either privately owned, or via one of the many cloud backup providers available. Network backup itself is typically a clear necessity to ensure that your organization’s data is safe and protected.
Some network backup systems are also capable of managing backup of data stored in different types of storage media that are connected to your backup server via some kind of network. This can be especially important for larger enterprises that are dealing with massive amounts of data in their NAS (network attached storage) devices.
Aside from the more regular backup practices and considerations, network backup has its own specific limitations and challenges. Here are some examples of typical challenges – or even obstructions – to effective network backup:
Modern open source backup software should be able to operate correctly within various network types and conditions, and should have a variety of features, including:
It can sometimes be the perception that the main purpose of free network backup solutions is to protect data in the case of some sort of a disaster that causes information loss. It is strongly recommended to also consider the advantages of network backup beyond only disaster situations.
Implementing an open source network backup software as a part of the company’s platform to begin with allows much easier, efficient and more convenient protection of an organization’s information in general. New technologies are constantly increasing the amount of information that is typically being created on a daily basis, and there are many contributing factors for such exponential increase in information generation, such as IoT (internet of things), virtualization, artificial intelligence, big data, and so on.
The amount of information that an average organization is working with nowadays is considerable and nearly always growing – and often requires the best free network backup software to protect their data from either partial or total loss. The network backup itself is a backup method that copies the data flowing through the local network, WAN and perhaps FC/iSCSi protocols.
There is no doubt that some companies require case-specific solutions for their free network backup software needs, however there are also some general recommendations of what a proper open source network backup software should deliver:
The main disadvantage of not having a proper network backup solution in place is of course the absence of a contingency plan if anything detrimental happens to data. In many cases, the results are catastrophic to a company’s well-being.
Network backup is a complex system that aims to avoid overloading an organizations’ infrastructure while performing its range of backup and/or recovery tasks. Since a network is typically a complex entity in its own right, no part of it should be overloaded in any case by a data backup attempt from your network backup solution.
There are two main ways of preventing data loss regarding storing backups in specific locations: local locations (onsite), and remote ones (offsite). Their purpose remains the same: to keep the backed up data safe and sound, even if the original system loses some or all of its data.
Local locations are often used as a place to save backed up information within the physical equipment that is located in the same physical space and can be quickly accessed via a LAN network. Remote locations on the other hand, allow companies to have a separated and independent storage for their backups in case of a massive data loss within the LAN. Cloud storages are one way of achieving this, and are available from many different providers, such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google, to less well-known ones, whether private or public.
A network itself is a complicated system that can grow quite rapidly over time. There are three main types of the equipment that are part of the network:
There are a variety of features and options that the best free network backup software may use in an attempt to make backup and recovery jobs easier, faster and more secure. Some of these may be:
There’s a plethora of different backup solutions out there that can perform network backup operations. One of those solutions is Bacula Community – a free open source multifunctional solution capable of performing a number of different backup solutions and/or backup types. You can find out more about Bacula Community and its specific capabilities here
If you’re also interested in Windows Backup, check out Bacula’s solution
About the author
Rob Morrison started his IT career with Silicon Graphics in Switzerland, which developed into a wide variety of IT management roles for almost 10 years. He has subsequently held various management positions in professional open source companies such as JBoss, Red Hat and Pentaho, contributing to the growth of these well-known companies. He is a graduate of Plymouth University and holds a Digital Media and Communications BSc Honours degree, and completed an Overseas Studies Program.
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