Implementing Off-site Backup

When implementing off-site backup, organizations must consider the associated costs, especially when using cloud-based backup. These costs typically include capacity, frequency, bandwidth, and the number of users, which can quickly escalate. To avoid surprises, organizations should conduct long-term cost projections and implement a retention plan to delete unnecessary backup data. While cloud-based backup can be cheaper than tape backup, it can also involve high costs for data retrieval and transfer. Tape backup costs increase over time due to the price of additional media and off-site storage, as well as retrieval costs. In terms of security, data must be encrypted when in transit and at rest for both cloud and tape backup. Linear Tape-Open 8 features advanced encryption and write-once-read-many capability. Unlike cloud backup, drive maintenance is a challenge with tapes. One common approach to off-site backup is disk-to-disk-to-tape, which writes a backup to disk, copies it to tape, and ships the backup off site. The off-site backup location should be chosen based on the risk of natural disasters and the distance from the primary data center to the secondary site.

Categories of off-site backup provider

There are three main categories of off-site backup providers.

• Hyperscalers, refer to the major public cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform. They offer not only cloud-based backup storage but also a wide range of other services
• Traditional backup vendors, These providers can create private cloud infrastructures solely intended for storing backup data.
• Removable media, Another group of off-site backup providers includes those that specialize in securely storing removable media, like backup tapes. These providers ensure that the tapes are transported to and from a secure backup facility and stored under appropriate conditions to maintain data security.

Having an off-site backup is crucial to ensure business continuity in case of disasters, ransomware attacks, or other incidents that may happen at the primary data center. In such cases, organizations can recover their data by accessing the backup stored in the cloud or on tape cartridges. Although local backups may provide faster access to data, off-site backups act as a safety net and provide an additional layer of protection.

Disk is a more popular choice for backup due to its faster speed and accessibility compared to tape. However, tape is now commonly used for long-term archiving or disaster recovery purposes. While disk can be considered for off-site backup, it is less resilient than tape and more susceptible to damage during transportation.

Source:

https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatabackup/definition/off-site-backup