Cloud Backup

Robbie and Eric chat with Eran Farajun from Asigra Inc. about Cloud backups and how "the cloud" relates to businesses and end users.

The above is an important question for which there can be many answers.  Many business managers wonder if it’s safe to turn their data over to cloud providers and trust it off-site on someone else’s servers. Your decision to work with any cloud vendor or service provider should ensure that the only person/entity that has the right to retain ownership, use and control of your data is YOU! 

With any new technology, especially as disruptive as cloud computing has been to the norms of the way we’ve managed IT in the past, understanding how one’s data is used and controlled has been an unnecessary barrier that thwarts organizations from moving into the cloud. 

Our service providers often get questions from their customers that include asking about how data is secured, how it’s backed up and stored and most importantly what exactly the MSP can do once they have the data within their reach.  There are a number of cloud security and certification safeguards (FIPS 140-2, SAS 70/ISO27001, NIST, etc.) in place to document and control how data is handled and provides guidelines as to what a cloud provider and cloud customer’s rights are.

When signing up with a cloud provider, it’s important that the contract and service level agreement (SLA) provide a clear understanding of what happens when the provider can no longer offer or if you choose to no longer employ their services. 

There should be no gray area when it comes to data ownership in the cloud and if you ever ask the question and the answer isn’t in black and white –you’ve encountered a cloud provider that you shouldn’t work with. 

In this roundtable discussion, David Chalmers, HP CIO of Enterprise Storage, Servers, & Networking; CloudPro’s contributing editor Manek Dubash; and Cloud Pro’s editorial fellow, Steve Cassidy, explore the advantages of hybrid cloud for businesses.

David Chalmers says, "Companies can focus on what makes them different, keeping the things that differentiate their organization in-house because that's where they can continue to invest and drive differentiation while getting the value proposition from getting services from the outside for things that have to be done and done well, but don't differentiate them as an organization."

Data Backup is one of those very things things that need to be done and done well. 

It is no secret that large and small businesses alike, are rapidly adopting server virtualization in their data centers and most indications are that this trend will continue.  When architecting virtual infrastructures, one of the first issues that business face is “What should I do for backup and recovery in a virtual environment?”

The most common approach, at least when starting out, is to ignore the fact that servers are now running on Virtual Machines (VMs) and backup the servers through the guest Operating Systems (Oss) just like you do when the OS is running on a physical server.  While this approach will work, it does have some drawbacks.  This approach typically requires you to load a backup agent on the guest OS in order to backup that server.  If the server is running an application such as Exchange, SQL or SharePoint, then you need to load a separate agent for each application.  Some backup applications also require separate agents to backup the Windows System State or Services Data Base.

When you load backup agents on a physical server, these agents are processes running on the OS, which require CPU resources.  Depending upon the agents, each agent might use less than 1% of the CPU resources or more than 15%.   Regardless of the resources required by the agents, this CPU overhead usually goes unnoticed on a physical server.

However, in a virtual environment, you could easily have 10 VMs running on a single physical host.  Each VM might have several agents on the server to accommodate backing up the file system, services database and applications.   Assuming a very conservative average of two agents per VM (each using 1% of the host’s CPU cycles), in a virtual environment, you would be wasting 20% of your available CPU resources on backup agents that don’t do anything during normal business hours. 

Once businesses realize the overhead in terms of wasted CPU resources, as well as man-hours required to manage all those agents, they typically look for a solution that will allow them to back up their VMs from the physical host side.  VMWare has the largest server virtualization market share so most of the major backup applications now support backing up VMs from the VMWare host side. 

Backing up VMs from the host side has advantages over backing up servers from the guest OS side.  First, there is no need to load or manage agents on each of the guest OSs.  This saves on both CPU resources and management overhead.

The next advantage is that it is typically much faster to backup and restore VMs from the host side, since you are backing up and restoring a single large VMDK file rather than backing up and restoring thousands of small individual OS, application and data files.   In a Disaster Recovery (DR) situation, where a VM’s OS becomes corrupted and you need to restore from a backup, it is very easy to point and click, and restore that system to another VM.  The disadvantage with many backup applications is they don’t support individual file restores.  If an end user deletes a single file, you need to restore the entire VM, find the file and give it to the end user, then delete the VM. 

When moving to a virtual infrastructure, it is a good time to evaluate your current backup application and to see if it meets all your needs.  If you determine that you need to invest in a new backup solution, you will want to choose one that will meet all your needs, now and in the future.  You should look for a solution that will allow you to restore the entire VM in a DR situation or to restore applications and databases like Exchange and SQL without having to restore the entire VM.  You should also consider a solution that allows you to restore individual Exchange messages or individual SharePoint items, without having to restore the entire database.

Finally, you should seriously consider a backup recovery solution that supports both physical servers and virtual environments. And the BUR solution should support more than just VMware.   While VMware may have the lion’s share of the virtualization market share today, they are starting to face significant competition from other sources such as MS Hyper-V, XenServer and Parallels to name a few.  Whenever a technology vendor thinks that a customer has no alternatives and is locked into their solution, they have very little incentive to reduce the cost of their solution.  Bringing in an alternative virtualization solution may provide VMware an incentive to reduce their price.  But you shouldn’t have to invest time and money in a new backup solution just because you want to try an alternative to VMware.

When it comes to VARs and MSPs developing cloud computing strategies, VMware has a simple message for partners. “Virtualization is the cornerstone of the cloud; you can’t get to the cloud without virtualization,” asserts Doug Smith, senior director of global channels at VMware. 

And so begins a recent post on Talkin’ Cloud by Joe Penetieri, Memo from VMware: Virtualization is First Step to Cloud.  Later in the post, Smith adds, “I think virtualization is the first step to the private cloud. You’re separating out the hardware infrastructure from your IT compute needs.”

OK, I get it: cloud life goes better with virtualization. You get much greater flexibility with your data plus all the green and financial advantages of requiring fewer physical servers. The post goes on to look at the emerging virtualization landscape where competitors are vying for larger pieces of a market dominated by VMware. What struck me, though, was the straight-up talk connecting virtualization with Cloud initiatives – public or private.  So why would anyone – MSP or any business with cloud aspirations – drag their feet?

Well, maybe some so-called “expert” (or a drunk in a dark alley) once told them that virtualization is too complicated and expensive for any business smaller than enterprise, and pointed to backups as a major roadblock:

•  you need different backup solutions for hardware and virtual machines
• one solution won’t work with a variety of virtualization platforms
• it’s too difficult and expensive to maintain all the agents required on each virtual machine
• backup agents pollute the virtual environment and degrade performance
• you can’t restore to different physical or virtual machines
•  recovery requires many steps plus backup and database experts
•  backup solutions are not easily and affordably scalable
•  you can’t get true CDP (Continuous Data Protection) or even backups with a short RPO (Restore Point Objective)
• you need special hardware or a certain operating system

Nine points and Asigra has one response: WRONG … on all counts. If you were hesitating on virtualization because you thought backup and recovery was going to be an expensive problem, download this Asigra paper, Virtualization Support. Real Backups of Virtual Environments. Then get moving on the road to virtualization – this roadblock is gone.

We have a saying at Asigra – you don’t treat your grandmother like you treat your daughter even though you love them both. You send your daughter to a kindergarten and your grandmother to a seniors’ center. We use this reference to get people thinking about how they should treat their data when it comes to backup and recovery. Stay with me here, it will make sense if you read a little further…

I should tell you first that I work in a business role and not a technical role, and to be truthful, this is not something I had given a lot of thought to in the past. As far as I was concerned, as long as all my data was backed up, I had nothing to worry about. Until one day 3 years ago when I was working for another employer and our Exchange Server crashed. Guess how long it took us to restore our email inbox and folders? Three weeks.  THREE WEEKS!

Now, imagine for a minute what sort of information is in your emails and inbox – mostly items that are current and need to be accessed regularly, right? Then imagine what files are in your desktop for recordkeeping – presentations you may have done 1-2 years ago, perhaps financial records that are even older and are being held for auditing reasons. Do you need those to get your job done today? If you were able to choose which files got recovered first after a data loss event, what would your decision be? Would you like to have that choice?

All data is not created equal. So why should your data backup and more importantly, your recovery?  

Image:jenny818 on Flickr

Five reasons why MSPs currently offering hosted services should be looking at this growing Cloud Backup market to move into this market.

1. On-demand Business Model – The cloud-based on-demand business model is here now – the new economic reality is that the old asset-based business model is giving way to OPEX-based approach
2. Magnification of MSPs size and scope – Cloud Computing eliminates the geographic boundaries for MSPs to target and attain potential customers and allows them to expand beyond their previously perceived geography and scope, magnifying their business expertise, thus allowing MSPs to expand their business
3. Operational Efficiencies – MSPs providing cloud backup and recovery have expertise that allow them to provide services more efficiently than in-house IT departments. Due to the economic downturn, customers are smarter about their IT strategy and are more open to entertaining IT as a Service (ITaaS) and take advantage of the cost savings, due to better operational efficiencies, offered by the MSPs.  
4. Forward Thinking MSPs – Cloud Computing elevates how MSPs think about their business. This new business model enables the MSPs to acquire new cloud-based backup and recovery skills with little effort.
5. Low or Few Barriers to Entry – Cloud Computing lowers the overall cost of entry into the market for new MSPs.

The above reasons present business opportunities for MSPs. Cloud backup enables MSPs to grow their business by winning larger customers that are farther away. It gets MSPs in the door so that you can sell more of your expanded services resulting in incremental revenue.

Cloud business model is more acceptable today because the customer problem is being exacerbated by data compliance and disaster requirements. Data protection has not kept up with the backup and recovery resulting in an increased need for more resources and human capital, which makes cloud backup and restore a much more cost effective solution. Cloud is more efficient – when the data grows, the ability to manage that data does not scale linearly with the effort to manage the data.

In it's upcoming webinar, SNIA's Cloud Storage Initiative will be introducing an exciting new Cloud Backup and Restore (Cloud BUR) Special Interest Group. This webinar is open to all and will address various cloud education and collaboration activities for end users, the channel, and vendors at the SNIA Symposium, SNIA Storage Developers Conference and CloudBurst, SNW Dallas, and SNW Europe.

I wanted to share this here with you as it's a great way to get to know SNIA and the Cloud Storage Initiative and also get involved (if you aren't already!).

You can click here to register.

I recently came across an article that advocated tape based backup and I felt the need to respond to the blog post with one of my own. To be quite honest, I was surprised while reading this. Tape is dying, and it’s not just me saying so. Heck, most data stored on tapes can’t even be recovered in the event of a disaster, and don’t even get me started on the security risk that tapes pose to businesses. In fact, Gartner recently reported in one of its articles that 71% of tape backups tend to fail when it comes down to restore. In my opinion, backing up to tape is no longer an acceptable risk for organizations to take.

Would you want your medical records backed up to tape only to find that after a disaster and subsequent restoration, only 29% was recoverable?  I think not. 

The mistake businesses make is that they only care about backup. Who cares about backup if you can’t restore your data?  Backup is only done so that in the event that you end up losing data (if it hasn’t happened yet, it will), you can restore with confidence and get your business back on track as quickly as possible.  All tape is, is a cheap way to get a cute little checkmark in your DR Plan. 

Once upon a time, VHS movies, horse drawn wagons, and carrier pigeons were all considered trendy. Today its more about blue ray discs, hybrid/electric cars and “tweets”. Just something to ruminate about.

Thanks for reading. If you like what you’ve read, please leave me a comment. If you disagree, send your message via carrier pigeon ;-)

Agents are usually presented by the vendors as very light consumers of hardware resources (typically 2% over a 24 hour period). This resource utilization is accurate when the agents are sleeping but at peak times the resource utilization of agents can increase to 20-25% of the total system hardware resources. Additionally, a single agent adds as much as 16% server overhead to each application.

In physical server environments, there are typically 1-2 agents per physical machine. The same number of agents are required per virtual machine in a virtualized environment. Since a single physical server can be transformed into tens of virtual servers, the result is that there are lots of agents per virtual server host, taking up most, if not all, of the system resources. Moreover, at peak times the system hardware resources are oversubscribed, killing the I/O, rendering the server useless for backing up your critical data seriously impacting your RTO and RPO.

Consequently, backups will need to be scheduled serially extending the backup time windows. The bottom line is agents make data backup and restores difficult.

A virtual environment is the perfect use case for the need of agentless backup and restore – it supports a multitude of applications and platforms without the need of an agent.

Users trying to do backup and recovery should be able to install a backup and recovery solution on physical or virtual machines and have the flexibility to define a physical or virtual machine as a backup target. MSPs should be able to pre-install the client backup software on a virtual machine or a physical machine and ship it to their customers.

Additionally, users should have the flexibility to backup data at the disk level (backing up the entire virtual machine image) or at the application or file level. The ability to backup data at the application or file level enables granularity and is extremely useful when restoring data, saving wide-area bandwidth and storage costs. 

References:

Image Source: Flickr User: jimmyroq