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Backup and Disaster recovery same but different!

Backup Recovery

There’s a misunderstanding spread regarding backup and Disaster recovery being the same. Though in some functions they are considered to be the same they are distinct. Backup is considered to be the replication of original files stored whereas Disaster recovery refers to recovering the whole of the IT infrastructure by keeping its copy off-site from before.

It’s always a difficult task to replace a server, re-install the software and configuring all the data with proper startup again. Well, Disaster recovery can make this re-install action of IT infrastructure easy as it maintains the storage of its copy off-site and takes less time to function again.

Hence, security breaches and network outages are the most influential situations as their main core i.e. Data is not secured. Data backup and disaster recovery are the tools to make these data secured effectively.

It is mostly considered that Backup as a service is not that sufficient precaution when the disaster occurs comparatively to Disaster recovery as Backup is just a copy of a particular file whereas Data recovery or Disaster recovery ensures a guarantee of the whole restoration of all files and data.

BaaS

One can always restore its original data with the help of Backup done on a daily basis. With the help of Backup, you can review any of the documents lost or deleted by mistake. Backup is considered to be handy when there is immediate access required for any document that is restored earlier. It can be done on a daily basis and is simpler in performing. All it requires to do is to ensure data retention at one single location and getting the data copied.

Whereas when it comes to the Disaster recovery system, it can be said that it is a recovery plan that ensures full guaranteed recovery and gives you the power of switching to an alternative environment. It makes the business comfortable ensuring sustenance and continuity with the help of physical resources which brings the data online and continues the business functions without any hindrance.

It also requires scaled out planning because of its complex work including the integration of tasks relating to the creation of recovery, determination of a mission-critical system, communication process, and way to perform valid steps

Disaster Recovery

It has to plan out RTO (Recovery Time Objective) to find out the time used for creating a restoration off-site of IT systems. RTO basically creates a replication at a secondary location of the whole IT infrastructure between production and disaster recovery sites. For this, it requires an external production environment to create a replica of data.

As it could be seen that Backup and Disaster recovery have similar functions of recovering and restoring data but they are Distinct in terms of business needs and various factors affecting business requirements.

Backup is the initial stage of restoring a particular data and Disaster recovery restores the whole IT system of the organization. A backup would save you from small mistakes whereas Disaster recovery can save you from critical mishaps.

For more information about the backup service visit Ideastack.

Back up that is based on Host

Back-up is Based on Host Also known as a Host-based backup, it mostly comes in two types, known as Agentless Backup and Agent-based Backup is a new whir in the field of data recovery. People usually know the agents as small applications installed on the host server to run particular functions in a specific manner.

backup

Quite a few vendors claiming that they provide agentless backup, actually add an agent at the beginning of the process and delete it right before the entire backup is made. Surely the rest of the process does not involve any agents but, in the end, you would not call it an agentless backup.

These applications (agents) are installed on the host server that the admin is required to backup. Agentless backup is the backup without the use of such agents. Whereas, Agent-based backup is backing up of the information with the help of an agent or more.

Agent-based backup

When choosing an Agent-based backup, you would have to reboot your system after the install because the snapshot driver resides at the operating system kernel level and hence requires the OS to be restarted.

A plus point of an agent-based backup is, since it is loaded with the OS stack, it offers increased control and visibility of the host system that would not be immediately available in the case of Agentless backup. For example, agent-less backups typically need to traverse the file system to determine changes for incremental/differential backups. This traversal could take longer and be more complex than compared to Agent-based backup which has CBT (Change Block Tracking) and the kernel level.

file backup

Every time a user scheduled backup is acted out, Delta Encoding deltas are transmitted to a backup archive efficiently creating a virtual Disk Image. Continuous Data Protection can restore previously captured disk images to another disk efficaciously replicating the structure and contents to a new disk. Individual files inside of a disk image can be restored to their original location or an alternate computer. 

The Software that Ideastack provides is R1 Soft Server Backup Manager. It is a near-continuous backup application for Windows and Linux computers. It provides user scheduled near continuous disk-Based online backups for more than one Windows or Linux servers.

Tags: cloud backup

Backing Up Defenses against DDOS Attacks

DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service. DDoS is a type of DOS attack where multiple compromised systems, which are often infected with a Trojan, are used to target a single system causing a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. This kind of attack tries to make a computer resource unavailable to users.

Examples of the legitimate tools used are in helping, socket programming, and httping. There are also underground tools available for such attacks.

Signs DDoS

Signs Of A DDoS Attack

• The US Computer Emergency Response Team defines symptoms of a DDoS attack as :

• Unusually slow network performance, either processes or opening files. Unavailability of a website. 

• Inability to access a web site. Dramatic increase in spam emails, this is an email bomb.

DDoS attacks lead to issues with branches of a network being attacked. The attack over loads the network; other branches will try to compensate for the increase in traffic

• This causes the whole network to slow down. A large enough attack can shut down entire regions of internet connectivity.

The DDoS Attack May Also Use Malware To Cause Further Damage:

• Max out the processor’s usage so no work gets done

• Cause Microcode errors in the machine

• Lock up the computer by giving the processor erroneous sequencing

• Locking up the computer through the operating system through resource starvation.

• Crashing the operating system itself.

Defending using DDoS Protection

Defending Against DDoS Attacks:

• Recognize the signs of a DDoS attack. The first and best defense against a DDoS attack is the ability to recognize it early. Unfortunately, not all DDoS attacks are easy to distinguish from normal spikes in network or web traffic or a sudden slowdown in network performance.

• DDoS attacks can take a website down quickly and emphatically. By knowing what you are facing you can defend against them. 

• DDoS Attacks range from brute force incursions to surgical strikes against key components of a network. The right tools to set up your defenses and a DDoS attack can be stopped cold.

Consider our advice to help prevent attackers from shutting down your network with a flood of unwanted traffic. Have an incident response plan in place and talk about DDoS countermeasures in advance with your ISP and a service provider that specializes in mitigating these types of attacks.

Ideastack Offers Host Based Backup

Host-based backup mostly comes in two types, known as Agentless Backup and Agent-based Backup is a new whir in the field of data recovery. People usually know the agents as small applications installed on the host server to run particular functions in a specific manner. 

backup

These applications (agents) are installed on the host server that the admin is required to backup. Agentless backup is the backup without the use of such agents. Whereas, Agent-based backup is backing up of the information with the help of an agent or more. Quite a few vendors claiming that they provide agentless backup, actually add an agent at the beginning of the process and delete it right before the entire backup is made. Surely the rest of the process does not involve any agents, but, in the end, you would not call it an agentless backup.

The need for Agent-based Backup

When choosing an Agent-based backup as a service, you would have to reboot your system after the install because the snapshot driver resides at the operating system kernel level and hence requires the OS to be restarted.

 A plus point of an agent-based backup is, since it is loaded with the OS stack, it offers increased control and visibility of the host system that would not be immediately available in the case of Agentless backup. For example, agent-less backups typically need to traverse the file system to determine changes for incremental/differential backups. 

This traversal could take longer and be more complex than compared to Agent-based backup which has CBT (Change Block Tracking) and the kernel level.

backup

Agent-based backups rely on local resources to compress and pre-process data before transmitting data across the network to the storage device (NAS/SAN, local USB drive, or remote host). In comparison, Agentless backups rely more on network resources to transmit application commands across the network as well as data between the target and storage device. If your local network bandwidth is hardly enough to fulfill your needs, then additional network traffic from agent-less backups could impact local network performance.

server

R1 Soft

The Software we provide is R1 Soft Server Backup Manager. It is a near-continuous backup application for Windows and Linux computers. It provides user scheduled near continuous disk-Based online backups for more than one Windows or Linux servers

Every time a user scheduled backup is acted out, Delta Encoding deltas are transmitted to a backup archive efficiently creating a virtual Disk Image. Continuous Data Protection can restore previously captured disk images to another disk efficaciously replicating the structure and contents to a new disk. Individual files inside of a disk image can be restored to their original location or an alternate computer.

Tags: Cloud back up service

Backup As A Service (BaaS) ; For your Service from Ideastack

Backup as a service (BaaS) is a way to backing up data that involves purchasing online backup and recovery services from a data backup provider rather than performing backup with a centralized, on-premises IT department. BaaS connects systems to a private, public or hybrid cloud managed by the outside provider.

Backup as a service

Backup as a service is easier to manage than other offsite services. Instead of worrying about managing tapes or hard disks at an offsite location, data storage administrators can offload maintenance and management to the provider.

This service is mostly used when organizations run out of features to maintain their sites or need new upgrades or the resources in their premises for effective backup. Outsourcing backup and recovery to a service provider also keep data accessible or restorable from a remote location in case of an outage or failure.

Backup service provider

Points to keep in mind when choosing a service:

• The first thing you want to be looking for is the ease of use, ease of deployment and speed of deployment. After all, when you look back at the root cause of why companies are looking at these solutions, a lot of it has to do with the management complexities of existing solutions.

• You have to look for technologies that are part of the solution that minimizes the impact of the network.

• Essentially after your initial full backup, are the technologies doing things like data deduplication or delta differencing or other block-based change mechanisms, so you’re not doing large volume copies of your backups over and over.

• These technologies are out there, but the key thing to look for is whether the incremental or deduplicated backups going over the networks after the initial pull are being deduplicated at your end of the deal or the service provider’s end of the deal.

• Another thing to look at is security. The bigger the organization, the more you are going to be concerned with things like access control lists, role-based authentication and role-based access to systems.

• For instance, let’s say you’re a company of 20 people and everyone is using this service, maybe you don’t want everyone to have the equivalent of root-level access to do resource.

• Be sure that you have some visibility into what’s actually happening, how much capacity you are using, what the performance looks like on a daily or weekly basis.

• Look for proof of infrastructure.

• And lastly, look for evidence of a company in technology stability.

Backing up and recovering data is a necessary discipline in all organizations but often considered costly, cumbersome and difficult to manage. Most backup problems happen overnight when you don’t have people watching them, meaning the backup window impacts production time and puts the business at risk of data loss. People and skills are the biggest cost and challenges in the backup.