We’ve dedicated a few posts recently to different disaster recovery solutions, and the strengths and weaknesses of each. Tape, disk or some combination of disk and tape are the most common solutions when it comes to disaster recovery planning, but there are significant downsides to each. One option we haven’t discussed yet in detail, online backup, meets several of the main criteria for effective disaster recovery planning. Online backup is, in a way, the predecessor to the cloud storage gateway. The question is: How do they compare?
If we look at our top 5 considerations for disaster recovery planning – data integrity, simplicity, security, cost, downtime - online backup does fairly well. Data integrity is preserved through versioning and redundancy: Online backup creates multiple copies of data and can guarantee storage in different geographic locations. Online backup and recovery are simple. And as for security, if it is properly addressed, online backup can be more secure than tape or disk.
From a cost-perspective, it is more expensive than tape, but you generally only pay for the storage you use. The main potential flaw of online backup is downtime. The more data protected online, the longer it will take to restore. Bringing back 100GB of data over a T1 connection will take almost a week. As a result, online backup is really best-suited for small data sets, not complete file servers.
Cloud storage offers many of the same benefits as online backup, but until the recent introduction of cloud storage gateways, it also suffered from that downtime drawback. The more data you stored in the cloud, the longer it would take to bring it back in the event of a disaster.
The cloud storage gateway – a relatively new technology - capitalizes on the reliability and scalability of the cloud and simplifies disaster recovery. Restores can be virtually instantaneous – with the Nasuni Filer it takes a mere 15 minutes.
This doesn’t mean that every last file and chunk of data is locally available. The best cloud storage gateways use advanced caching algorithms to ensure that the most frequently accessed data is available locally, while the rest is ready to be called back from the cloud upon request. In the event of a disaster, if the local system fails, a gateway like the Nasuni Filer works quickly because it restores metadata first. This way, to the end-user browsing for a file, everything looks to be in its place. And when that end-user opens a particular file, the data is immediately called back from the cloud and reinstantiated locally. The only delay is the time it takes to download that data from the cloud. The file is then reinstantiated locally, and the delay from that point forward is nil.
A cloud storage gateway like the Nasuni Filer is not merely a better disaster recovery and backup solution. Advanced caching algorithms and superior security make the Filer suitable for primary storage. As a gateway to the cloud, the Filer delivers storage, backup and offsite protection in a cost-effective, all-in-one solution.
The new generation of cloud storage gateways is still a young one – this is definitely still an evolving space. If you’re interested, you can test drive the Nasuni Filer for free for two weeks and enjoy 24/7 tech support and no capacity restrictions. And if you have any other questions, please comment below, or send us a note at feedback@nasuni.com