Best practices in cloud-powered data protection

Backup and disaster recovery represent two of the most frequent uses for cloud storage today, in large part due to the operational agility and appealing cost structure that a secure offsite data repository provides.

But protecting organizational data in the cloud is not a one-size-fits-all endeavour, according to a white paper by Veeam.

Organizations assessing how to leverage cloud-powered data protection and cloud-enhanced availability should know not only that is cloud not a “tape killer.”

Furthermore, three distinct types of cloud-based data protection services are prevalent today – and each has its own strengths:

Cloud-based storage as part of data protection (STaaS/DP)

One of the easiest methods of incorporating cloud services into a data protection strategy is simply to embrace cloud-based storage with your existing on-premises solution.

This is STaaS/DP, and its appeal is grounded in simplicity since you get to keep using the backup solution(s) you are already happy with.

However, cloud storage will only truly meet your needs if your current data protection software can support your current environment’s uptime requirements and protects all of the workloads you depend on.

Backup-as-a-service (BaaS)

A lot of organizations will appreciate the advantages that a turnkey BaaS can offer, including remotely managed and monitored data protection jobs and improved reliability of the backup and recovery process due to the expertise provided by the service provider partner.

Typically, STaaS/DP and BaaS are delivered in a disk-to-disk-to-cloud (D2D2C) configuration.

When using that architecture for data recovery, organizations try to recover first from speedy onsite disk before resorting to retrieving data from the tertiary copy in a cloud, and their uptime SLAs would likely be established based on the onsite recovery timeframe.

Disaster Recovery-as- a-Service (DRaaS)

In contrast, a DRaaS architecture leverages the cloud copy for rapid recovery when an on-premise backup is not available.

Essentially, DRaaS provides an additional layer of recovery flexibility by combining a cloud-based copy (from STaaS/dp or BaaS) with cloud-based compute, cloud-based automation, and cloud-based orchestration in order to host the organization’s business-critical systems during dire circumstances.

According to the white paper, the turnkey services such as BaaS and DRaaS are currently used in more environments than STaaS/DP is.

However, there is no single “best” cloud option as multiple solution scenarios exist and at least one of them should align with what most organizations are seeking today in a hybrid onsite/offsite data protection architecture.

Some data protection software vendors, Veeam being a great example, are partnering with cloud service providers and are at this point adept at supporting each of the three currently prevalent approaches—STaaS/dp, BaaS, and DRaaS—via cloud-friendly solutions.

For more information, you can download Veeam’s white paper about the Best Practices in Cloud-powered Data Protection.