CLOUD BACKUP - SERVICE PROVIDERS AND SERVICES

WHAT IS CLOUD BACKUP

Online Cloud Backup is now being offered by most of the Cloud Backup Providers in which backup can be taken to remote data storage using Internet or other private or public network. It is also termed as online backup. It provides services to store our data either personal or corporate onto remote storage through Internet or other public network. Basically, it is stored in various connected resources those are part of a cloud.

Mostly, Cloud backup services are available on subscription basis either on monthly or yearly basis.

WHO PROVIDES ONLINE CLOUD BACKUP SERVICES

IDrive, CrashPlan, SOS Online Backup, Carbonite, SpiderOak, Backblaze, MozyHome, Nero BackItUp, OpenDrive, ADrive, Amazon Cloud Drive , Apple iCloud Drive, Bitcasa, Box, Cubby, Dropbox, DumpTruck, Google Drive, HiDrive, Microsoft OneDrive, pCloud, SpiderOak, StreamNation, Syncplicity, EMC MozyHome, Acronis True Image Cloud, SugarSync, Just cloud, Degoo, Zip Cloud, acronis are some name of those companies who provides Online Cloud Backup Service. Most of them offers some free space to use and feel the experience. An small comparative tabular data has been prepared to show cloud service providers name alongwith free data (if any) and their official website address.

Cloud Backup Solution Provider	What is Free	More Information
ADrive	60 Days Risk Free Trial	http://www.adrive.com/
Amazon Cloud Drive	5GB free in S3; free unlimited photo storage for Amazon Prime customers	http://aws.amazon.com/s3/
Apple iCloud Drive	5GB	https://www.apple.com/icloud/
Bitcasa	5GB	https://www.bitcasa.com/personal/
Box		https://www.box.com/
Cubby	5GB	https://www.cubby.com/
Dropbox	2GB	https://www.dropbox.com/plans
DumpTruck	5GB	https://www.goldenfrog.com/dumptruck
Google Drive	15GB	https://www.google.com/drive/
HiDrive	5GB	https://www.free-hidrive.com/
IDrive	5GB +	https://www.idrive.com/
Microsoft OneDrive	15GB	https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-us/
pCloud	20 GB	https://www.pcloud.com/
SpiderOak	2GB	https://spideroak.com/
StreamNation	20GB	https://www.streamnation.com/
Syncplicity	10 GB	https://www.syncplicity.com/
CrashPlan	No Free	https://www.crashplan.com/en-us/
OpenDrive	5GB	https://www.opendrive.com/
EMC MozyHome	2GB	https://mozy.com/emc/
Carbonite	N/A	https://www.carbonite.com/
SugarSync	No Free	https://www.sugarsync.com/en/
SOS Online Backup	No Free	https://www.sosonlinebackup.com/
Just cloud	1GB	http://www.justcloud.com/
Degoo	100GB	https://degoo.com/
Zip Cloud	1GB	https://www.zipcloud.com/
Acronis	N/A	http://www.acronis.com/en-us/cloud/backup/
Backblaze	N/A	https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html

WHAT ARE THE THINGS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED BEFORE TAKING CLOUD BACKUP SOLUTION

       1.       Speed of Backup

Online backup require high speed of internet connection specially upload speed. Backup to cloud is much slower than local backup as different factors work while keeping backup at remote location like variable speed, bandwidth availability and latency etc. There is loss of bandwidth utilization also as backup is normally planned in off working hours only.

       

       2.       Cost of Service

Normally, Cloud Backup Solution provider asks for initial upfront amount and then some subscription amount either on monthly basis or quarterly basis. Although it is not required to plan for additional hardware procurement or additional expenditure on the same for bigger backup size but downside is that as backup size will grow cost of backup on cloud also will grow.

       3.       Flexibility of Restoration

In financial organization and big corporate, it is required to keep one set of backup at offsite location for disaster situation and for recovery purpose. But in case of cloud based backup, offsite backup is not required as it is already at offsite storage. Flexibility of restoration is a benefit of the cloud backup because no additional hardware is needed for the same but it should be checked with the solution provider at initial stage only.

       4.       Security

Security is the most concerned point while we talk about backup. Cloud backup is secure in such a way that even failure of local physical HDD, backup can be recovered from cloud. But premises are concern. In cloud backup all the storage devices are not in own premises so physical security is with service provider only. Still most of the organization does not prefer to keep their critical data at cloud storage.

       5.       Sustainability of Solution Provider

     Symform discontinued their cloud storage service on July 31, 2016. It was providing ample amount of free space on cloud. Screenshot of this company’s official website is given below which is giving message with heading “It has been a blast, but all good things must come to an end”. So, sustainability of cloud backup solution provider is also a big question mark that should be considered before taking the service.

HIVE is another cloud storage service provider that was discontinued on 15th October 2015. It's home page displays now "HIVE SHUTDOWN NOTICE"

LTO BASED BACKUP OR DISK BASED BACKUP - WHICH ONE IS BETTER

LTO BASED BACKUP

1. Uncompressed data size in LTO-7 is 6TB. So, as per current scenario our backup can be completed in very few numbers of tapes and in half of the current backup time at the speed of 300MB/s offered for LTO-7.
2. LTO 7 is better for long term retention due to low cost of tape media.
3. Issue in recovery time, media management cost, backup window and total cost of ownership at high end
4. Mobility- It is very easy to pick up a box of tape cartridges and ship them from production location to an offsite location.
5. It takes more time in seeking data

DISK BASED BACKUP

1. Disk based backup is more reliable in comparison of LTO tapes as study shows that most restoration from tape fails. 

2. Compared to tape, disk-based backup appliances allow to perform backups faster and efficiently, as well as to restore data far more rapidly than from tape. With disk systems, data integrity is catered for by RAID protection also.

3. It gains efficiency from de-duplication. This process removes duplicate copies of saved data to free up space. De-duplication means we can store data more quickly and perform full backups less often

COMPARATIVE CHART OF PRICE AND PERFORMANCE FOR TAPE AND DISK

Chart indicates that once we start getting into higher performance 

requirements to meet the backup window, then disk-based solutions are better.

BACKUP - RISK MINIMIZATION PROCESS

What is Backup

Eventually computer/Laptop/Mobile system intend to breakdown so the copies of computer/Laptop/Mobile data need to be kept in such a way that can be retrieved in case of requirement. So, the term backup comes in picture. Backup is frequently used term in Information Technology. It is a mechanism of copying data that is used 

- to keep copy of data for future use or 

- for transfer from one location to another or

- for restoration and recovery in case of storage media failure  

- for keeping at safe location

Advantage

- Minimize the risk of loosing data

- Can Be used to move from one place to another

- Can be use to create clone of data

Disadvantage

- More storage is required to keep copy of data

- Expensive to maintain

What can be backed Up

More critical data needs more attention for taking backup and keeping at safe location. For example, customer details and financial transactions are very critical data for Banks. Banks maintain multiple copies of data backup and keep at different safe locations. So that they can use in the case of equipment failure or they can keep it safe from theft.

Backup can be taken of normal files like Notepad, Word Documents, Spreadsheets (Excel Format) and folders as well as Data from database. It can be taken as full or incremental or differential backup.

Although different mechanisms are used for taking backup of Files/Folders/Databases in different environment like Windows, Linux, Unix, AIX, IOS, Solaris etc but purpose of taking backup is same.

In case of database, backup can be taken either as physical backup or logical backup.

Backup Media

There are different Backup Medias like Hard Disk, Optical Storage like Compact Disk/DVDs/Blu-ray Disk, Magnetic Tapes like DDS/SDLT/LTO Tape, Zip Drive, USB etc those are used for taking backup.

For taking backup, normal operating system copy command as well as backup software utilities are used those are offered by different companies. In Information Technology environment, backup is a routine activity that is performed by some specialized personnel.

What is Restoration

Retrieving of data from backed up files/data is called restoration. So, restoration is the process of getting back data from the backup media or backup file. Different mechanisms are there for restoration from physical database backup and logical database backup.  

What is Recovery

Process of getting data up to the particular point is called recovery. Sometime, recovery is separately required to get data up to a particular recovery point. Steps are different for recovery from Full Database backup, Differential backup and Incremental backup.