Data Protector cloud backups and the end of tape

The end of tape storage is not quite here yet. There are times when you really, really want to keep data off-line so that it is definitely safe from sysadmin accidents and sophisticated hackers.

But there is a lot of data that doesn't quite meet those needs. I've used rsync.net, and LiveVault and while they are useful too, what the world really needs is one backup solution that can do local disk, local tape and also replicate to the cloud very, very fast and very, very cheaply.

HP appears to have done this with Data Protector 9.02. There's a nice new option under "backup to disk" which appears to be a StoreOnce device running in the cloud.

I was already using HP's public cloud anyway for when I run Data Protector training classes, so it was just a matter of filling in my access keys and so on in the following screens.

The result is a device that can be used for backup, copying, restore, etc.  You can back up locally, and have an automatic copy job to replicate it to the cloud. Or you can backup your cloud-hosted servers direct to the cloud, and then drag it back down to copy off to your tape drives later.

At 9c/GB per month it's nowhere near the cheapest on the market (Google was 2c/GB per month last time I checked, and Amazon have their tape-like Glacier service at 1c/GB per month). But that's the cost of the space that you use: deduplication should take care of a lot of this.

What would be nice next: some way of replicating this to a tape library hosted by HP in their public cloud (similar to Amazon).


Greg Baker is an independent consultant who happens to do a lot of work on HP DataProtector. He is the author of the only published books on HP Data Protector (http://www.ifost.org.au/press/#dp). He works with HP and HP partner companies to solve the hardest big-data problems (especially around backup). See more at IFOST's DataProtector pages at http://www.ifost.org.au/dataprotector

Backing up a single server

Last week I was talking to a reseller (which is not surprising, almost all my clients are resellers or channel partners of some kind) who was asking about cost-effective options he could resell to backup a single stand-alone server for one of his clients.

Obviously, there are the built-in programs and numerous free programs, but my quick grab-bag of reseller-friendly options:

• rsync.net. They have outstanding support, and only use open tools. They support all versions of Unix and Linux. You don't end up locked into anything complicated. They are the highest-priced, but offer the best reseller discounts particularly at high volumes.
• LiveVault. This is HP's monthly-fee backup to the cloud. While the pricing looks high, it's a price for seven years of storage. And again, like rsync.net the discount is based on the total across all your customers, so you can either give unbeatable discounts, or get extra margin.
• DataProtector Single Server edition. This is the same as the enterprise version of HP Data Protector, but licensed only for a single server to write to tape. This is not the same as DataProtector Express, which was a tiny free product that used to come with HP tape drives. (Single Server edition is product number B7030BA which you can buy at http://store.data-protector.net/).

Quite often though, customers wanting a higher level of assurance around their long-term backups might well be advised also to investigate:

• Using Google Apps + Spanning backup as this removes a huge number of localised physical threats.
• Storing everything (including business documents) into subversion. While software developers prefer git, auditors prefer subversion and non-technical people find it easier. This automatically meets a lot of the ISO9000 documentation requirements, allows simple retrieval back to older versions, and can be hosted (e.g. by rsync.net or by cloudforge.com).

Greg Baker is an independent consultant working on HP DataProtector, LiveVault and many other technologies. He is the author of the only published book on HP Data Protector (http://x.ifost.org.au/dp-book) See more at IFOST's DataProtector pages at http://www.ifost.org.au/dataprotector