Off site data backup

We are looking for an offsite backup solution to backup our servers on day to day basis.
We want to have a cloud storage to which we can backup and store our data.
We would be backing up regular files, exchange server mail store, sql server database.

We want to do daily differential backups, weekly full backup and monthly full backup.
With a retention of 7 days on daily backups
4 weeks on weekly
and 6 months on monthly backups

We found a solution by emc called MozyPro
http://uk.emc.com/products/detail/software/mozypro.htm

they charge .25p per gb which at the current prices i thought is an expensive solution.

can you guys recommend any similar product.
thanks
raj

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Clement PAsked: 2012-12-31

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Solutions

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profgeekConnect With a Mentor Commented: 2013-01-01

Have you considered going straight to Amazon S3? The storage is cheaper than most, but you have to do a little more heavy lifting to get it set up. I think most of the cloud backup providers, like Mozy, actually store their stuff on Amazon anyway.

I've had excellent results with Cloudberry products:

https://aws.amazon.com/solution-providers/isv/cloudberry-lab

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ViperdmbConnect With a Mentor Commented: 2012-12-31

I've used Intronis for a while. They are partners with Monitoring software N-able that we use, from a local MSP.

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Purple_TidderConnect With a Mentor Commented: 2012-12-31

I've also looked at and tested Intronis as a possible solution for my clients. It seemed like great software with an awesome support team but I was discouraged by the amount of contact and pushy-ness after checking out the free trial. I imagine if I would have actually bought their solution this would have stopped though. ;)

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Gerald ConnollyConnect With a Mentor Commented: 2013-01-01

Having offsite backup solution is an excellent idea, but is using the cloud really going to fit your requirements?

Does it really fit your RPO/RTO requirements, can you cope if you need to restore, but your ISP is down or having some kind of performance issues.

What do you do if your ISP or Cloud Storage provider cease trading.

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profgeekCommented: 2013-01-01

Also remember that the cloud isn't the only form of offsite storage. Long before the cloud we backed up to tapes and had an offsite rotation of tapes. As connollyg points out, the cloud can be extremely slow for restores, possibly slower than is acceptable for many businesses. It's OK if you just want to make sure your priceless photos aren't lost, but it could actually take days/weeks to do a complete restore over an Internet connection when terabytes of data are involved, as would be the case for most businesses. There's also the issue of security and legality. Anything stored on a third party server is no longer considered private insofar as legal access to information is concerned. A plantiff in a lawsuit could, for example, have an attorney subpoena backed up files. Most providers will comply with a subpoena, while an actual search warrant (much higher standard and must go through a judge) would generally be required to obtain data from privately housed servers.

There is also the idea of setting up your own offsite storage to accept backups (private clouds). These remain private and are more secure insofar as storage access is concerned. In short, there are many options, of which cloud storage like Mozy or Carbonite are just a couple. Business requirements should be closely scrutinized before making a decision.

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Clement PAuthor Commented: 2013-01-02

Thanks guys, this is indeed a great deal of knowledge here.
We will have a tape backup in house as well as this cloud backup, we will use the cloud backup to restore only when we have a serious disaster other wise for regular restores we will still use tapes.

And our data is mostly user files and basic security is good for us and we are not very much worried about the data security.

I will consider all the option suggested.
Mozy
Carbonite
Intronis
and
Cloudberry (I will start with this as its on s3 and that am sure is a cheaper option available)

Thanks again

Raj