Using the “cloud” for backup is the primary context in which people think about the cloud when asked about it. Yet if forced to list what features an “enterprise cloud-based backup provider” offers, it is questionable if one could do so. So as DCIG prepares to release its inaugural Buyer’s Guide in 2012 on Enterprise Cloud-based Backup products, one of its first tasks was to define what constitutes an “enterprise cloud-based backup” offering.
In a recent blog entry, I referenced an Informationweek poll which found that when organizations think of the cloud, 76% of them first think of it in the context of backup. This helps to explain why many small and midsized businesses look to first put their backup data in the cloud.
This is also why DCIG embarked upon the task of developing a 2012 Enterprise Cloud-based Backup Buyer’s Guide that will help these organizations understand what cloud-based backup offerings are available and how they differ. But one of the first tasks that DCIG had to undertake in developing this Buyer’s Guide was to first define exactly what constitutes an enterprise cloud-based backup offering.
The differences between cloud-based backup offerings alone are quite extensive. Did you realize:
- The software from existing backup software providers is often used to perform cloud-based backup
- Many cloud-based backup software offerings only have an agent that is installed on the server that does backup to the cloud
- These providers do not necessarily offer a cloud-based backup service. Rather they offer it through resellers and partners that are the actual cloud-based backup provider
- The number of cloud-based backup providers that offer use their backup software number in the dozens and, in some cases, the hundreds
- Cloud-based backup providers do not necessarily protect and store backup data in the same way. In anything, it is best to assume they do not.
- A cloud-based backup provider may offer multiple backup software offerings from which organizations can choose to backup their data to the cloud
These are just some of the differences between cloud-based backup providers (enterprise or otherwise) that DCIG has uncovered as it completes its preliminary research. However, having looked at a large number of providers and to shorten the list of candidates for inclusion, DCIG has come up with four prerequisites as to what features an enterprise cloud-based backup solution should offer.
These include:
- A local backup appliance – physical or virtual. Just putting a backup software agent on a host and then using it to backup data to the cloud is interesting but it is insufficient both from the amount of data that these size businesses may need to backup and the speed in which they need to backup or recover their data. By making an appliance (physical or virtual) available at the business location, data can be backed up and recovered much more quickly than if backing up or recovering directly from the cloud. This does not mean that an appliance is needed at every site but the cloud-based backup provider should have the option to make one available in those sites where it is needed.
- Data deduplication. In order to effectively use available storage capacity and network bandwidth, the backup software must store data in a deduplicated format in the cloud, minimally deduplicate data on the appliance itself and ideally have the option to deduplicate data on the client.
- Owning and operating a physical data center. Many resellers of cloud-based backup do not have their own data center but rather lease and resell cloud-based backup services from a larger provider that does have its own data center. DCIG is only going to classify those providers with their own physical data center, offer cloud-based backup as a service offering and store the backup data in their site. This is important as in the event of disaster, clients may potentially have the option to recover their systems at the provider’s site.
- Backup software that can connect to a “generic” of cloud storage. Cloud-based backup providers are still largely a group of emerging companies with a relatively new offering so there is no guarantee (nor will there ever be) that it will be in business forever much less the next few years. If anything, it is likely a wave of consolidation will go through the industry and existing providers will be bought out by a larger provider. In any case, by using backup software that connects to a cloud storage offering from providers like Amazon S3, Nirvanix, Mezeo and others, organizations have the option to store their backup data with these providers so as to have a “backup of their backups” if their existing provider ever goes out of business or is acquired.
Please note this list is not yet finalized and there are at least one or two other features that DCIG is considering as making requirements for an enterprise cloud-based backup solution to offer. Further, DCIG is at this point making the assumption that the backup software used by one of these providers offers all of the features you might expect backup software to historically provide such as support for multiple operating systems,application integration and both physical and virtual machine support. These assumptions still need to be validated.
However as organizations shift from doing backup themselves to trusting a third party to do it for them, new features as to what they need to confidently do backups and recover their data come into play. So it is as DCIG does this research and prepares its inaugural Enterprise Cloud-based Backup Buyer’s Guide that DCIG will seek to identify those Cloud-based backup providers that minimally meet these four prerequisites and then see how they stack up against one another.