Using a network attached disk storage appliance as a backup target is more appealing than ever to small and midsized businesses (SMBs). These appliances are economical. They are easy to buy and deploy. They have high storage capacities. They are available everywhere.
But just because they are fast and easy to buy should not be construed to mean that they are equally well suited to serve as a backup target. Choose too quickly or select the wrong appliance and a company may end up making its backup environment worse – not better.
A Multitude of Disk Backup Choices
Finding an affordable network attached storage appliance that can function as a backup target has never been easier. Go to any computer reseller website (CDW, TigerDirect, Newegg) and one can find products from a number of storage vendors that make it easy to point, click and spend on an appliance. Vendors offering these solutions include:
- Buffalo Technology
- DROBO
- Imation
- Iomega
- NetGear
- Qnap
- Quantam
The allure of buying one of these appliances is that they start at only a few hundred dollars. This makes it tempting to “Buy Now” and worry about how well it works as a backup target later.
Adding to the temptation to buy is that a cursory review of these products may reveal no discernible differences between them. Most offer comparable levels of capacity, similar types of LAN connectivity and even prices that are roughly equivalent. It is only when one looks beneath their surface and critically examines them in the context of using them as a backup target do key differences important to backup emerge.
The Five Essential Features of a Disk-based Backup Target
Using these network attached storage appliances as a disk-based backup target necessitates they offer specific features that accommodate the specific requirements of backup. While they must still continue to be affordable, easy to setup and offer lots of capacity, there are five additional features the appliance must possess to be successful as a backup target.
Cloud Connectivity
Backups completing successfully and in less time are the two primary factors driving the use of network attached storage appliances as backup target. However what organizations may forget is that once the backup is stored on the device, how do they get the backups offsite to protect the data in case of a disaster?
An increasingly popular way for SMBs to address this concern is to use public cloud storage providers to store their backup data offsite. The challenge then becomes getting the backup data from the network attached storage appliance to the cloud. To accomplish this automatically, the network attached storage appliance should natively offer cloud connectivity to leading providers such as Amazon, Rackspace and others.
The copy of the backup then occurs as follows:
- The network attached storage appliance is configured to see the cloud storage
- Backup is done as normal to the network attached storage appliance
- The storage device is setup to copy the data to the cloud
Removable Media
Cloud connectivity is a great option that many SMBs are pursuing but not every business wants to store its data in the cloud. Maybe they do not trust it. Maybe they have too much backup data to copy. Maybe they cannot afford storing data in the cloud. In these cases, the storage device needs to support removable hard disk drives (HDDs).
Removable disk technology (RDX) is now quite affordable with 640GB cartridges starting as low as $120. These disk cartridges provide the benefits of tape (high capacity, durability, portability and scalability) plus the specific performance benefits that disk offers. Using network attached storage appliances that support RDX cartridges, businesses get the flexibility to do faster backup and recoveries and then move them offsite with the potential to use them as a source to host applications or files in the event of a disaster.
Local LED interface
Many have heard of or may even experienced the Microsoft Windows Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).
What many fail to realize is that these network attached storage devices have their own version of that called the Blinking Light of Death (BLOD). These are even worse than Microsoft’s BSOD since there are no error codes or even any hint that anything is wrong unless one notices the non-descript blinking light on the device.
Assuming one does notice the BLOD, trying to access the storage device through its web interface may be impossible if the device’s LAN interface does not work. Aggravating the situation, a blinking light provides little useful information if using either phone or web support.
This is why something as seemingly insignificant as the storage device providing an LED interface is so critical. An LED interface can be accessed locally and will display the error codes that one needs to diagnose what is wrong and the severity of the problem without any dependency on web interfaces or trying to interpret a non-descript blinking light.
Highly Available
When network attached storage appliances are deployed, SMBs expect them to stay “on” all the time. Think of a refrigerator. If the power goes off and then comes back on, the refrigerator comes back on without someone needing to turn it back on.
Many of these network attached storage appliances do not work that way. If the power goes off, it may stay off until someone turns it back on. Or worse yet, it may come back on but runs in a degraded state until an error code is cleared.
The expectation that businesses have and what they should look for when selecting an appliance is that once they turn it on, it stays on. This needs to occur without human intervention and they should come back on even when the power goes off and on.
Highly Reliable
Backup is important but it is a task that often runs in the background so businesses do not routinely think about it. The only time backup tends to become a priority is when some part of the backup process fails such as the storage device itself. While they minimally want to be notified about the problem should one occur, ideally, the device will just work.
To ensure this is the case the network attached storage appliance needs to be highly reliable. Here again a major difference between appliances emerges. Many use consumer grade disk drives that are more prone to failure or have no means to identify issues with the disk before they fail.
Network attached storage appliances intended for use in business environments differ in that they use high quality, business grade disk drives that are less prone to fail in the first place. Then to make sure that a business is warned before a drive fails, they often include software that monitors and reports on both the state of the drives and the hardware.
The falling price and ready availability of network attached storage appliances makes disk-based backup a possibility for almost any small or midsized business. But SMBs should be careful not to assume that they are all equally well suited to function in this role.
It is when one looks more closely at their features and which ones matter in the context of backup that a clear choice emerges. The Imation DataGuard is specifically designed to fulfill this role of a backup target by both providing the high level features that may initially attract a business to this class of products while also offering these five (5) essential features that makes it ideal for using it as a disk-based backup solution.