The requirements of integrated backup appliances deployed into small and remote offices are generally modest as almost any size integrated backup appliance could theoretically meet the data protection and recovery needs of these size offices. However their objective is to identify and deploy an appropriately priced and sized backup appliance that meets their office’s technical needs and fits within their budget while also still meeting the broader needs of the distributed enterprise of which they are a part.
The first variable that small and remote offices almost always look at is the price of the integrated backup appliance. No matter how many features it may offer, if its price tag is more than $10,000, it almost automatically disqualifies it from further consideration. Assuming it passes this litmus test, all of the other factors that these size organizations customarily examine when selecting an integrated backup appliance come into play.
On the hardware side, support for up to 10 TBs of logical storage capacity is ideal. On the network side, it should support the CIFS and iSCSI protocols over 1Gb Ethernet links.
In terms of the backup software, two features it must offer are deduplication and replication. Deduplication maximizes the appliance’s available storage capacity by minimizing the amount of redundant data it stores. This feature is essential for two reasons.
- Most of the appliances in this under $10,000 category contain only about 3 TBs or less of raw capacity
- At least 10 TB of logical storage capacity is needed to protect the amount of data that many small and remote offices now possess.
Replication is also needed by small offices, particularly those that are part of a distributed enterprise. This feature enables these appliances to replicate data back to either a central location or a partner office for offsite data storage and disaster recovery purposes.
On the application side, the backup software needs to support applications commonly found in small environments. Microsoft Windows applications such as Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint and SQL Server predominate making support for them an imperative. On the operating system side, the Microsoft Windows operating system predominates though Linux has also grabbed a foothold in many of these environments.
Server virtualization is now also commonly found in small and remote environments as many of these offices are now on the front lines of server virtualization in distributed enterprises. This makes it quite possible that some if not all of the physical servers in these offices are already virtualized and hosted on hypervisors such as Microsoft Windows Hyper-V or VMware vSphere. The presence of these two hypervisors makes it a necessity for the backup software to integrate and minimally support them.
Finally, recoveries that are quick and easy to perform with multiple recovery options are essential. The individuals responsible for doing the restores may be individuals that only have rudimentary knowledge of the backup software. Alternatively, restores may be performed by backup administrators working remotely. In either case, these individuals need the flexibility to do file level restores as well as the ability to restore entire physical and/or virtual machines (VMs).