Venyu Blog

Got data at branch offices to protect?  I’ve seen some scenarios where businesses were acquired and multiple tape technologies existed, all in varied life cycles.  Most others were just trying to keep legacy solutions alive and just hoping a crash never happened.  It’s no secret – backup is not glamorous.  No savvy IT wiz is looking to make their mark in architecting the ultimate backup strategy.  It’s like the third base coach – no one notices you until you screw up.

What are some of the solutions?

The Pull Back: Some have beefed up bandwidth with the goal of pulling data back to the datacenter for centralized backup.  Even if the mission is accomplished, it often comes at great expense in hardware, man hours, and bandwidth.  And, be patient because implementation can be lengthy.

The Money Pit: This solution throws money at the problem.  Buy and upgrade to the latest and greatest tape and tape drive technology.  And, implement a training program for all the office admins so the tapes are swapped and taken offsite without fail! Right? This works for about 2 weeks until vacations happen, admins are out sick or just rebel because it’s “not in their job description.”

What about using online backup and the WIIFM factor?  (What’s in it for Me?)

CEO WIIFM factor: Nothing too exciting — just knowing that your critical remote branch data is always protected, around the clock, offsite in 2 locations, encrypted, and available with a few mouse clicks.  Oh, and no capital expense is ever needed to make this happen.

IT Pro WIIFM factor: It’s done! It’s automated, centralized, highly secure, and lets you focus on more glamorous things like virtualizing 5 servers into 1!  You won’t mind that it takes about 2 minutes to restore a file for an end user – that’s 8 states away.  Now that’s thrilling!