How the hottest SaaS mode helps data backup

How can SaaS mode help data backup?

the last thing an auto repair shop wants to see is the collapse of data storage. Therefore, after John sweigart realized that the software he had been using to run his repair shop body shop was no longer compatible with the way of backing up data, he knew it was time to change the way

body shop, headquartered in the United States, has four locations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with hundreds of records, including images properly preserved for appraisers and insurance companies, which should be preserved for at least one year. Sweigart said, "there is a lot of information in it. We occasionally encounter server crashes and data loss. We have paper documents, but we have to go back and rebuild electronic documents."

because there are several software that need to be managed for backup, and there are no IT staff inside, sweigart decided to hand over this thorny problem to an outsourcer. He finally chose Verio, a software as a service (SaaS) provider, to provide backup services. As long as the body shop pays $29 per point per month, all the data on disk drives and servers will be automatically backed up every night

before switching to SaaS backup, tapes should be prepared at each point of the body shop. Employees must back up data to tapes and then take them home at night. Sweigart said, "as a result, this has become a very cumbersome process. You have to make sure that you back it up every night and that someone keeps the tape well. We are afraid of any mistakes in this work and are worried all day, so we need a better choice."

data backup is still a challenge for enterprises, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, because it requires a wide range of infrastructure: backup software, networks, servers, disk arrays and tape systems. Many companies are difficult to complete the backup work within the specified time; Many companies either fail the backup or encounter errors. Some companies often fail to protect machines located far away due to trouble, so some data is always not backed up in time. Due to such problems, more and more companies often turn to software as a service (SaaS) providers to provide backup services. Providers can handle the work of supporting and maintaining many applications through interconnection, so companies do not need to buy any servers or install any software on site

Carl Howe, director of the enterprise software research department of Yankee Group, stressed: "many companies feel more comfortable with the concept of purchasing services outside the cloud computing environment. I think there is a view now: if this is good enough for Google, then it is good enough for me."

another reason for offloading data backup tasks to SaaS is that the monthly cost is very low, starting at $4.95 per month. Howe pointed out, however, that one of the "hidden costs" of choosing to back up SaaS is that the company still has to have a broadband connection, and it still needs to spend time transmitting data to the provider through this connection

using remote providers to archive data is not without risk; For example, providers themselves have experienced service outages. Howe said that the company should carefully investigate in advance to find out all the details of the provider, including how secure its own information will be; If the data needs to be recovered, how long can it be recovered? They should also ask other consultants about the service history of this provider in order to help determine the stability of the provider and whether it is possible for the other party to continue working in the long run

most providers provide backup services that are settled monthly. Howe advised that changing a provider may not be as simple as it sounds, so the company should also ask the content of the terms: how long the data is stored, where the data is stored, whether it crosses national boundaries, and whether customers can get a written guarantee that the data will not be released to the public

price assurance is also important - if you can get the provider to make such a guarantee. Howe said, "you are just an ordinary tenant, and the provider may change the terms. Your company must accept a batch of new product points successfully industrialized in this industry: these terms will change in the future, but it is not harmful to ask the other party what plans they have in terms of pricing in the future."

sweigart said that backup is his only outsourced it function, and he knows nothing about where his data is stored. What's more important for him is that when he comes to the repair shop in the morning and sees the prompt message indicating that the backup is successfully completed, he can be relieved. "It's reassuring that data is backed up every night," he said

electronic backup and tape backup

companies that must strictly comply with regulatory requirements need additional security to know where and how to save their data. Besides the headquarters, there are also 13 operation centers in the country, which makes manual backup a challenge, said gene goroschko, vice president of information systems

goroschko said, "as a medical center, our backup needs are required by medical regulations, not just good ideas. If there is a disaster, we hope to recover medical data, no matter what happens in the medical center."

in the past, the backup of this company was a manual process. Judge which part of GOR failed. After oschko's team sent the tape to each center, each center signed a contract with the storage provider in the region. However, due to geographical dispersion, the headquarters cannot clearly know whether these tapes have been properly handled, no tape has been lost, or even whether a complete system backup has been carried out every night

he said, "the last backup has obviously existed for quite a long time, and we decided to try it," starting from the company headquarters

he said that the headquarters alone needs to back up hundreds of MB of data, and he focuses on the function of remote backup of such a large amount of data. In addition, because there are some mobile employees below, the company operates almost 24 hours a day, so remote backup has to share bandwidth with about 10 to 11 employees at the same time

he said, "we didn't consider this function before, but later we found that it is an indispensable function."

now, all centers (except one center) of physiologists endocopy are backed up remotely through mozypro. The IT department has a web-based master account, which can know the backup status of each site at any time

when the experimental speed is 100mm/min and the experimental force is about 1kn, backing up SaaS has become a feature of another web-based application. Health first, a medical institution, discovered this when it first started using remote applications so that nurses could schedule their shifts electronically. Although the internal IT team needs to back up other data for the medical institution's three hospitals in central and eastern Florida, the scheduling application is backed up by the provider Concerro

Jan, the head nurse of Cape Canaveral hospital, therefore wanted to test McCoy with a two-color microscope. "Once we understand that this service is provided in this way, frankly speaking, there is a feeling of relief. When encountering a hurricane, we can know that the data is protected here; if we need data, we can obtain data."

but the old habits are difficult to change. Even if someone else can handle the backup problem, some companies still rely on manual backup. Physicians endocopy does not completely abandon the tape based method, no matter it only uses tape backup once a week. Goroschko said, "we firmly believe that you shouldn't have so many tape backups at all." (end)