Learn How to Back Up Data

Created in the Cloud

Backing up on-premises data to the cloud is often as simple as backing up to on-premises disk.
But it gets trickier when you want to protect data created in the cloud, such as Salesforce or
Office 365 records. Luckily, there are options for backing up data from one cloud to another.

EDITORS NOTE

CLOUD-TO-CLOUD DATA
BACKUP: HOW TO PICK
YOUR PROVIDER

ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
BACKUP QUESTIONS

CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS
ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

EDITORS
NOTE

HOME
EDITORS NOTE
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:
HOW TO PICK YOUR
PROVIDER
ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
BACKUP QUESTIONS
CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS
ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

With Cloud-to-Cloud, the Sky Looks Promising

The cloud is a popular place to back up

data. But what about data that lives in the
cloud? How do you use the cloud for backup in
that case?
Cloud-to-cloud backup is a fairly new concept. It comes into play with users of software-as-a-service products such as Box.com,
Salesforce and Office 365. With this collection
of stories, youll learn about the top cloud-tocloud backup providers and how to choose one,
some best practices, and what may be misunderstood about the still young process.
Backing up cloud data can be difficult. But
vendors such as Barracuda and Datto are gaining
traction with cloud-to-cloud backup services.
Users should consider several elements, detailed
in these pages, when selecting a providercost,

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

support and backup frequency, to name a few.

With a newer technology, its understandable that there would be issues and misconceptions. Well break down some of those common
problems. (For example, your cloud data may
not be as protected as you think.) Youll also
find details about some of the cloud-to-cloud
backup products on the market todayhow
they work and how to troubleshoot.
There is room to grow, but cloud-to-cloud
backup is on the upswing. So be diligent and
cautious in backing up data created in the
cloud, and read on for helpful guidance in this
important and developing field. n
Paul Crocetti
Site Editor, SearchDataBackup

PICK YOUR
PROVIDER

HOME
EDITORS NOTE
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:
HOW TO PICK YOUR
PROVIDER
ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
BACKUP QUESTIONS
CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS
ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

Cloud-to-Cloud Data Backup:

How to Pick Your Provider
One of the side effects to moving IT
resources into the cloud is that backups often
become more difficult. This is especially true
forsoftware as a service(SaaS) clouds, because
it is generally impossible to back up these types
of services in the same way an organization
might back up local applications. Microsoft, for
instance, will not allowOffice 365 customersto
install a backup agent onto its servers because
the servers are shared among multiple tenants.
In addition, there is always the chance a backup
agent could impact a servers performance or
stability.
Although SaaS clouds defy traditional
approaches to backup, customers still need
a way to protect their data. This is where
cloud-to-cloud data backup comes into play.
Although the term sometimes refers to the
practice of backing up virtual machines from
one infrastructure-as-a-service cloud to
another,cloud-to-cloud backuphas more

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

recently begun to refer to cloud-based backups

of SaaS data.

THE RISE OF CLOUD-TO-CLOUD BACKUP

SaaS-oriented cloud-to-cloud data backup is

still in its infancy, but a number of key players
are emerging, including:
Asigra Cloud Backup software
Barracuda Backup software
Datto Backupify
eFolder Cloudfinder
EMC Spanning

Cloud-to-cloud backup providersgenerally focus on the most commonly used SaaS

applications. The vast majority of providers,
for example, can protect Google Apps/Google
Docs, Microsoft Office 365 and Salesforce.
Some even offer protection for other SaaS

PICK YOUR
PROVIDER

applications. Datto Backupify, for instance,

provides backup capabilities for Box and corporate social media accounts, including Facebook and Twitter.

HOME
EDITORS NOTE
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:
HOW TO PICK YOUR
PROVIDER
ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
BACKUP QUESTIONS
CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS
ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

customers are limited to a single administrator

and one daily automated backup. The company
also offers an Enterprise Plus pricing plan,
which is based on the number of domains that
need to be protected, rather than the number of
users.

CLOUD-TO-CLOUD DATA BACKUP COSTS

Cloud-to-cloud backup providers use their

ownpricing model. Generally speaking, cloudto-cloud backups are based on a per-application, per-user, and per-month basis. For example, a backup provider might charge customers a
specific fee each month for each Salesforce user.
If the organization also uses Office 365, there
would be a separate monthly, per-user cost
associated with backing up Office 365 data.
Not every provider uses this licensing model.
Spanning, for instance, uses a similar pricing structure, but bills customers on an annual
basis rather than monthly. Backupify offers
per-application, per-user, and per-month pricing, but has separate pricing plans for enterprise and professional customers. Enterprise
customers canperform automated backupsup
to three times a day and have an unlimited
number of administrators, while professional

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

PROVIDER CONSIDERATIONS

Support for the applications you need to protect is the most obviousrequirementwhen
choosing a cloud-to-cloud data backup provider, but here are four more important
considerations:
Application

subscription independence.This

is one of the more overlooked requirements.

Suppose an organization decided to cancel
its Salesforce subscription after several years
of use. Keeping that valuable Salesforce data
may be a priority, so a good backup provider
should provide a path to data recovery, even if
theSaaS subscriptionhas been canceled.
cloud-to-cloud
backup product should be compliant with

Regulatory

compliance.A

PICK YOUR
PROVIDER

HOME
EDITORS NOTE
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:
HOW TO PICK YOUR
PROVIDER
ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
BACKUP QUESTIONS

regulations such as the Health Insurance

Portability and Accountability Act. Even if
your organization is not subject to regulatory requirements, it is a good idea to
choose a backup provider that meets regulatory requirements, because such a provider
adheres to long-establishedbest practices for
data security.
The

frequency with which data can be backed

up.Some

providers allow data to be backed up

more frequently than others. Likewise, a provider should offer an acceptableservice-level
agreementfor data recovery.

CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS
ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

may not
always know the exact name of a file that
needs to be recovered. Ane-discovery
enginecan help you to locate data when you
dont know exactly what you are seeking.

strong e-discovery engine.You

Cloud-to-cloud backups are essential to

protecting data created by SaaS applications.
Because there are so many different cloudto-cloud data backup providers, it is important to spend some time researching each ones
pricing and feature set to find the product that
is the best fit with your organization.
Brien Posey

PROBLEMS

Answers to Common Cloud-to-Cloud

Backup Questions

HOME
EDITORS NOTE

We asked experts to provide the biggest

problems with cloud-to-cloud backup, as well
as information on popular products.

CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:
HOW TO PICK YOUR
PROVIDER
ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
BACKUP QUESTIONS
CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS
ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

TOP FIVE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT CLOUDTO-CLOUD DATA BACKUP

Here are the five most common misconceptions about cloud-to-cloud data backup.
1. It isnt necessary. Its easy to assume
storage-as-a-service providers will back
up your data. But they often create backups only for their own purposes, and may
be unable or unwilling to restore data for
individual customers. If they do, you may be
charged a fee. In most cases, it is preferable
to protect your own cloud-created data.
2. You only need a general backup subscription. When it comes to on-premises backup

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

software, you can typically purchase a single

product that will provide everything you
need to back up your organizations data
(though you may need add-ons for specific
applications). In contrast, you may need a
variety of products to protect cloud data.
When it comes to storage as a service, a
cloud-based backup service focuses on
a specific product, such as Salesforce or
Office 365. Consequently, its possible
you will have to manage multiple backup
products.
3. You get the same backup frequency as
your local backup application. In local
environments, data backup administrators rely on continuous data protection and
believe it will also be used for cloud backups. In reality, many cloud-to-cloud data
backup applications only synchronize data
once per day.

PROBLEMS

HOME

4. Cloud-to-cloud backup applications

offer comprehensive protection. In many
instances, there are gaps in the coverage cloud-to-cloud backup apps provide.
Some Office 365 backup tools, for example,
may omit SharePoint sites or Yammer
discussions.

EDITORS NOTE
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:
HOW TO PICK YOUR
PROVIDER
ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
BACKUP QUESTIONS
CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS

5. The initial configuration is tedious.

At one time, it was common to configure
cloud-to-cloud protection on a per-user
basis. Thankfully, things have gotten better
and most cloud-to-cloud data backup services no longer require such a tedious configuration process.

ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON ISSUES

WITH OFFICE 365 BACKUP?

The biggest mistake users make with Office 365

backup is assuming that the various backup
platforms provide the same level of protection
as on-premises backups. It is safe to say that
most administrators probably research backup
products or services prior to making a purchase. But unless restorations are performed on

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

a regular basis, admins can forget exactly what

the backup offering is capable of doing.
Office 365 backups will presumably get better over time. For right now, though, there are
two main ways in which Office 365 backup features are lacking compared to their on-premises counterparts.
First, most modern on-premises backup
products provide near continuous data protection at the block level. If a data loss event
were to occur, such a product should be able
to restore all but the last few minutes worth
of data. In contrast, the backup offerings for
Office 365 (at least the ones that I have seen)
are more like legacy backup products. Rather
than performing continuous backups, such
products perform daily scheduled backups.
This means that a data loss event could result
in several hours worth of data being lost.
The other major shortcoming in Office 365
backup platforms is that they offer different
degrees of protection for the various Office
365 products. To the best of my knowledge,
there is no product that provides comprehensive protection for all Office 365 data. The
backup features that I have seen tend to have

PROBLEMS

HOME

decent protection for Office 365 Exchange, less

impressive protection for SharePoint Online,
and little to no protection for Link and Yammer. Protecting Office 365 Exchange is easy, but
protecting other Office 365 data can be more
challenging.

EDITORS NOTE
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:
HOW TO PICK YOUR
PROVIDER
ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
BACKUP QUESTIONS
CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS
ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

HOW DOES THE CLOUD-TO-CLOUD

BACKUP FEATURE WORK WITH ASIGRA
CLOUD BACKUP?

The Cloud-to-Cloud Backup feature protects data created in the cloud using popular
software as a service applications. It was first
added to the agentless Asigra Cloud Backup
software platform in 2012, when the company
announced the ability to back up Salesforce
data. Asigra has since added the ability to protect Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365
data. Backup data from these applications can
be integrated and managed with the rest of an
organizations data, and stored on premises or

in an Asigra partners cloud.

Users can also schedule automated backups at regular intervals and retain data to
meet their organizations regulatory compliance needs. Asigra Cloud Backup software also
offers Advanced Encryption Standard 256-bit
encryption for data in flight and at rest, and an
automated restore function to repopulate data
created in the cloud.
Its a fairly common misconception that
because data is created in the cloud, the software-as-a-service provider is responsible
for backing up data. And while they do create
backups for their own purposes, users pay a fee
to recover any data.
Salesforce, for example, offers a service called
Data Recovery. According to the companys
website, Data Recovery is a last resort process
[which can be used to] recover your data at a
specific point in time, in the case that it has
been permanently deleted or mangled during
a data import. The service has a flat rate of

Its a common misconception that because data is created in the cloud,

the software-as-a-service provider is responsible for backing up data.

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

PROBLEMS

HOME

$10,000; according to Salesforce, the price is

based on the amount of manual work and time
needed to perform the recovery (usually a minimum of 20 days).
A number of vendors, such as Dattos Backupify and EMCs Spanning, also offer backup

EDITORS NOTE
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:
HOW TO PICK YOUR
PROVIDER
ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
BACKUP QUESTIONS
CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS
ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

software designed to protect data created in the

cloud, but Asigra is the first to build the function into an all-purpose backup application.
The company sells its Asigra Cloud Backup
software exclusively through channel partners.
Brien Posey and Andrew Burton

CLOUD-BASED
BACKUP

HOME
EDITORS NOTE
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:
HOW TO PICK YOUR
PROVIDER
ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
BACKUP QUESTIONS
CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS
ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

Cloud-to-Clouds Role in Cloud Backup

Backup was the first broaduse case for

cloud storage.
What started as an ideal way to back up consumer desktops spread toenterprise endpoint
protectionand now manycloud backup providers offer protection of physical and virtual
servers. Cloud backup is a very crowded market
with vendors bringing software and services to
market almost every week.
There are an almost overwhelming number of
options available to IT professionals establishing a cloud-based backup strategy.

CLOUD CATEGORIZATION

Organizations use thecloud for data protectionin a variety of ways. Some opt for native
cloud providers, in which cloud is the central point of the data protection process.
Other companies, especially legacy vendors,
have treated the cloud as an add-on to the

10

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

data protection process. For them, the cloud

becomes another backup target.
There is also differentiation among service
providers. Some providers are really software
developers that use an existing, generic cloud
service likeAmazon,AzureorGoogle for cloud
storage. Others have created their own cloudbased data centers, purpose-built to store customer data. There are also managed service
providers or regional cloud providers that use
a third-party software product to provide data
protection to their customers.
The advantage of a generic service is that
the cost of entry for the provider is very low
and that may be reflected in the cost of their
service. But they have limited control over the
environment, so troubleshooting a technical
support problem may be as much a problem for
them as it is for the customer.
The advantage of a purpose-built cloud is
that the provider owns it all, software and

CLOUD-BASED
BACKUP

HOME
EDITORS NOTE
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:
HOW TO PICK YOUR
PROVIDER
ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD

hardware. While the cost to entry is higher

for these vendors, the ability for them to scale
specifically to their customers needs, as well as
solve any support challenges, should be better.
The third type of provider is really a facilities specialist that hasadded cloud-based
backupas part of their feature set. They tend to
use off-the-shelf software products that have
been broadly adopted in the market. This type
of product is ideal for a customer that wants to
continue using their current backup software
and wants to move data off-site without the
expense of creating a disaster recovery site.

BACKUP QUESTIONS
CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS
ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

HYBRID BACKUP

In this model, backup data resides on premises

as well as in the cloud.
Typically, an appliance receives backups from
the data centers servers and then replicates
that data to the cloud providers facility. The
on-site appliance can be used for rapid recovery of servers and the cloud copy can be used in
case of a disaster.
Also, many legacy backup products can back
up data locally and to the cloud. Or, data can

11

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

be backed up on-site and then replicated to the

cloud.

BACKUP CAPABILITIES

Native cloud backup providers have raised the

data protection bar significantly over the last
few years. Most started by overcoming the
somewhat obvious challenge that cloud-based
backup presentsthe latency of an Internet
connection. The initial products focused on
moving data more efficiently across that connection, using technologies likeblock-level
incremental backup, deduplication, compression and WAN optimization. They have also
significantly closed the gap in terms of platform coverage, moving from the endpoint
protection, to full server protection of Linux,
Windows and VMware.
Many more traditional backup software and
hardware vendors have also added support for
cloud storage. However, most of the time, these
vendors view the cloud as a secondary storage
repository; it often does not minimize on-site
capacity or bring any additional capabilities.
One of the major challenges that cloud

CLOUD-BASED
BACKUP

HOME
EDITORS NOTE
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:
HOW TO PICK YOUR
PROVIDER

providers and users faced was time to recover.

While block-level incremental, deduplication
and compression all improved the backup process, they did little to help the recovery process.
In the event of a storage system failure or site
loss, all the data needed to be restored across a
relatively low bandwidth connection. And, of
course, a full system recovery is often time-critical, because application downtime is unacceptable for many businesses. These shortcomings
led to one of the most significant advances in
cloud backup: disaster recovery as a service.

ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
BACKUP QUESTIONS
CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS
ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

12

DISASTER RECOVERY AS A SERVICE

Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) allows

users to run an instance of a virtual machine
(VM) in the cloud backup providers data center. Assuming that all the networking issues
can be resolved, this means that users can be
back online in a matter of minutes.
DRaaS does require some new considerations as well as some potential changes in an
organizations data center. The first thing to
understand is what performance will be like
during the DR event. Given the length of the

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

outage and time it will take to restore all the

data, the application may be running in the
cloud providers data center for some time. It is
important to consider whether the cloud provider will meet a service-level agreement (SLA)
based on performance during that time.
Also, the cloud provider will need to demonstrate the ability to host many organizations
applications simultaneously in their data center. If a regional disaster such as a hurricane
occurs, cloud providers can be overwhelmed
with recovery requests. An SLA provides a way
to make sure that performance is acceptable for
long-term use.
You must also understand how failback will
work. In the event that the organizations entire
data center is destroyed, all this data needs to
be recovered. Do they provide a bulk transfer capability like shipping hard drives or tape
media to the organization to facilitate a faster
local recovery? If the entire data center is not
destroyed, a much more common outcome in
a disaster, do they have a way to intelligently
recover data so that only the data that changed
while the application was running in the cloud
will be restored?

CLOUD-BASED
BACKUP

HOME
EDITORS NOTE
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:
HOW TO PICK YOUR
PROVIDER
ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
BACKUP QUESTIONS

DRaaS may also require infrastructure

changes. First, most DRaaS offerings leverage virtualization to deliver the functionality.
This means that physical servers may need to
be virtualized or the provider may need to have
physical-to-virtual conversion capability on
their end.
Finally, for DRaaS to work, networking must
be properly re-routed to provide a seamless
transfer between the organizations data center and the cloud provider. Fortunately, most
native cloud backup providers are more than
willing to assist in making sure the various
networking configurations are set up properly.

CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS
ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

CLOUD ACCELERATORS

Another new cloud backup strategy is the

replacement of the cloud backup appliance with
a cloud backup accelerator. Many appliances
execute a 1:1 translation to the cloud, meaning
that 100% of the data being backed up needs

to be stored locally and in the cloud. To accommodate this, the appliance needs to have capacity added to it continually. There is no practical
reason why these backups are not deleted or
moved after a period of time, just that the software has not been updated or designed to support that capability. While some providers do
have the ability to tier older copies of data for
cloud storage only, most require at least 100%
of the latest full backup to be stored on-site.
An accelerator changes this by utilizing more
of a caching methodology. The local accelerator does not need to store all of the data, or
even the most recent backup. Instead, data
is removed from the appliance as soon as its
arrival in the cloud is confirmed. These accelerators are generally controlled by policy so that
certain mission-critical applications can be set
to always have the most recent copy of their
data reside both on-site and in the cloud.
This is ideal for companies with a few large
databases and a lot of file data. Since most file

Yet another new cloud backup strategy is the replacement

of the cloud backup appliance with a cloud backup accelerator.

13

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

CLOUD-BASED
BACKUP

HOME
EDITORS NOTE
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:

data is not mission-critical and is recovered

a file at a time, the latency of the cloud is not
as much an issue for their recovery. A large
database needs to be restored all at once, as
quickly as possible, so having this copy backed
up locally is often a requirement. The ability to
control this by policy allows the on-site accelerator to be one-third the size of an on-site
appliance, thereby reducing costs and simplifying the on-site operational requirement.

HOW TO PICK YOUR

PROVIDER
ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
BACKUP QUESTIONS
CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS
ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

14

CLOUD-TO-CLOUD BACKUP

Another feature that cloud backup vendors are

beginning to provide is cloud-to-cloud backup.
By granting the backup provider access, they
are given a direct connection to the cloud
service. This allows them to directly back up
software as a service (SaaS) providers such
asBox.com,Dropbox,Google Drive,Office
365andSalesforce.
Most users assume that because data is in
the cloud that it is also protected. To some
extent, this is true. Cloud-based data is
backed up, but only to protect the cloud provider, not the organization. If, for example, an

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

employee deletes files, there is little that can be

done to recover them without paying restore
fees.Cloud-to-cloud backupprotects against
this type of data loss.

THE DOWNSIDE OF CLOUD-BASED BACKUP

While there is a lot to like about cloud backup,

there are some downsides that need to be
taken into consideration. The first is of course
security, a common concern about any cloud
service. It is important that the cloud backup
product provides complete end-to-end encryption, where data is not only encrypted in transit to the provider, but also while at rest in the
providers facility. Organizations with highly
sensitive data should also only consider products that allow them to hold the encryption
keys, instead of the provider.
Another area of concern is flexibility. For
example, some organizations may want to perform recovery in a secondary facility of their
choice instead of being forced to recover to the
providers location. Also, cloud providers that
supply appliances will force the organization to
use the included disks, instead of potentially

CLOUD-BASED
BACKUP

HOME
EDITORS NOTE
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:
HOW TO PICK YOUR
PROVIDER
ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
BACKUP QUESTIONS

using what the organization already has in

place.
Finally, and maybe most surprising, is the
potential cost of the cloud product when considered over time. Cloud-based backup products capture the attention of organizations
partly because of their low upfront costs. But
when these monthly or quarterly costs are multiplied out over five years, the life expectancy
for an on-site backup product, cloud backup
products can actually be more expensive than
traditional, on-site backup. This is especially
true as backup capacities grow, since most providers charge by the capacity under protection.

CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS
ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

REVERSE INCREMENTAL BACKUP

Reverse incremental backup is another feature that reduces the time it takes for a server
instance to be recovered. With traditional,
block-level incremental backups, an initial full
backup is completed as normal. Then, when the
next backup is taken, just the changed blocks
are copied to backup storage and stored in a
separate file, which is linked to the original full
backup. If there is a failure, the original file and

15

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

each of these linked files need to be recovered

in reverse order, which is a time-consuming
process.

Reverse incremental backup

is another feature that reduces
the time it takes for a server
instance to be recovered.
Reverse incremental merges incremental
backups into the full backup as each incremental is completed. But each incremental is also
maintained as a separate file. This allows the
full image to be kept up to date while still maintaining a rich version history. In the event that
the latest server image needs to be recovered
in the shortest time possible, all that has to be
restored is this one file. While the size of that
VM will impact recovery time, in most cases, a
single VM with no additional incrementals to
be merged will restore relatively quickly over a
business class Internet connection. But reverse
incremental backup still provides access to various versions of individual files that can still be
restored from the incremental copies.

CLOUD-BASED
BACKUP

HOME

Cloud backup has evolved over the past few

years to offer a variety of important functions.
There are now several products that offer similar platform coverage and features to traditional
enterprise products. Add to that new capabilities like DRaaS, cloud-to-cloud backup, and

EDITORS NOTE
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:
HOW TO PICK YOUR
PROVIDER
ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
BACKUP QUESTIONS
CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS
ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

16

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

reverse incremental backup, and these offerings

become very compelling. While not perfect
(See: The downside of cloud-based backup) a
cloud-based backup strategy should be considered any time a data protection refresh project
is underway. George Crump

ABOUT
THE
AUTHORS

ANDREW BURTON is a former executive editor with

TechTarget.
GEORGE CRUMP is

president of Storage Switzerland, an

IT analyst firm focused on the storage and virtualization
segments.

Learn How to Back Up Data Created in the Cloud

is a SearchDataBackup.com e-publication.

HOME
EDITORS NOTE
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD
DATA BACKUP:
HOW TO PICK YOUR
PROVIDER
ANSWERS TO COMMON
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD

BRIEN POSEY is

a Microsoft MVP with two decades of IT

experience. Before becoming a freelance technical writer,
Posey worked as a CIO for a national chain of hospitals
and health care facilities. He has also served as a network administrator for some of the nations largest insurance companies and for the Department of Defense
at Fort Knox.

Rich Castagna | VP Editorial

Ed Hannan | Senior Managing Editor
Cathy Gagne | VP Editorial
Paul Crocetti | Site Editor
Dave Raffo | Senior News Director
Garry Kranz | Staff Writer

BACKUP QUESTIONS

Linda Koury | Director of Online Design

CLOUD-TO-CLOUDS

Jillian Coffin | Publisher

ROLE IN CLOUD BACKUP

TechTarget
275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466
www.techtarget.com
2016 TechTarget Inc. No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. TechTarget reprints are available through The YGS Group.

STAY CONNECTED!
Follow @DataBackupTT today

17

LEARN HOW TO BACK UP DATA CREATED IN THE CLOUD

About TechTarget: TechTarget publishes media for information technology professionals. More than 100 focused websites enable quick access to a deep store of
news, advice and analysis about the technologies, products and processes crucial
to your job. Our live and virtual events give you direct access to independent expert commentary and advice. At IT Knowledge Exchange, our social community,
you can get advice and share solutions with peers and experts.
COVER: FOTOLIA