Backup Your Data: Looking for the best solution

Some information written here was based on my working experience and some are the information given by many others on the net. Since servers and networking was not my expertise (at least at the time this article was written), I always welcome any comments and feedbacks from readers.

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Data is important. Private data is even more. Either personal or commercial. No disputes on this.
When talking about data backup, THREE things are always highly focused on which are:

1- Cost
How expensive is the solution to be implemented.

2 - Reliability and Security
How reliable and secure the data once backup. Any security loop holes which can expose to any malicious attacks? virus? natural disaster? etc

3- Speed
How fast can we backup and restore the data.

Scenario to consider
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Now, consider we've large amount of sensitive data (200 - 300 Gb) to be periodically backup in a monthly basis. Restore will be done any time, depend on the request. Meaning that, the media must be large enough, the speed must be fast enough for restore process, and should not compromise in security factor. Let we consider solutions below.

1) CD is out of the consideration! Next please ..

2) DVD
Still limited in storage. While the dual layer DVD normally below 10 GB and single layer below 5GB, You still need a lot of pieces to complete your monthly backup.
Result: Reject!


3) Tape Drive
Good storage size. We need 1 to 2 tapes to backup 300Gb. Have to wait at least half to almost whole day to restore 1 tape data. In term of cost, we need USD1000 0r (MYR3000 - MYR4000) to buy the tape drive and 40USD (MYR 200 - RM300) for individual tapes. Not so good at speed and expensive at cost.
Result: Reject

4) External Hard Disk
The speed is much better than tape. A bit slower than internal. Not so costly compared to it ability. Not much security holes since you won't expose it to the network. However, it doesn't allow multiple accesses. One single client or server can access it in a time. Therefore not suit for server backup where the data is normaly shared by multiple users. Fortunately, this already satisfed above requirements.
Result: Just nice.

5) Storage Area Network (SAN)
Unlike the previous. This is more as architecture technology then a media technology. A single dedicated server is required plus few storage nodes will be connected to the network in order to implement the technology. Due to it highly advance technology, it is seldom used by personal and small company. The main benefit that a SAN network brings a company is speed with data transfer plus the ability to connect large data networks that span thousands of miles- and the devices on that network can still communicate effectively. By organizing these devices on a data device-only network, faster data transfers can occur. Very helpful to system administrator since it can backup data from multiple sources at any time.
Do we really need this?

Result: Acceptable for multiple access and highly scalable solution.


6) Network Attached Storage Server (NAS)
A NAS server is essentially a server that is set aside strictly for distributing files to other servers, and client computers. Instead of doing any processing, this server only act as a storage to other servers or clients therefore reducing risk of file corruption and most OS-related issues and very good at speed. Standard servers typically run server-class Operating Systems, which can become corrupted, or otherwise damaged. NAS, however, store their Operating System on flash memory which can only be overwritten in an upgrade. Due to that, it is normally more expensive. Moreover, this is not end stage of backup due to the physical disaster which can be potentially crashed the whole storage and leave no single data once occurs. That's why technology such as clustering and RAID should be implemented as well. (Wikipedia: It should be noted that NAS is effectively a server in itself, with all major components of a typical PC – a CPU, motherboard, RAM, etc. – and its reliability is a function of how well it is designed internally. A NAS without redundant data access paths, redundant controllers, redundant power supplies, is probably less reliable than Direct Attached Storage (DAS) )

Finally, In most cases, you'll still need to do backup for this server and bring us back to the original question "where and how to backup the data?"

Result: Acceptable for data storage not a data backup. Full Stop.

Besides these solutions, there are other solution we can implement.

7) Optical Jukebox.
From Wikipedia: Optical Jukebox is a robotic data storage device that can automatically load and unload optical discs, such as Compact Disc, DVD, Ultra Density Optical or Blu-ray disc and can provide terabytes of tertiary storage. Jukebox capacities have greatly increased with the release of the 50GB dual layer Blu-ray (BD) format, with a road-map to increase to eight layers and 200GB per disc. The current format allows 35TB of storage from a single 700 disc jukebox.

I might miss out some advantages or disadvantages at every single data backup solution I disucssed in this article. However, this overview might give you some introductory concept and idea on the data backup solution which might help you deciding the best solution and most importantly BEST AFFORDABLE SOLUTION as most people might concern.