Outsourcing your backup and recovery needs saves time and money every day, but more importantly, an offsite backup system can SAVE YOUR BUSINESS in the event of a disaster.
Network Services Group is now offering clients a new Cloud Backup and Recovery Solution.
This is a huge deal for financial, medical, and governmental units. Or anyone that needs to meet auditing requirements like Sarbanes Oxley (SOX), U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Basel II, Safe Harbour, Patriot Act, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and others. But it's also important to companies that need backups with retention such as surveyors, civil engineers and architects.
Features and Benefits:
Automatic Healing continually monitors files for data corruption to ensure recoverability so you can be confident that your backups would actually be recoverable.
De-duplication and Compression designed to maximize the efficiency of your storage infrastructure.
Delta Blocking for more efficient incremental backups.
Data Encryption before transmission over the WAN and within the Data Center.
Continuous Backup of email and databases to ensure you're always protected.
Backup Lifecycle Management for your archival needs which aligns the value of your data with the cost of protecting it.
Local Backup Option for instant recovery of mission critical data.
We strongly believe that this Backup and Recovery Solution will be of great benefit to your company. If you would like to learn more about this new service, please contact us today.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is data de-duplication and why is it so important?
De-duplication is one of the ways that the NSG Backup Client reduces the raw data from your network servers across all remote offices to a size that can be transmitted over the WAN. It ensures that the same data is never transmitted offsite more than once, thereby saving the bandwidth to transmit only new, unique data. It achieves this simple elimination by generating a digital signature of each file as it is backed up and comparing it against the known details of all previous files. If the digital signature matches a previously backed up file, it must be a duplicate and only a shortcut need be transmitted up the line. Due to the way this technique is applied, it does not matter if the files are on different servers, at different offices or even have different filenames.
What is delta blocking and why is it important?
Delta blocking is a technique that divides all files into blocks. When the file is detected to have changed, the digital signature of each block is compared against the last known digital signature for the same block of the same file (stored in the database on the NSG Backup Client). Any blocks that are different are pulled out to be re-transmitted. These delta blocks will also be compressed and encrypted before transmission.
What happens if a server stops or crashes during backup or if the backup is interrupted for some other reason?
If the backup is stopped, for whatever reason, it will retry the operation based on the configuration of the NSG Backup Client. If all retries fail it will continue onto the next backup in its schedule. It will not revisit the failed backup set until the next time it is set to run, e.g. the following night, at which point it will pick up where it left off. If however the problem has been rectified and the backup window allows, the backup can be restarted manually, immediately. However, if the backup set is configured with local storage cache the backup will continue its operation by backing up the data locally to the configured buffer. Network Services Group has a dedicated team monitoring the progress of backup events 24x7. If a problem occurs, it will be escalated through the appropriate channels.
Does the NSG Backup Client hold a connection open to a server all the time?
No, unless continuous data protection (CDP) is configured the NSG Backup Client will only connect to your servers during the specified backup schedule, therefore it will not use valuable connection at other times.
What platforms are supported?
NSG Online Backup offers Agentless support for a range of network platforms.
- Extensive OS Support: Windows 2008, Windows 7, Vista, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Mac OS X, XenSource, VMware, Novell Netware, IBM AIX, SUN Solaris, HP-UX, HP-Tru64 UNIX, IBM iSeries, Red Hat Linux, Novell Suse Linux, etc...
- Extensive Database/Application Support: MS SQL Server, MS Exchange Server & Outlook 2000/2003/2007, Oracle, IBM DB2, MySQL, PostgreSQL, IBM Lotus Notes/Domino Server, Novell Groupwise, SAP, MS SharePoint
If the software is agentless, how are databases such as MS SQL and Exchange backed up?
Microsoft developed SQL and Exchange with the backup requirement in mind. Both products can respond to API calls requesting the services to dump their data, while online, to an external destination. In NSG Online Backup's case the product simply asks the specified MS SQL or Exchange server to stream the data to the NSG Backup Client where it is delta blocked and transmitted offsite. This process is a totally supported Microsoft function and guarantees compatibility with your existing Microsoft systems.
How does NSG Online Backup handle open files?
Open files are an issue in most backup environments. If a file is open exclusively on a workstation, it is the server's responsibility to stop anyone else, including a backup application, accessing that file. To help counteract these issues NSG Online Backup has a range of options which handle open files. These options, combined with use of the Pre and Post commands, enable the backup of almost any file. NSG Online Backup also can use Microsoft VSS which handles access to open files. More complex environments such as Oracle or DB2 can usually be configured to dump their data into a normal file which will be delta blocked and backed up as normal unless the specific Backup Set type is not used.
What happens if the machine the NSG Backup Client resides on fails?
First you need to install an operating system on new or repaired hardware. Then, Network Services Group will reinstall the NSG Backup Client with the same encryption keys and the same account/NSG Backup Client numbers and recover NSG Backup Client DBs from NSG Backup Server. NSG Backup Client can however be installed as grid, thus offering redundancy in case of failures.
Why is encryption done?
NSG Backup Client performs compression and encryption before sending data to NSG's Data Center. This ensures security because:
- Data can be restored only by the NSG Backup Client that backed it up, or by another NSG Backup Client that was installed using the same encryption types and keys as the NSG Backup Client that backed up the data.
- Someone monitoring data being transmitted between NSG Backup Client and NSG's Data Center would intercept only encrypted data blocks. This ensures that access to confidential file content is not possible.
- Data stored is also encrypted in the NSG's Data Center. Meaning that only the customer can have access to the backed up data once it has been recovered. The customer is the only person who knows his/her unique encryption keys.
To what standard is data encrypted?
NSG Online Backup's encryption is FIPS 140-2 certified. FIPS certification is given through the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) that was established by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) of the Government of Canada. Products validated as conforming to FIPS 140-2 are accepted by the Federal agencies of both countries (Canada and U.S) for the protection of sensitive information.
What do you mean by compression? What happens?
Compression can be likened to letting the air out of a balloon. Although the air has gone, the structure still exists and it can be re-inflated easily. The advantage is that it takes less room. Files, especially databases, are often full of empty space, which can be removed to make the file smaller for transit, whilst making it very easy to recreate. A conservative compression to expect with NSG Online Backup is 3:1 for the initial backup.
Why is data compressed?
Compression reduces the amount of data transmitted to the NSG's Data Center, making backups faster, as well as reducing storage space. Compression is particularly useful for slow communication links and/or very large files.
Is the backup data held on disk or tape off site?
NSG Online Backup is a disk to disk solution where data is held on disk for rapid access times and is additionally replicated to an alternate location.
Is backup data secure and separate from other customers' data?
Yes. Authentication is performed between the relevant NSG Backup Client and system unit each time they connect to re-verify the authenticity of the NSG Backup Client. Additionally, the backup data is held encrypted. Only the customers' unique encryption keys will decrypt the data.
What happens if the NSG Backup Client and/or the whole site is lost?
Network Services Group can interact closely with your disaster recovery and business continuity plan, providing a portable unit of disks, holding your data and a new NSG Backup Client to any required site. This site may even be the site of your disaster recovery company. This combination of portable unit and new NSG Backup Client can enable LAN speed restores to reconstruct servers and workstations.
Can we perform a test re-build of the NSG Backup Client and restore data?
Yes, Disaster Recovery drills can be performed periodically if requested.
Is it possible to have a copy of the backed up data locally on NSG Backup Client LAN?
NSG Backup Client can be configured to store up to the last 30 days of backup locally to the DSClient LAN in compressed format. This storage option is in addition to keep the data on the NSG Backup Server and provides option for fast local restores of large data sets in case of disasters and recoverability of data in the event that the NSG Backup Server is unavailable.
Can NSG Online Backup backup mobile computers and remote offices?
Absolutely. NSG Online Backup software can backup laptops and even individual computers with our DS-Mobile Client application that has a small footprint, CPU and bandwidth throttle and secure, efficient transmission of data or with the NSG Online Backup DS-Client.
Can I get an estimate of how much online storage I would use?
Statistical-mode backup is a method that performs a "dry run" on a backup set. This process performs 100% of the functionality of a regular backup with the exception of sending data to the NSG Backup Server. Actual deduplication and compression statistics are generated along with information regarding the amount of net-new data created and backup set completion time. With all of the information contained in reports after running a statistical backup, Network Services Group can give a customer a real-world costing and performance estimate.
