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	<title>Backup Articles &#187; Food for thought</title>
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	<link>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog</link>
	<description>All you need to know about data backup</description>
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		<title>When Green Is Bad</title>
		<link>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/when-green-is-bad/</link>
		<comments>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/when-green-is-bad/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:16:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>chribonn</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Basics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food for thought]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[disk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EFS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[encryption]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[green]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[key]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Maxtor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[private]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[public]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/?p=559</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
















A few days ago I received a phone call from a person asking for my services to help him recover data from a failed hard disk. I asked the caller whether he had internet access—sometimes the failed disk takes with it the only available computer. The caller explained that he had internet access and that [...]]]></description>
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</a>A few days ago I received a phone call from a person asking for my services to help him recover data from a failed hard disk. I asked the caller whether he had internet access—sometimes the failed disk takes with it the only available computer. The caller explained that he had internet access and that the patient was a removable disk. I pointed the client to our online questionnaire and asked him to fill in the form. A few minutes later the form arrived.</p>
<p>In a nut shell, the disk was a 120GB 3.5” 7200rpm IDE Maxtor drive, two years old. It was housed within an aluminium external drive case. It was hooked up to a standalone Windows XP computer. It was spinning, no unusual noises such as clicks or retry access sounds. The file directory could be read. The client had last successfully placed data on the medium less than 15 days before.</p>
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<p>I immediately got a hunch about what the problem was. As long as the word “green” didn’t factor in our conversation a chance of success remained. About 30 minutes later the client arrived at our office with the problem disk. I plugged the disk into one of our recovery units, powered it up and a few seconds later was looking at its contents. All file names were in green rather than the usual black font. This meant that the files had been encrypted using Windows XP’s Encrypted File System (EFS). EFS provides a file system level of encryption that allows files to be transparently encrypted from attackers who gain physical access to the computer.  EFS first made its debut in Windows 2000.</p>
<p>I asked the client whether he had reinstalled or replaced the computer on which he had last successfully accessed the data. He replied that this was an old computer and he had donated the machine to his church about 10 days before. I got a negative reply when I asked whether he had ever backed up this computer or made a copy of its encryption keys and certificates.</p>
<p>Have you ever watched a TV program of a high alert situation? That’s what happened next; I explained to the client that his only chance of getting back the data on that drive was if the computer he had donated was still intact. We looked up the church’s phone number and once found (God bless search engines) the client dialled the number. About half a dozen rings someone picked up at the other end. I won’t bore you with the conversation; when the client hung up we had all the details of the person who had volunteered to format the machine and install it from scratch. The second phone call was answered by this person’s mother. She told us that he had brought a computer home a few days ago. From this lead we got the mobile phone of the person my client was so desperately trying to contact.</p>
<p>The client managed to get hold of our make or break person. When asked whether he had formatted the computer the reply was a yes… but using a different hard disk. The hard disk on the original computer was very small and he had decided to replace it with a higher capacity one. The contents of the original hard disk were intact.</p>
<p>A couple of hours later we had rigged the original hard disk within the donated computer and had successfully copied the contents of the data on the external hard disk to unencrypted storage. Without getting too much into the technicalities what follows is a simple explanation of how EFS works. The first time a user enables the EFS, the system automatically generates a public/private key pair for that user if one doesn’t already exist.  This information is held in the user’s profile. For each file / folder, EFS generates a random number and uses the public key to encrypt the file. In order to decrypt the file, the private key is necessary.</p>
<p>Once the private key is lost decrypting the data is impossible.</p>
<p>I would like to thank the client who offered the entire team as well as the chap who had not formatted the hard disk dinner. As he put it “My life depended on that data”. Sadly not all stories end like this.<br />
<h3>Last 3 posts by chribonn</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/what-your-backup-solution-should-be-and-do/">What your backup solution should be and do</a> - June 27th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/enterprise/securing-your-online-backup-archives/">Securing your online backup archives</a> - May 12th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/enterprise/backing-up-resotring-and-tweaking-sage-pastel-evolution/">Backing up, Restoring and Tweaking Sage Pastel Evolution</a> - April 5th, 2010</li></ul></p>

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		<title>What your backup solution should be and do</title>
		<link>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/what-your-backup-solution-should-be-and-do/</link>
		<comments>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/what-your-backup-solution-should-be-and-do/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Jun 2010 06:02:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>chribonn</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Basics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food for thought]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dollars]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[focus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[functionality]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[simplicity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[solution]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/?p=555</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Is your backup solution right for you? How does it compare to the google model?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There are many sites with free, ad sponsored or paid for advice on how to design a pretty site. Many of these sites either directly host or have a link to web template sites. These templates carry a cost ranging from 0 dollars going all the way into the hundreds of dollars. A custom made site can bring up the cost of a solution into the thousands of dollars.</p>
<p>Yet Google a company with assets running into the billions and a profit and loss sheet with no traces of red on it has a simple white background with one 8Kb picture and less than twenty clickable items. For the record, Google does provide a hi-tech version consisting of practically the items described above on top of a picture of the user’s choice.</p>
<p>Why is it that a company that owns the absolute majority of all searches that take place can’t come up with a nicer interface? Lack of technical expertise? Can’t afford a good designer? I don’t want to waste your time asking other silly questions. The answer is that Google have based their computing model on three words: simplicity, functionality and focus.</p>
<p>All of Google’s solutions have no cluttering or confusing interface that came out of some study by some experts costing God knows how many millions. Google solutions have no weird options most of which came out of the necessity to make a new version available to paying customers. And Google solutions make what they do seem so simple that many of us may be mistakenly led to believe that what Google does can be done by pre-school kids.</p>
<p>Can the same be said about your backup solution? You do have a backup solution? For your own sake I’ll assume that you do. Does your solution make you wonder how you will go about retrieving your data if your working version becomes corrupted? Does your solution make you feel that you must get certified in order to use the product?</p>
<p>The next time you are out looking for a backup product, make sure that it has three basic ingredients: simplicity, functionality and focus.<br />
<h3>Last 3 posts by chribonn</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/when-green-is-bad/">When Green Is Bad</a> - July 5th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/enterprise/securing-your-online-backup-archives/">Securing your online backup archives</a> - May 12th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/enterprise/backing-up-resotring-and-tweaking-sage-pastel-evolution/">Backing up, Restoring and Tweaking Sage Pastel Evolution</a> - April 5th, 2010</li></ul></p>
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		<title>The LT0-5 and data partitions</title>
		<link>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/food-for-thought/the-lt0-5-and-data-partitions/</link>
		<comments>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/food-for-thought/the-lt0-5-and-data-partitions/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 30 May 2010 17:37:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>George</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food for thought]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[enterprise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[data partitions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LTO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LTO-5]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tape]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tape drives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[transfer speed]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/?p=516</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[From online backups to tape-drive articles! The latest generation of the LTO technology has some interesting features and since these relate to data backups, I decided to share a couple of thoughts with you!
The LTO (Linear Tape-Open) consortium has recently released the 5th generation of tape storage technology. It can store up to 3 TB of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/lto.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-518" style="border: 0px;" title="lto" src="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/lto.jpg" alt="" width="135" height="118" /></a>From online backups to tape-drive articles!</em> The latest generation of the LTO technology has some interesting features and since these relate to data backups, I decided to share a couple of thoughts with you!<br />
The LTO (Linear Tape-Open) consortium has recently released the 5th generation of tape storage technology. It can store up to 3 TB of data if we assume a compression ratio of 2:1, it has data transfer speeds of up to 280 MB /s, it has a new partitioning feature and Linear Tape File System specification to provide enhanced file control and data management.<br />
It includes two data partitions on the tape that support a tape file system, allowing files to be written directly to a tape and read by another computer, independent of OS or application. That is, we can say it is cross-platform capable and hence, truely portable!</p>
<p><span id="more-516"></span>The consortium&#8217;s roadmap for scalability and growth is already defined for the next three generations, and they state that the LTO Technology is a powerful and adaptable open tape format created to address the growing demands of data protection in the midrange to enterprise-class server environments. It is evident and understandable that such technology does not appeal to the SME (Small to Medium enterprises) market. I am not surprised at all, since the recent trend of remote online backups is very feasible to SMEs and home users, mainly because of its cheaper running costs.</p>
<p>We all agree that the LTO-5 is a big improvement &#8230;but over what&#8230;over its own technology!&#8230; I do not think that customers that went away from tape storage will return because of this new release! I reckon that the consortium needs to revise some concepts in order to be able to attract all kind of users.</p>
<p>The transfer speed improvement of 280 MB /s is quite good but not enough! Without compression it can go down to 140 MB /s and rest assured that you will never achieve a consistent compression rate of 2:1 while bear in mind the good transfer speeds of SATA 3.0 and SSD drives. Without optimal compression rates the storage capacity can go down to 1.5 TB. If I had to compare device with device then hard drives are much faster and can store same amounts data (while SSD capacity is increasing, SATA drives of 1 &amp; 2 TB are quite common nowadays).</p>
<p>I would like to expand the argument about data partitions on tapes. It is a cool concept but is it that practical? Archiving to tape is not so much bound to the underlying operating system but more to the application performing the operation. Most large enterprises use a backup application that handles all backup and archiving operations and hence, I remain dependent on such backup application. So, if I had to take that partitioned tape to another system would I be able to read it without using the same application? Therefore, I would be loosing the interoperability functionality. This may bring up the idea of removing the application in between and write/read directly to the tape partition as to achieve 100% interoperability. But, if I want to use the tape as a data archiving partition, is it feasible to copy large amounts of data to a slow speed medium when I can achieve faster speeds with other media?  For example, disk drives are faster while support for the NTFS format with Linux systems and vice-versa (Ext3 for Windows) has been around for some time now! Therefore, we are platform independent with disk drives as well!</p>
<p>My point is why I should archive to tape when I can do it faster, cheaper and safely too &#8211; nonetheless, archiving to disk needs some taught like: having reliable RAID systems, verify features and a good reporting mechanism. However, the physical tapes remain more portable than a set of hard drives but note that their lifespan depend on the storage location, the tape drive head condition and the <a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/data-backup-types/" target="_blank">backup strategy </a>used. A daily full backup reduces the lifespan of both the tape and the drive. From personal experience, some tapes lasted years while others few months!<br />
<h3>Last 3 posts by George</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/backup-considerations-for-microsoft-sharepoint/">Backup considerations for Microsoft SharePoint</a> - July 26th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/what-is-cloud-computing/">What is Cloud Computing?</a> - July 19th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/audit/is-cloud-computing-getting-safer/">Is Cloud computing getting safer?</a> - July 13th, 2010</li></ul></p>
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		<title>Can we trust cloud computing?</title>
		<link>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/food-for-thought/can-we-trust-cloud-computing/</link>
		<comments>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/food-for-thought/can-we-trust-cloud-computing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 23 May 2010 22:11:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>George</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food for thought]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[enterprise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cloud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cloud computing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cloud services]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EC2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[infrastructure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[S3]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[service providers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/?p=509</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Every solution has its two sides of the coin. We come across various marketing techniques that somehow define cloud computing in relation to the services they provide! In order to jump on to the cloud bandwagon and attract customers, some companies advertise their services as cloud services when in fact these are not! Therefore, what [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Every solution has its two sides of the coin. We come across various marketing techniques that somehow define cloud computing in relation to the services they provide! In order to jump on to the cloud bandwagon and attract customers, some companies advertise their services as cloud services when in fact these are not! Therefore, what is cloud computing? &#8211; We define cloud computing as anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. Cloud services are categorized as, Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service or Software as a Service (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS). While, the name cloud, is the symbol used to represent the Internet in various technical and non-technical drawings.</p>
<p><span id="more-509"></span></p>
<p>The cloud is not just a cool technology model but it is also a business model. It is a well-known fact that Amazon at the outset, designed the infrastructure for their own use but it evolved into a product or better a service offered as &#8211; Amazon&#8217;s Web, EC2, S3, or Amazon&#8217;s cloud. It is quite evident that now they are trying to increase their revenue by pushing their infrastructure to the limits through new offers such as, &#8211; <em>Spot Instances enable you to bid for unused Amazon EC2 capacity</em>. We all heard of power outages, resources that disappear and slower response times that may be a consequence of an overloaded setup. However, through personal experience I can say that these incidents are very rare with big providers such as, Amazon. Remember, that downtime is also possible with in-house solutions!</p>
<p>One common SaaS is email &#8211; if the main criteria are costs, then outsourcing email is your best option. Although, big corporations can negotiate favorable agreements with email providers such as, Google &#8211; remember that small to medium businesses may not get the same favor! A word about Google email and applications services &#8211; it is very hard to get reasonable support and you may need to rely on third-party tools for basic stuff such as, backing up email boxes. In addition, there is no guarantee that user data would be secure and backed up.</p>
<p>All cloud services share the available resources and therefore, you are competing for computer resources with other customers. A good alternative would be to place your assets with two different providers or use the cloud just to scale-up your systems when the demand rises. Although, you may implement all of the security measures provided by the cloud provider and by the systems themselves, there is still the risk of possible intrusion/destruction from neighboring hosts. Neighboring hosts are virtual machines that are running on the same server or in the same data center. One university claims to have a prototype/model that can identify the exact location of a virtual machine and eventually can start a neighboring VM (Virtual Machine) with high utilization that can hook the underlying platform! In the event of using the cloud as a storage provider, implementing data encryption would adequately harden security &#8211; read <a href=" http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/enterprise/securing-your-online-backup-archives/" target="_blank">Securing your online backup archives</a></p>
<p>No cloud standards yet exist! If you are using the cloud as an infrastructure service, it is impossible to move your assets elsewhere say, to another cloud provider without rebuilding your systems from scratch and moving all your data, as virtual machines setups are not compatible from one provider to another. If you are using software as a service then you need to find another provider that provides the same service and data migration capabilities. Apart from all this, one of the major setbacks remains your Internet connection &#8211; so before contemplating to use cloud services make sure to invest in a good and reliable Internet connection, otherwise, you will be disappointed!<br />
<h3>Last 3 posts by George</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/backup-considerations-for-microsoft-sharepoint/">Backup considerations for Microsoft SharePoint</a> - July 26th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/what-is-cloud-computing/">What is Cloud Computing?</a> - July 19th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/audit/is-cloud-computing-getting-safer/">Is Cloud computing getting safer?</a> - July 13th, 2010</li></ul></p>
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		<title>Low cost Data Protection concepts for Virtualized environments</title>
		<link>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/low-cost-data-protection-concepts-for-virtualized-environments/</link>
		<comments>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/low-cost-data-protection-concepts-for-virtualized-environments/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:09:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>George</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Basics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food for thought]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Virtualization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[clone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[image]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[snapshots]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virtual servers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/?p=308</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Given the widespread success of virtualization, many SMBs rely exclusively on the inbuilt features as their main data protection plan and which may appear adequate at face value! One would need to see the overall picture! Virtual server based tools such as, snapshots and export/import utilities that are found in the major products, help organizations protect their data to a certain [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Given the widespread success of virtualization, many SMBs rely exclusively on the inbuilt features as their main data protection plan and which may appear adequate at face value! One would need to see the overall picture! Virtual server based tools such as, snapshots and export/import utilities that are found in the major products, help organizations protect their data to a certain degree! It is not enough to backup data, being a clone or a file to the same virtual server. In fact, major manufacturers and their fellow partners provide a vast range of backup solutions that fulfill all requirements of a proper backup policy. With SMBs, the deciding factor may be costs! Do they have the budget to purchase such applications? However, for the unlucky IT techies that never manage to get their superiors buying these expensive products can still develop a similar mechanism. Using some basic scripting and inexpensive hardware they can build backup solutions similar to these expensive applications as they too, make use of the inbuilt or native tools found in the major virtualization products.</p>
<p><span id="more-308"></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Basic setup</strong>  <img class="size-full wp-image-309 aligncenter" title="Basic setup" src="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Basic-setup.jpg" alt="Basic setup" width="342" height="113" /></p>
<p>Virtual machines (VMs) are copied (cloned) to a remote computer (storage location) through the export functionality of the virtual server over a Gbit network connection. This can be performed overnight on a weekly or daily basis (depending on the function of your data). VMs can either be left in their exported format or successively imported locally to the computer as to verify their integrity. Additionally, the remote computer can be mounted as a local storage to the virtual server using the inbuilt NFS or iSCSI functionality. All you need is a good reference of the scripting commands available for your environment and the virtual server admin client application. The main cost of this setup is a computer with adequate storage space; say, two or three 1 TB SATA hard drives in a RAID configuration.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Advanced setup</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-310" title="Advanced setup" src="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Advanced-setup.jpg" alt="Advanced setup" width="365" height="200" /></p>
<p>This setup can perform the same tasks as the basic one plus more! Exported VMs to the central location can be successively imported to a second virtual server. This requires that the second server has sufficient free space to host the imported VMs (clones). In the event of a failure on server 1, the recovery time of any exported-imported VM is minimal as you only need to start the imported clone on server 2. The only additional task required would be, the restore operation of any data (at file level) that has changed since the last clone was done. For file data backups one would use the native backup utilities found in the major Operating Systems such as, NT backup for MS windows and Tar for Linux, running with scheduled jobs. Also, a faster alternate solution would be to connect both virtual servers as repositories of each other through NFS or iSCSI.</p>
<p><em>The suggested setups have some limitations and these are:</em></p>
<ul>
<li>Backups are done at an image level (clones) and not at file or folder level but this can be overcome through the free reliable solutions incorporated in the main operating systems.</li>
<li>You need to shutdown the VM during an export procedure and hence, the backup process should happen after office hours but this would not be an option if the resource is required to be running 24/7. One would need to explore the snapshot functionality to overcome this setback.</li>
</ul>
<p><em>Conclusion</em>: &#8211; With what I call a high spec PC and a fast local network (Gbit NICs &amp; switches – quite standard nowadays), the suggestions presented above can offer SMBs a backup and recovery solution without spending thousands of dollars. The same concept can applied between remote sites over a good Internet connection to provide a disaster recovery site. In the articles to come, I will be explaining some basic scripts that perform similar tasks in a typical virtual server environment.<br />
<h3>Last 3 posts by George</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/backup-considerations-for-microsoft-sharepoint/">Backup considerations for Microsoft SharePoint</a> - July 26th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/what-is-cloud-computing/">What is Cloud Computing?</a> - July 19th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/audit/is-cloud-computing-getting-safer/">Is Cloud computing getting safer?</a> - July 13th, 2010</li></ul><br />
</p>
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		<title>Total Cost of Ownership of Data Backups</title>
		<link>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/total-cost-of-ownership-of-data-backups/</link>
		<comments>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/total-cost-of-ownership-of-data-backups/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:24:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>George</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Basics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food for thought]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Remote Backups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[costs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online backups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[remote backup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Total Cost of Ownership]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/?p=276</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Are online backup and recovery solutions cheaper than the counterpart traditional solutions? Before I deal with this argument I would like to point out a few points: &#8211; online backups provide an offsite disaster recovery solution, you can access your data from anywhere given that you have an internet connection and additionally, you will be [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-278" title="money" src="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/money.jpg" alt="money" width="97" height="124" /><em>Are online backup and recovery solutions cheaper than the counterpart traditional solutions?</em> Before I deal with this argument I would like to point out a few points: &#8211; online backups provide an offsite disaster recovery solution, you can access your data from anywhere given that you have an internet connection and additionally, you will be enjoying the expertise and the scalability of big vendors.</p>
<p>Online backups offer cheaper costs per GB for the same functionality because you only pay for what you use. :) The costs include the storage used, bandwidth consumed and other related services. Data security is based on the latest encryption algorithms and adequate auditing features would place the end-user&#8217;s mind at rest!</p>
<p><span id="more-276"></span></p>
<p>A typical SMB that generates a full backup of say, 600GB of data would need an initial expense consisting of an entry level LTO-3 storage drive and an entry level server plus a couple of LTO-3 tape cartridges. Such setup would permit the full backup to be completed in about three hours and the need of one IT staff to be present to swop the tapes if compressing the data is not good enough to fit all data on one tape.</p>
<p>The Initial capital or better the total purchase cost for a similar tape solution would be about $3600. Therefore, the initial cost per GB would be of $6 per GB. If we assume that the above mentioned setup would run for a period of three whole years without entering into additional expenses such as, maintenance and repair costs (which is highly unlikely), then the cost per GB would be much lower. However, one would need to include the IT staff, space requirements and electricity expenses into the costs equation.</p>
<p>On the other hand, an online backup solution requires a good and stable internet connection, especially with regards to upload speeds. Various service providers provide services to move the initial large volumes of data through other means and hence, at cheaper rates. However, if an SMB had to implement this solution, it would cost him/her about $360 to transfer the initial 600GB of data which would yield a cost of 0.60c per GB. As already noted, an adequate internet connection is a must since an internet connection with an upload speed of 2Mbps would take a month to upload a full data backup of about 600GB. This may not be practical; however, alternate arrangements can be made with the provider to shift the initial data!</p>
<p>Conclusion: &#8211; An online backup solution has a lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) when compared to an internal solution.<br />
<h3>Last 3 posts by George</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/backup-considerations-for-microsoft-sharepoint/">Backup considerations for Microsoft SharePoint</a> - July 26th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/what-is-cloud-computing/">What is Cloud Computing?</a> - July 19th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/audit/is-cloud-computing-getting-safer/">Is Cloud computing getting safer?</a> - July 13th, 2010</li></ul></p>
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		<title>Typical Backup Destination Media for Home Users</title>
		<link>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/typical-backup-destination-media-for-home-users/</link>
		<comments>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/typical-backup-destination-media-for-home-users/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:53:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>George</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Basics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food for thought]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backup media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CD/DVD]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hard drives]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/?p=270</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Internal hard drives: Hard drives are relatively inexpensive and efficient but they are prone to viruses or software corruption due to other software running on the system. You can&#8217;t store it in a location separate from your computer. You have to install it in another computer in case you have problems with the computer and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Internal hard drives:</strong> Hard drives are relatively inexpensive and efficient but they are prone to viruses or software corruption due to other software running on the system. You can&#8217;t store it in a location separate from your computer. You have to install it in another computer in case you have problems with the computer and you need to recover the backed up data.</p>
<p><strong>External hard drives:</strong> An external hard drive can easily be attached to your computer using a USB port. External hard drives can be stored in a location that&#8217;s separate from your computer, which can help protect your backup. You need to connect it with your computer every time a data backup is done and is usually slower than internal hard drives.<span id="more-270"></span></p>
<p><strong>Writeable CDs or DVDs:</strong> CDs and DVDs are relatively inexpensive and are easy to find in stores. Practically, all recent computers have CD/DVD burners installed. You can store the CDs or DVDs in a location that&#8217;s separate from your computer. Depending on how much data you have, it might take several CDs or DVDs to hold your backup while CDs or DVDs can become corrupted over time.</p>
<p><strong>USB flash drives:</strong> USB flash drives are relatively inexpensive and can hold a fair amount of data. You can store a flash drive in a location that&#8217;s separate from your computer. It could fill up quickly as typical sizes are still small.</p>
<p><strong>Network locations:</strong> If you have two or more computers connected together, a shared folder or drive on one computer can be a convenient place to save your backup. Ideally, the network share is protected with a username and a password while backup time depend on the network devices&#8217; transfer speeds.</p>
<p>For the most flexibility, my recommendation is to save your backup to an external hard drive :)<br />
<h3>Last 3 posts by George</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/backup-considerations-for-microsoft-sharepoint/">Backup considerations for Microsoft SharePoint</a> - July 26th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/what-is-cloud-computing/">What is Cloud Computing?</a> - July 19th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/audit/is-cloud-computing-getting-safer/">Is Cloud computing getting safer?</a> - July 13th, 2010</li></ul></p>
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		<title>Wish You and Your Dearest a No Data Loss Year</title>
		<link>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/wish-you-and-your-dearest-a-no-data-loss-year/</link>
		<comments>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/wish-you-and-your-dearest-a-no-data-loss-year/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:53:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>chribonn</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Basics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food for thought]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[costs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[data loss]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/?p=266</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[New Year Wishes. Hope 2010 is a year with no data loss.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I want to take the opportunity to wish you and your dearest the very best for the forthcoming year. Some places are already referring to the newly hung calendar while others have a few more hours to go before their 2009 almanac would have served its purpose.</p>
<p>Health, good fortune and prosperity are the common form of wishes we bestow upon one another. And since I do not want to break with tradition I would like to bestow them onto you. Yet with all of these there is little we can do to determine the outcome. What destiny has in stock for each and every one of us will be revealed at the appropriate time. Some of the wishes can be even considered to be dangerous. For example I would never suggest to a friend to take on gambling so as to increase her prospects of getting some good fortune.</p>
<p>Yet I can safely wish you a year without any loss of data. The simple trick is to backup your data regularly, ideally in a manner that is automated and does not necessitate you having to remember to do it. If the process is automated there is a great chance that you will succeed in not losing any critical information if your computer takes all the data with it when it dies out.<br />
<h3>Last 3 posts by chribonn</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/when-green-is-bad/">When Green Is Bad</a> - July 5th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/what-your-backup-solution-should-be-and-do/">What your backup solution should be and do</a> - June 27th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/enterprise/securing-your-online-backup-archives/">Securing your online backup archives</a> - May 12th, 2010</li></ul></p>
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		<title>Are online backups for your computer a safe idea?</title>
		<link>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/uncategorized/are-online-backups-for-your-computer-a-safe-idea/</link>
		<comments>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/uncategorized/are-online-backups-for-your-computer-a-safe-idea/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:07:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>chribonn</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food for thought]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Remote Backups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[data loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online backups]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/?p=260</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Are cars safe? Are computers safe? Is buying over the internet safe? These are some of the questions people who pose the question above might have asked a hundred, thirty and fifteen years ago. Today, many of us use cars, computers and regularly effect payments over the internet without much thought. When talking about online [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Are cars safe? Are computers safe? Is buying over the internet safe? These are some of the questions people who pose the question above might have asked a hundred, thirty and fifteen years ago. Today, many of us use cars, computers and regularly effect payments over the internet without much thought. When talking about online backups, the simple answer to the question being asked is yes.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Loony_Bin.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-261" src="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Loony_Bin.jpg" alt="Loony_Bin" width="250" height="364" /></a></p>
<p><span id="more-260"></span>I have, over the past year and a bit discussed this topic with my students. My students are normal people taking an office productivity computer course. Their computer is shared by at least one other member of the family. They come from all walks of life and a considerable portion of them have been the victim of some sort of data loss. The loss may have been as a result of a virus, an incompetent relative trying to tinker something on the computer or a hard disk failure. All of them reminisce about lost photos, assignments and other important electronic material once held on the computer.</p>
<p>Outside the dominion of what it is one should or should not do, the fact of the matter is that backing up to CDs, DVDs or other media is a non starter with the absolute majority of commoners. Some may take up the hobby right after a disaster but as soon as the memory of the event starts fading into the background so does the backup regime.<br />
With the internet being consistently stable and fast the possibility of being able to backup your important stuff to an offsite server is bliss. Imagine a solution that is easy to setup and intuitively selects your important folders automatically. When you open the program it gives you a Windows Explorer type interface with the important folders already selected but lets you customize the backup list. When you hit the Backup button, the selected files and folders are copied in the background to a fast, safe and secure server. If the software cannot backup a file because it is currently being used, it prompts you about the matter and tries again later. Once a backup has been completed the programs sits quietly in the background monitoring changed files which it will update automatically. The program would keep deleted and prior versions of modified files for a specified number of days just in case you need to revert back to them.</p>
<p>If something happens to your computer and you lose everything, you simply install the program again and after typing in your username and password, the program automatically downloads saved backup settings so that you do not have to recreate them. This time round, when you hit the Restore button, the Windows Explorer type window comes up and you simply transfer the files from the remote server to your local computer. Similar reasoning would apply if you delete an individual file or need to revert to an earlier version of a document.</p>
<p>There are people who are rightfully concerned about their privacy. Most office productivity products allow you to password protect documents making them unreadable to anyone without the password. Certain file types such as images and audio files cannot be password protected at the file level although there are free programs that will create password protected archives. 7-Zip and Truecrypt are two products I have used frequently for this purpose.<br />
<h3>Last 3 posts by chribonn</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/when-green-is-bad/">When Green Is Bad</a> - July 5th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/what-your-backup-solution-should-be-and-do/">What your backup solution should be and do</a> - June 27th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/enterprise/securing-your-online-backup-archives/">Securing your online backup archives</a> - May 12th, 2010</li></ul></p>
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		<title>The Computer’s First Backup</title>
		<link>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/food-for-thought/the-computer%e2%80%99s-first-backup/</link>
		<comments>http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/food-for-thought/the-computer%e2%80%99s-first-backup/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:53:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>chribonn</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food for thought]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backup]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/?p=225</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As soon as computers came into existence they started breaking down; and breakdown they did. The early computers used vacuum tubes and would break down roughly every other day. The absolute majority of problems related to failed vacuum tubes although with so many mechanical parts, there were other breakdowns that would need addressing albeit comparatively [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>As soon as computers came into existence they started breaking down; and breakdown they did. The early computers used vacuum tubes and would break down roughly every other day. The absolute majority of problems related to failed vacuum tubes although with so many mechanical parts, there were other breakdowns that would need addressing albeit comparatively much less frequently.</p>
<p><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Blue-punch-card-front-horiz.png"></a><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/card.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-227" src="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/card.jpg" alt="card" width="500" height="224" /></a></p>
<p><span id="more-225"></span>Punched cards also known as IBM or Hollerith cards were the medium used for input and output. Different codes would be represented by the presence and absence of holes in predefined positions. Programmers would have their program punched into a stack of cards. They would submit the program deck, followed by cards that held the data on which the program worked. The operator would load these cards into the card reader (together with other jobs). The operator would use a special language called the JCL (Job Control Language) to make the computer read the program into the computer’s memory and execute thereafter. The JCL instructions themselves would be entered on punched cards. Data used by the program would be loaded in a similar manner. Output from the program would be to paper if it needed to be human readable or to new punched cards if the output would have to be processed again. Today’s equivalent to punched cards is files stored on the hard disk.</p>
<p><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/FortranCardPROJ039.agr.jpg"></a></p>
<p>A punched card was a stiff piece of paper. They came in a variety of colours allowing colour coding of different sections of a deck such as JCL, programs and data.  Punched cards did not originate with the computer industry; they were first used in the 19th century for controlling textile looms and for operating fairground organs and related instruments.</p>
<p>The punched card cannot be thought of a backup in the modern sense of the word. Important programs and data cards could be duplicated just in case anything happened to the working set.  The punched cards would be stored offsite and being made of stiff material proved to be quite durable.</p>
<p>We’ve come a long way in the world of backups, the technologies may have changed but the purpose and scope have remained fixed.</p>
<p><em>Merry Christmas to one and all.</em> <h3>Last 3 posts by chribonn</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/when-green-is-bad/">When Green Is Bad</a> - July 5th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/basics/what-your-backup-solution-should-be-and-do/">What your backup solution should be and do</a> - June 27th, 2010</li><li><a href="http://www.backupmyhost.com/blog/enterprise/securing-your-online-backup-archives/">Securing your online backup archives</a> - May 12th, 2010</li></ul></p>
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