Cloud Backup

Advanced backup retention policy

1. Ability to store up to 1,000 recovery points per VM backup. 2. Adopted a GFS Scheme (Grandfather-Father-Son) retention policy which entails retaining backups on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. This ensures that you can always roll back to a suitable point if need be. 3. Son is the most recent backup from a given moment, and a grandfather is the most distant. A. Son is a daily backup B. Father is a weekly one C. Grandfather is a monthly one One of the disadvantages of the GFS scheme is that older backups become less granular. A. For instance, if you created some file, say, on Monday on the second week of June, and then deleted it the next day, it will be lost irretrievably.

Most cloud backup providers allow you to set:

1. Backup schedule 2. Operate with backup files 3. Control allocated bandwidth 4. Add new files if needed

Cloud Back-Up Advantages

1. Cost Effective 2. Keeps data off-site 3. On-demand access 4. Back-up process is automatic 5. Elasticity 6. User friendly

Advantage of Cloud

1. Cost-effectiveness 2. Flexibility 3. on-demand scalability

Backup Compression Stats

1. Fast Comp back up 48.4 GB of raw data: Repository space usage: 20.2 GB Fast compression result: 59.0% saved (29.0 GB) Job duration: 17 minutes 53 seconds 2. Best Comp back up 48.4 GB of raw data: Repository space usage: 15.5 GB Best compression result: 68.0% saved (33.0 GB) Job duration: 33 minutes 58 seconds 3. Disable back up 48.4 GB of raw data: Repository space usage: 48.4 GB As expected, the result of Disabled compression: 0.0% saved (0.0 GB) Job duration: 20 minutes 27 seconds

Cloud backup solution is preferred due to its:

1. Flexibility 2. Easy deployment 3. On-demand scalability

What are the threats

1. Human threat 2. Natural 3. Technical

Types of Cloud Storage

1. Public 2. Private 3. Hybrid

Cloud storage systems share the following characteristics

1. Responsible for the back-end support and maintenance of the application 2. Environment function on a self-serve basis 3. Environments are elastic 4. Resources can be accessed over the internet at any time 5. One Cloud environment can be shared by multiple users with the help of the multi-tenant model 6. The provider monitors and calculates each user's resource use, meaning that you only pay for what you use in the given.

Cloud Backup Service fee is based on:

1. Scalability 2. Bandwidth 3. Number of users A. Cloud data backup can be set up to run on demand B. The data has been available for various access points and give be shared among multiple Cloud users

What is Cloud computing

1. Shared pool of various resources and services used for storing managing and processing data that can be accessed via the web 2. Cloud computing allows you to eliminate the unnecessary costs associated with building and maintaining on-premise IT infrastructure 3. Cloud backup is a popular method of off-site data storage

Risk can be measured by two factors

1. The likelihood of an event happening 2. The consequence of that event happening Example The likelihood of a cell phone being stolen is small but the consequence it's high because of all the personal info on the cell phone

Cloud Back-Up Disadvantages

1. Trust 2. Bandwidth and latency 3. Security risk

What Is VMware Changed Block Tracking and How It Works

1. taking incremental backups of virtual machines. 2. It significantly reduces the amount of time the backup software takes to perform incremental backups because it tracks changes in a special Changed Block Tracking log file.

More on Cloud Back-up vs Cloud Storage

Cloud backup is the process of backing up specific data and storing it in a cloud storage system (usually owned/maintained by an online backup provider). 1. With cloud backup, you can synchronize data at the production site and in the cloud, meaning that any changes in the original data will be reflected in its cloud version. 2. Cloud backup is also used to store full copies of the data you protect. 3. The cloud backup service constantly scans your virtual infrastructure in order to find any changes and updates the cloud environment accordingly. 4. The cloud backup service is primarily used for ensuring data recovery in case of a DR event. 5. A cloud storage system serves as a remote site for storing data that can be shared by many users and accessed over the Internet at any time. 6. Cloud storage systems can be used to store cloud backups.

Cloud Storage vs. Cloud Backup

Cloud storage is typically created in addition to the primary physical storage, and it is mainly used for backing up sensitive data. Cloud backup is the process of backing up specific data and storing it in a cloud storage system (usually owned/maintained by an online backup provider).

More on Cloud Storage vs Cloud Back up

Cloud storage is typically created in addition to the primary physical storage, and it is mainly used for backing up sensitive data. 1. Determine which data is the most critical and then transfer the copies of that data to a cloud-based environment for storage. 2. If a file is deleted from the production site, its copy will still be present in your cloud storage. 3. Since the file in the cloud exists separately from the main system and it is not affected by the changes at the production site.

Backup Deduplication

During the VM backup, data deduplication checks if new blocks of data are identical to those already available in the backup repository. If there are duplicates, they will not be copied, and a reference to the existing data blocks will be created.

Self-Backup

Ensures that the product protects not only VMs and application data, but also all of its own settings you have configured. This includes all: 1. Jobs 2. Inventory 3. Logs 4. Repositories, etc. Self-Backup operations are run daily, with Self-Backups stored in backup repositories for five days. In case of a disaster, Self-Backup allows you to dramatically reduce the time spent on restoring system settings.

Hyper-V Changed Block Tracking (CBT)

Hyper-V's ability to be able to keep track of changes even if there is a: A. Hard crash B. Unexpected power off of the virtual machine. Hyper-V accomplishes this by implementing 2 change tracking files: 1. In memory 2. on disk. This way if the above mentioned dirty shutdown or power off happens and the changed tracking in memory is lost, we still have the changed tracking on disk.

Conclusion of Cloud back-up solution

Installing an effective cloud-based backup solution ensures that your data is: 1. Constantly protected 2. Can be accessed from anywhere at any time 3. Can be rapidly recovered in case of a disaster

What is Cloud storage

Is a model of data storage in which the data can be 1. Access 2. Managed 3. Stored in a remote Cloud Server via the Internet

What is Cloud Backup

Is a type of data backup where a copy is sent over a secure proprietary or public network to a cloud base server.

Cloud definition

On-demand delivery of computing resources and services over the internet as a pay-as-you-go basis

Skipping Swap Files and Partitions in VM Backup

Swap files essentially function as additional "virtual memory" intended for storing data that is not used by the computer RAM. Swap files are dynamic, meaning that they change depending on the system conditions Thus, during backup jobs, swap files would logically be included in all increments and significantly decrease the amount of available space. Automatically excludes swap files and partitions, ensuring that storage space is saved for important data and that the speed of backup jobs is improved.

How Does Cloud Backup Work?

The backup process entails copying data at the production site and transferring it to a remote storage system where it can be easily accessed for DR purposes

What is Risk

The effect of uncertainty on objectives

Backup Compression

The size of each data block is reduced through automatic compression. Backups occupy even: 1. Less storage space 2. Quick data transfer can be achieved. Three levels of compression are available: 1. Fast- (Lowest) Fast compression consumes less CPU, and the space savings should be sufficient for most cases. 2. Medium- (Medium) algorithm is more complex. While requiring more CPU than the Fast level, Medium compression saves more space. 3. Best- (Highest) optimizes for the highest level of data compression, which allows you to save more space but means that your data protection jobs could take longer. 4. Disable- Compression is completely disable

Threat model/Risk Assesment

Threat model does 2 things 1st- It identifies all possible threats 2nd- Identify ways to eliminate and/or reduce those threats

Application-aware backups

VM backup jobs are generally performed using VMware Guest OS Quiescing VM backups are executed in the application-aware mode, meaning that data in various applications, such as Active Directory, SQL, Microsoft Exchange, and SharePoint, is transactionally consistent. *Quiescing a file system is a process of bringing the on-disk data of a physical or virtual computer into a state suitable for backups. To quiesce is to pause or alter a device or application to achieve a consistent state, usually in preparation for a backup or other maintenance.

The goal of cloud backup or having cloud backup

mitigate any risk to a disaster