Dedicated Server Backup Service

Enterprise Level Backups - Blog Post


Fully Managed Backup and Recovery Service
FastServers.Net has partnered with Arsenal Digital Solutions to provide you with a fully-managed, disk-based data protection service that you can use to backup mission-critical data stored on servers located in the FastServers.Net data center. The ViaRemote service provides complete automated protection. It includes all the necessary hardware, software, installation, provisioning, reporting, and operational support to seamlessly backup and restore both files and databases whenever needed.

Once platform initialization has been completed for a particular server, daily backups occur automatically, performing the equivalent of a full daily backup in a fraction of the time required by other backup methodologies. Backups are performed over a secure private virtual local area network (VLAN) to a shared or dedicated backup infrastructure. For management control, a web-based portal enables you to access timely, detailed reports on usage and trends to improve your storage planning and business continuity protection. You can also use ViaRemote’s web-based portal to restore vital company data to an existing location or to a recovery facility of your choice. ViaRemote simplifies every aspect of protecting your data – from automated backups to rapid web-based restores.

ViaRemote is a pay-as-you-go service, making your storage management costs more predictable and accountable. It is available for Windows® and Linux operating systems with direct support for live Microsoft SQL Backups
FastServers.Net offer three retention plans to fit the needs of your business: 7 Day, 14 Day, and 28 Day retention. ViaRemote includes world-class 24x7 monitoring, management, and support services, delivering the confidence of guaranteed service levels with the advantage of minimal capital investment.

Utilizing a client/server based agent technology, viaRemote offers enterprise level backups for a fraction of the cost. Utilizing a unique "Protected GB" pricing model you never have to worry about over utilizing disk space on the remote device. Calculating your needs is as simple as sizing out what data on your managed dedicated server you want backed up.

Take for example the need to backup 5GB of data on your server. On a traditional storage pricing model you would maintain a minimum of 7 Full copies of this data to achieve 7-Day retention. The total amount of space needed would be 35GB. Priced at a modest $2.00 per GB, this would cost approximately $70.00 per month. With the "Protected GB" model the cost of 5GB of "enterprise level backups" cost only $27.50 per month.

Click here for demo of Arsenal Digital's viaRemote

Enterprise Backup Comparison
	Tape Backups	NAS Backups	viaRemote Backups
Capital expenditures for hardware?	Yes - $2,200.00 - annually	Yes.  ($200/month) or ($2,400 annually)	$0.00
Time to deploy & test?	7-10 days with seasoned system administrator	7-10 days with seasoned system administrator	24 Hours or Less
Capital expenditure for software?	Yes, $950.00 per server	Yes, $950.00 per server	Includes Free
Scalable and upgradeable on short notice?	No, requires more capital investment.	No, requires another server.	Automatic
Easy of use	Experience required.	FTP based backups.  Scripting can be complicated.	Very Simple
Cost per GB Stored.	$8.00 - $12.00 (20GB Tape Drive) - monthly	$5.00 per GB (monthly)	Less than $2.00
Fully Managed with Reporting	No reporting, manual testing is required.	No.	Yes
Ease of Restoration	Complicated if multiple tapes are involved, requires "remote hands".	Download via FTP, uncompress, move files to desired location.	One Click Restore
Offsite Replication	Offsite storage, minimum $250 per month	Possible with second server.	Yes
Network Optimized	No.	No, utilizes a great deal of network resources.	Yes
Portal Based Backup Manager	No.	No.	Yes
System Resource Utilization	Large backups slow systems down.	Yes. (zip, tar, gz) require processor time to compress on both backup and restore.	Minimized
Prone to human error	Yes, requires tape rotation and diligent testing procedures.	Yes, broken schedules/crons and misconfigured scripts cause failure.	No
Limitation of Storage	Based on Device, 20G Compressed (average)	Limited to size of server.	Unlimited

Facts about Tape Based Backups

• Tape backup has been around for more than 25 years and still has a 50% failure rate
• More than 50% of employees back up their data to a misconfigured tape backup system (Iron Mountain)
• More than 34% do not test their backups and those that tested (77%) found their tape backup failed to recover (Storage Magazine)
• Nearly 50% of tape-based backups (or backup systems) fail to restore correctly (Gartner Group)
• Tapes wear out, just like a VHS, but you can't tell by visual examination whether it's still good or not
• Tape drives are expensive and difficult to replace; new tapes cost $50 to $180 per unit and should be rotated out of service monthly
• To be effective, tape backup needs to be run daily, but it's easy to miss a day (or a week)
• People forget to rotate the tapes

Facts about NAS Based Backups

• NAS based backup is a lower cost alternative to tape based backup without enterprise software available.
• FTP backups require compression to take place on the server utilizing memory and processors.
• Longer retention periods require multiple full copies of the data utilizing massive amounts of space on the NAS device.
• Hard drive failures on NAS devices are sometimes impossible to recover or take long periods of time. (2-5 Days)
• Windows and Linux scheduling software can fail without notifications to server owners/admins.

Data	Retention Period	Monthly Cost
5GB	7-Day	$22.50
10GB	7-Day	$45.00
25GB	7-Day	$112.50
5GB	14-Day	$25.00
10GB	14-Day	$50.00
25GB	14-Day	$125.00

Additional pricing is available for an unlimited amount of space and 28-Day Retention, to get special pricing please email sales@fastservers.net