As we wrap up our office space blog series on data storage and back-up, we need to address the topic of data back-up appliances. Not everyone feels comfortable relying on cloud back-up, and even those who use a cloud service provider may still want to keep a local back-up copy anyway. When considering keeping a local back-up in-house, you may want to consider using a purpose-built back-up appliance that combines software and the hard drive disk space needed for back-ups.
Purpose-Built Back-up Appliances are designed to improve the back-up process by decreasing back-up and recovery windows across multiple applications and computer operating platforms. They work by leveraging disk-based technology so that they are less sensitive to network latency than tape media, yet are far faster at locating data that needs to be restored.
The primary providers of data protection continue to be software companies because they are the providers who support the methods of how the server utilizes the back-up storage media. In other words, data back-up appliances are not physical devices, but the software programs that create the methodology behind the back-up storage media. It is important to think of back-up appliance as software that you do not have to interact with once it is set in place and allowed to make back-ups automatically. Think of data back-up appliances the same way you would thing of anti-virus software, router firewalls, and back-end software like Java. They are not applications that you work with on a day-to-day basis, but you know they are working in the background enhancing and protecting the way your computer and the computers on your network work to keep your data safe, while maximizing how you utilize the data on your computer.
The most important advantage that this technology provides for business is the faster recovery of data. But we often tell our Toronto office space clients, as good as your on-site back ups may be, you should always have some sort of off-site back-up plan as well.