Backup to the Cloud. 2nd NetApp Special Edition. by Lawrence C. Miller, CISSP

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2 Backup to the Cloud 2nd NetApp Special Edition by Lawrence C. Miller, CISSP

3 Backup to the Cloud For Dummies, 2nd NetApp Special Edition Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ Copyright 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) , fax (201) , or online at Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, The Dummies Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. NetApp, the NetApp logo, and the marks listed at are trademarks of NetApp, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. For general information on our other products and services, or how to create a custom For Dummies book for your business or organization, please contact our Business Development Department in the U.S. at , contact info@dummies.biz, or visit custompub. For information about licensing the For Dummies brand for products or services, contact BrandedRights&Licenses@Wiley.com. ISBN (pbk); ISBN (ebk) Manufactured in the United States of America

4 Introduction Traditional data backup technologies, such as tape, are slow, expensive, risky, and complex. Lost or damaged tapes, long restore times, and painfully slow management are driving organizations to look for better data protection solutions. About This Book This book provides an overview of cloud-integrated data protection, which addresses many of today s backup challenges by transforming the cloud into a low-cost, instantly accessible data storage tier. Foolish Assumptions Because you re interested in this book, I assume you have at least a basic understanding of data-protection concepts specifically, backup and recovery and cloud technologies. I also assume that you re a technical decision-maker, such as a chief information officer (CIO), VP, or director of infrastructure. Or perhaps you re a storage/backup manager or administrator or a cloud or enterprise architect for a midsize business or a large enterprise. 1

5 Finally, I assume that you re involved in the evaluation and selection of backup solutions and/or cloud services for your organization. Icons Used in This Book Throughout this book, I occasionally use special icons to call attention to important information. Here s what to expect. This icon points out information that may well be worth committing to your nonvolatile memory, your gray matter, or your noggin! You won t find a map of the human genome, but if you seek to attain the seventh level of NERD-vana, perk up! This icon explains the jargon beneath the jargon. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy the book, and please take care of your writers! Seriously, this icon points out helpful suggestions and useful nuggets of information. Beyond the Book Although this book is chock-full of information, there s only so much I can cover in 32 short pages! So, after reading this book, if you find yourself wanting to know more, simply go to 2

6 IN THIS CHAPTER Understanding backup challenges Integrating with cloud services Realizing the benefits of backup to the cloud Chapter 1 Moving to a New Backup Strategy In this chapter, I discuss the challenges and limitations of traditional backup strategies, explain how to integrate your existing backup infrastructure with the cloud, and examine some of the benefits of backup to the cloud. Recognizing the Need Moving select workloads to the cloud to lower cost and increase agility has become a priority for organizations of all sizes. A recent survey by IDG Enterprise found that the 3

7 top business goals driving investments for cloud initiatives were: Lower total cost of ownership (42 percent) Replacing on-premises legacy technology (35 percent) Enabling business continuity (33 percent) Disaster recovery (DR), business continuity (BC), and backup and recovery are often among the first workloads that IT teams consider as part of a cloud strategy. In the case of backup, traditional approaches simply can t keep up with the requirements of many organizations today. Traditional backup and recovery strategies have the following problems: Too slow: Users expect instant recovery and minimal data loss, but legacy backup and recovery technologies can t keep pace. As a result, many organizations fail to meet backup and recovery windows as data footprints grow. Too risky: Legacy technologies increase risk exposure. Many organizations still rely on tape, increasing risk due to lost or damaged tape media during use, handling, and transport. Tape can also lead to increased downtime and data loss. Too expensive: As data storage needs grow, companies struggle with the rising cost of protecting 4

8 that data. The widespread adoption of mobile devices and the data generated by the Internet of Things is expected to further accelerate data growth. Too complex: With an ever-increasing number of critical applications to protect, along with multiple backup apps and error-prone legacy technologies, backup architectures can be incredibly complex. Complexity contributes to and exacerbates all the challenges listed above. Cloud-Integrated Data Protection For IT organizations struggling with backup and recovery, the sheer number of data protection options can be overwhelming. Disk, tape, backup-as-a-service (BaaS), and backup to the cloud are all viable technologies for data protection. Start with disk Disk has become the primary backup target at most IT organizations, as well as the primary source for data recoveries. Disk-to-disk backup and recovery can be accomplished very quickly and it provides many benefits over backup-to-tape strategies, including the following: Minimizing backup windows 5

9 Supporting stringent recovery time objectives (RTOs) and service level agreements (SLAs) Supporting stringent recovery point objectives (RPOs) using snapshots and transaction logs for example, to enable more frequent backups Supporting data deduplication to help control data growth and improve efficiency Enabling faster data restores with random access to data (compared to sequential access in tape-based systems) Lessening wear and tear on tape-based systems (when used in disk-to-tape, or D2T) Your first backup copy should always go to onsite disk for rapid recovery, regardless of whether you then send your backup copy to tape, to the cloud, or to another (offsite) disk. The tried-and-true strategy of at least three copies of data in two different formats with one of those copies going offsite is still widely used with disk-to-disk-to-cloud backup strategies. The tale of the tape Although cloud storage is now easily and securely accessible, many organizations still struggle with legacy tape 6

10 implementations in spite of their well-documented problems, including the following: Failed backups: Tape systems are more susceptible to drive and media failures than disk systems. Lengthy restore times: It can take days or weeks to restore data from tapes stored at an offsite location. Data security: Tapes can be lost or stolen when transported offsite for storage. The loss of unencrypted tapes can trigger requirements for public disclosure and result in substantial penalties. Data loss: Mislabeled tapes, lost tapes, and media failures can all result in the loss of critical data. High management costs: The time required to manage physical tapes, resolve failed backups, and manage restore operations increases as the amount of backup data increases. Going to the cloud Backup to the cloud is a rapidly emerging data protection strategy. A typical backup-to-the-cloud solution uses on-premises components (including backup software, media servers, server agents, and disk backup targets) to provide the first tier of backup and recovery capability. The system then replicates backup data to the cloud in order to provide a second tier of storage for offsite disaster recovery and archiving purposes. 7

11 Examining the Benefits Backup to the cloud, utilizing a disk-to-disk-to-cloud (D2D2C) architecture, can provide numerous benefits for organizations, including the following: Rapid restores: Routine restore requests (such as an accidental modification or deletion of a file) can be completed quickly from the on-premises backup disk. Leverage existing backup infrastructure: Backup to the cloud solutions, such as NetApp AltaVault cloud-integrated storage, work with a wide variety of backup applications and enable you to seamlessly integrate these solutions with public or private clouds. Near-instantaneous offsite vaulting: Rather than waiting for a backup window to complete, and then transporting tapes to an offsite facility, D2D2C allows you to begin streaming backup data to a cloud service while individual backup jobs are running. Low cost backup storage: The cost for cloud storage has dropped to less than $0.01 per gigabyte per month, making backup to the cloud a very cost-effective solution and enabling organizations to forgo capital investments in expensive backup storage. Enhanced security: Security was once the primary concern of organizations considering a cloud strategy. Today, many cloud service providers have better security safeguards in place than some of the organizations that they serve! 8

12 IN THIS CHAPTER Backing up to the cloud Getting physical (with backups) Going virtual Understanding cloud-based appliances Chapter 2 Choosing an Appliance In this chapter, you learn about the different types of cloud-integrated backup appliances physical, virtual, and cloud-based. The NetApp AltaVault is used to provide examples. Your Data, Any Cloud Cloud-integrated storage enables organizations to securely back up data to practically any cloud, usually at 9

13 a lower cost compared with on-premises solutions. This approach gives organizations the power to tap into cloud economics and scale while preserving investments in existing backup infrastructure. With an AltaVault solution, backup data is deduplicated, compressed, and encrypted onto a physical or virtual appliance, which caches recent backups locally and vaults older backup copies to the cloud (see Figure 2-1). Source: NetApp FIGURE 2-1: NetApp AltaVault provides seamless integration with existing applications and cloud service providers. The Attraction of a Physical Appliance Physical backup appliances are often deployed in enterprise data centers to protect large volumes of data. Such datasets require high levels of performance and scalability. They benefit from enterprise-grade solutions that are 10

14 built on scalable hardware platforms that can rapidly stream data to the cloud. NetApp AltaVault physical appliances are available with local cache capacities ranging from 32 to 384 terabytes, which is protected using a RAID 6 design. Multiple ports are available for network connectivity, and the links can be aggregated (provided the network switch supports that feature). Each physical appliance includes: Four 1 Gigabit Ethernet connections»» Four 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections RAID 6 uses block-level striping with two parity blocks distributed across all member disks. Some Prefer a Virtual Approach Virtual backup appliances for Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESX, and Kernel-Based Virtual Machines (KVM) are good solutions for medium-sized businesses getting started with the cloud. They also work well for enterprises that need to protect branch and remote offices with the same level of protection they require in the data center. 11

15 AltaVault enables the deployment of virtual appliances onto general purpose x86 servers, while still providing the features and functionality of physical appliances (discussed in the previous section). AltaVault virtual appliances can be deployed onto KVM, VMware, or Hyper-V hypervisors, giving you flexibility to choose the approach that works best for your organization. AltaVault virtual appliances are available in different sizes based on the amount of local disk capacity supported 8TB, 16TB, or 32TB. Understanding Cloud-Based Appliances For organizations that need additional offsite protection, cloud-based appliances running on Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure offer a low-cost way to recover backup data. In a typical use case, data is initially backed up at the primary site using an on-premises physical or virtual appliance. If the primary site becomes unavailable for any reason, you can quickly recover your data directly from a software appliance deployed in the AWS or Azure cloud. Another use case for a cloud-based appliance is when you have production workloads running in a public cloud service. Those workloads can be backed up directly to a cloudbased appliance using your existing backup software. 12

16 An AltaVault cloud-based appliance will deduplicate, encrypt, and rapidly back up cloud-based applications to long-term, low-cost cloud storage. In both cases, pay-as-you-go pricing allows you to only pay for what you use. FINANCIAL SERVICES FIRM OPTIMIZES BACKUP A technology-focused proprietary trading firm deployed NetApp AltaVault with AWS Glacier to optimize its inefficient backup processes. Challenges Data protection process involved managing and storing tapes, which was time-consuming. Wanted to better utilize the talents of the IT team. Results Data is protected in flight and at rest using SSL and AES 256-bit encryption. 40 hours a month were reclaimed by the IT team to focus on new projects. (continued) 13

17 (continued) Annual archival storage cost reduced by 96 percent. Two-year return on investment (ROI) and $500,000 potential cost avoidance by eliminating a costly storage area network (SAN) upgrade. 85 percent data set reduction with deduplication. Restores in minutes (from AltaVault cache) or four to five hours (from Glacier), versus two to three days with tape. For more details go to customer-stories. 14

18 IN THIS CHAPTER Performing backups efficiently Architecting for flexibility Keeping backup data secure Simplifying your backup strategy Chapter 3 The Benefits of AltaVault Cloud Backup Solutions In this chapter, you learn the benefits of the NetApp AltaVault cloud-integrated backup solution. 15

19 Efficient Efficiency is an essential AltaVault benefit. AltaVault uses inline deduplication and compression, resulting in data reduction ratios of up to 30:1 which means you can store less data in the cloud and get it there faster. Over three years, connecting AltaVault with a public cloud storage service can save you money compared to disk-to-disk backup appliances and tape. Other efficiency features and benefits include the following: Network and cloud optimization Built-in WAN optimization reduces the amount of data transported to the cloud and speeds transfer times. AltaVault intelligently throttles data, which can save you time (and money). Quality of Service (QoS) ensures that data is correctly prioritized to move to and from the cloud at the speed your business requires.»» Faster data recovery Restores from local caches are much faster than tape. 16

20 Intelligent prefetching enables AltaVault to restore data from the cloud within minutes. Organizations can restore cloud-based data much faster compared with offsite tapes. Open Another key benefit of an AltaVault solution is an open architecture that enables seamless integration with the cloud. Advantages of the AltaVault open architecture include the following: Flexible deployment and scale Choose the offering that is right for your organization: physical, virtual, or cloud-based appliances. AltaVault appliances start as small as 2 terabytes and can scale to protect up to 57 petabytes of data in the cloud.»» Compatible with your existing backup software Love your backup software? If so, you re in luck. AltaVault is compatible with the majority of 17

21 leading backup and archive solutions, including CommVault, IBM, Veeam, and Veritas. Don t waste time and effort ripping and replacing your backup software and retraining IT staff. Offers cloud choice and agility Pick a cloud, any cloud, and AltaVault likely supports it. AltaVault supports dozens of cloud options, including the leading cloud service providers. AltaVault enables you to migrate your data from one cloud provider to another, avoiding vendor lock-in. Secure AltaVault protects your backup data with security features that enable you to do the following:»» Encrypt data in-flight and at rest. Ensure that data at rest is safe using AES (advanced encryption standard) 256-bit encryption, with FIPS (federal information processing standards) Level 1 validated encryption. 18

22 Protect data in-flight with industry-standard SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption with keys managed locally by your IT security department. Control your data. Restrict access to backup data on AltaVault to authorized personnel using role-based access controls. Use the management ACL (access control list) to secure the appliance by exposing only the necessary protocols, ports, and networks needed. Minimize recovery time and data loss. Reduce RTO and meet SLAs by restoring files from locally cached backups on the AltaVault appliance. Improve RPO by immediately replicating data offsite so that recovery points are as recent as your latest backup, rather than the last time tapes were shipped offsite.»» Improve disaster recovery. Recover cloud-based backup data during DR tests or actual disasters with AltaVault cloudbased appliances running on AWS or Azure. 19

23 The amount of data that you store in the cloud is reduced by the deduplication ratio you achieve with your data. At 30:1, you would only need 100TB of cloud storage to house 3 petabytes of data! Simple AltaVault simplifies the deployment and management of cloud-integrated backups. The simplicity of design enables organizations to do the following: Deploy faster. Get up and running with AltaVault in less than 30 minutes. In three simple steps, you can start sending data to the cloud. Accelerate your cloud storage on-ramp with rapid deployment and faster data transfers. Manage smarter. Reduce tape management overhead and manual tasks that are error prone and time consuming. Perform remote monitoring and management from a GUI-driven management dashboard. Allocate valuable employee resources to other projects. 20

24 IN THIS CHAPTER Leveraging your existing backup software Replicating to a public cloud Backing up to private clouds Chapter 4 Freedom to Choose In this chapter, you learn more about how a cloud backup appliance can be used with leading backup software applications and both public and private clouds. Backup Application Support NetApp AltaVault appliances are designed to optimize backup and archive operations. Through integration with leading backup, archive, and database software offerings, AltaVault offers maximum flexibility for organizations 21

25 that want to leverage their existing backup applications as part of a cloud-integrated backup strategy. AltaVault appliances are file-based appliances that provide flexible high- performance storage for backup applications through a variety of storage protocols, including: Windows SMB (also known as Server Message Block) UNIX or Linux NFS (also known as Network File System) NetApp ONTAP SnapMirror Veritas OpenStorage (OST) Public Clouds Reliably offloading backup data to a public cloud is critical to the success of any cloud backup appliance. AltaVault solutions optimize replication to public clouds, while providing users with options to throttle bandwidth use, and for scheduling when replication can run. AltaVault replication is done using cloud provider APIs (application programming interfaces), which are typically HTTP/REST (hypertext transfer protocol/ representational 22

26 state transfer) based protocols. These protocols are designed for multisession ingests of small data segments. The data segments are then stored collectively in a single target location (commonly referred to as a cloud bucket). AltaVault networking parameters have been carefully tuned to optimize throughput with each supported cloud provider. AltaVault allocates multiple threads to transmit data to and from the cloud provider, based on networking performance, the data in the queue, and the cloud provider selected. Transactions are batched together for maximum throughput and efficiency of the threads. Objects sent to the public cloud provider are typically anywhere from several kilobytes up to a few megabytes in size. In the event of a problem with a data object, transfers will automatically pause and alert the user that the appliance was unable to maintain connectivity to the cloud storage bucket. Replication is automatic and provides an estimated time of completion when running so that users can better understand the time frame required to perform cloud data updates. This can be important if there are restrictions placed on bandwidth or if scheduling windows are in use. Establishing a completion date and time lets users know clearly when 23

27 data is in sync with cloud storage and protected in the event of a disaster. AltaVault seamlessly integrates dozens of public cloud services, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Storage, Microsoft Azure, and many regional service providers. Private Clouds For organizations that don t use the public cloud (either because they can t or don t want to), AltaVault integrates with many private cloud object storage solutions, including NetApp StorageGRID Webscale. Private or hybrid cloud infrastructures can provide efficiency and security for your data protection strategy. A combined NetApp StorageGRID Webscale and AltaVault solution is one example of a private cloud infrastructure that enables organizations to efficiently store, manage, and retrieve their data. NetApp StorageGRID Webscale is a scalable, softwaredefined object storage solution for large archives, media repositories, and web datastores. StorageGRID Webscale combines more than ten years of production deployments with intelligent policy-driven data management to create an enterprise-grade, highly scalable object repository built for the hybrid cloud. 24

28 You can connect the AltaVault appliance and StorageGRID Webscale over a WAN or LAN. Either way, the built-in network optimization and deduplication of AltaVault significantly reduce the amount of data transported and can speed up transfer rates. The StorageGRID Webscale policy engine provides automated data placement across storage tiers, physical sites, and hybrid clouds, according to your site-based performance and availability requirements, and is optimized for cost as your data ages. Real-time auditing provides continuous and active monitoring for SLA verification and reporting. Finally, the StorageGRID Webscale data durability framework ensures data integrity and accessibility. 25

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30 IN THIS CHAPTER Nine things to consider for your backup strategy Chapter 5 Nine Ways to Get Started Here are nine things you need to consider when planning your backup to the cloud strategy. Review Your Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) SLAs are subject to change periodically. Ensure that your SLAs are current and that your backup strategy 27

31 is designed to meet increasingly stringent SLA requirements. Understand Your Data Retention Requirements Every organization has unique data retention requirements, and those requirements sometimes change. Ensure that your retention requirements are current, relevant, comprehensive, and understood. You should retain data backups onsite long enough to cover approximately 85 percent of your typical file restore requests. Your offsite retention requirements will be driven by your company s data retention policies and legal requirements. Update Your Disaster Recovery (DR) Plans DR plans must be continuously updated to ensure that they re relevant and effective. Start with your most current DR plans to help you identify any areas that your current backup infrastructure can t adequately address. 28

32 Verify Regulatory Requirements Be familiar with any applicable regulatory requirements for your organization s data and ensure that your backup strategy adequately addresses those requirements. Know Your Legal Requirements Some data may have legal requirements for where it can physically be stored with respect to geographical location. This is particularly important when considering a backup-to-the-cloud strategy. Ensure that you know the legal requirements for your organization s data. Define Your Business and Technical Requirements Meet with business stakeholders, data owners (or custodians), and other key personnel throughout your organization to formally define the business requirements for your data protection strategy, as well as technical requirements, including performance, scalability, and security. 29

33 Assess Your Existing Backup Strategy Perform a gap analysis to determine any shortcomings that need to be addressed between your existing backup strategy/infrastructure and your business/ technical requirements. Identify Reusable Backup Components Identify any components in your existing backup infrastructure that you might leverage in your new backup strategy, such as backup software, media servers, storage devices, and cloud service providers. Remember Not All Data Is the Same Different applications have different needs for retention and backup. Many organizations tend to back up and retain all data the same way. 30

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