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Learn How to Back Up Data Created in the CloudBacking up on-premises data to the cloud is often as simple as backing up to on-premises disk. But it gets trickier when you want to protect data created in the cloud, such as Salesforce or Office 365 records. Luckily, there are options for backing up data from one cloud to another.

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With Cloud-to-Cloud, the Sky Looks Promising

The cloud is a popular place to back up data. But what about data that lives in the cloud? How do you use the cloud for backup in that case?

Cloud-to-cloud backup is a fairly new con-cept. It comes into play with users of soft-ware-as-a-service products such as Box.com, Salesforce and Office 365. With this collection of stories, you’ll learn about the top cloud-to-cloud backup providers and how to choose one, some best practices, and what may be misun-derstood about the still young process.

Backing up cloud data can be difficult. But vendors such as Barracuda and Datto are gaining traction with cloud-to-cloud backup services. Users should consider several elements, detailed in these pages, when selecting a provider—cost,

support and backup frequency, to name a few.With a newer technology, it’s understand-

able that there would be issues and misconcep-tions. We’ll break down some of those common problems. (For example, your cloud data may not be as protected as you think.) You’ll also find details about some of the cloud-to-cloud backup products on the market today—how they work and how to troubleshoot.

There is room to grow, but cloud-to-cloud backup is on the upswing. So be diligent and cautious in backing up data created in the cloud, and read on for helpful guidance in this important and developing field. n

Paul CrocettiSite Editor, SearchDataBackup

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Cloud-to-Cloud Data Backup: How to Pick Your Provider

One of the side effects to moving IT resources into the cloud is that backups often become more difficult. This is especially true for software as a service (SaaS) clouds, because it is generally impossible to back up these types of services in the same way an organization might back up local applications. Microsoft, for instance, will not allow Office 365 customers to install a backup agent onto its servers because the servers are shared among multiple tenants. In addition, there is always the chance a backup agent could impact a server’s performance or stability.

Although SaaS clouds defy traditional approaches to backup, customers still need a way to protect their data. This is where cloud-to-cloud data backup comes into play. Although the term sometimes refers to the practice of backing up virtual machines from one infrastructure-as-a-service cloud to another, cloud-to-cloud backup has more

recently begun to refer to cloud-based backups of SaaS data.

THE RISE OF CLOUD-TO-CLOUD BACKUP

SaaS-oriented cloud-to-cloud data backup is still in its infancy, but a number of key players are emerging, including:

■n Asigra Cloud Backup software■n Barracuda Backup software■n Datto Backupify■n eFolder Cloudfinder■n EMC Spanning

Cloud-to-cloud backup providers gener-ally focus on the most commonly used SaaS applications. The vast majority of providers, for example, can protect Google Apps/Google Docs, Microsoft Office 365 and Salesforce. Some even offer protection for other SaaS

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applications. Datto Backupify, for instance, provides backup capabilities for Box and cor-porate social media accounts, including Face-book and Twitter.

CLOUD-TO-CLOUD DATA BACKUP COSTS

Cloud-to-cloud backup providers use their own pricing model. Generally speaking, cloud- to-cloud backups are based on a per-applica-tion, per-user, and per-month basis. For exam-ple, a backup provider might charge customers a specific fee each month for each Salesforce user. If the organization also uses Office 365, there would be a separate monthly, per-user cost associated with backing up Office 365 data.

Not every provider uses this licensing model. Spanning, for instance, uses a similar pric-ing structure, but bills customers on an annual basis rather than monthly. Backupify offers per-application, per-user, and per-month pric-ing, but has separate pricing plans for enter-prise and professional customers. Enterprise customers can perform automated backups up to three times a day and have an unlimited number of administrators, while professional

customers are limited to a single administrator and one daily automated backup. The company also offers an Enterprise Plus pricing plan, which is based on the number of domains that need to be protected, rather than the number of users.

PROVIDER CONSIDERATIONS

Support for the applications you need to pro-tect is the most obvious requirement when choosing a cloud-to-cloud data backup pro-vider, but here are four more important considerations:

■n Application subscription independence. This is one of the more overlooked requirements. Suppose an organization decided to cancel its Salesforce subscription after several years of use. Keeping that valuable Salesforce data may be a priority, so a good backup provider should provide a path to data recovery, even if the SaaS subscription has been canceled.

■n Regulatory compliance. A cloud-to-cloud backup product should be compliant with

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regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Even if your organization is not subject to regu-latory requirements, it is a good idea to choose a backup provider that meets regula-tory requirements, because such a provider adheres to long-established best practices for data security.

■n The frequency with which data can be backed

up. Some providers allow data to be backed up more frequently than others. Likewise, a pro-vider should offer an acceptable service-level agreement for data recovery.

■n A strong e-discovery engine. You may not always know the exact name of a file that needs to be recovered. An e-discovery engine can help you to locate data when you don’t know exactly what you are seeking.

Cloud-to-cloud backups are essential to protecting data created by SaaS applications. Because there are so many different cloud- to-cloud data backup providers, it is impor-tant to spend some time researching each one’s pricing and feature set to find the product that is the best fit with your organization.

—Brien Posey

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Answers to Common Cloud-to-Cloud Backup Questions

We asked experts to provide the biggest problems with cloud-to-cloud backup, as well as information on popular products.

TOP FIVE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT CLOUD-

TO-CLOUD DATA BACKUP

Here are the five most common misconcep-tions about cloud-to-cloud data backup.

1.It isn’t necessary. It’s easy to assume storage-as-a-service providers will back up your data. But they often create back-ups only for their own purposes, and may be unable or unwilling to restore data for individual customers. If they do, you may be charged a fee. In most cases, it is preferable to protect your own cloud-created data.

2.You only need a general backup subscrip-tion. When it comes to on-premises backup

software, you can typically purchase a single product that will provide everything you need to back up your organization’s data (though you may need add-ons for specific applications). In contrast, you may need a variety of products to protect cloud data. When it comes to storage as a service, a cloud-based backup service focuses on a specific product, such as Salesforce or Office 365. Consequently, it’s possible you will have to manage multiple backup products.

3.You get the same backup frequency as your local backup application. In local environments, data backup administra-tors rely on continuous data protection and believe it will also be used for cloud back-ups. In reality, many cloud-to-cloud data backup applications only synchronize data once per day.

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4.Cloud-to-cloud backup applications offer comprehensive protection. In many instances, there are gaps in the cover-age cloud-to-cloud backup apps provide. Some Office 365 backup tools, for example, may omit SharePoint sites or Yammer discussions.

5.The initial configuration is tedious. At one time, it was common to configure cloud-to-cloud protection on a per-user basis. Thankfully, things have gotten better and most cloud-to-cloud data backup ser-vices no longer require such a tedious con-figuration process.

WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON ISSUES

WITH OFFICE 365 BACKUP?

The biggest mistake users make with Office 365 backup is assuming that the various backup platforms provide the same level of protection as on-premises backups. It is safe to say that most administrators probably research backup products or services prior to making a pur-chase. But unless restorations are performed on

a regular basis, admins can forget exactly what the backup offering is capable of doing.

Office 365 backups will presumably get bet-ter over time. For right now, though, there are two main ways in which Office 365 backup fea-tures are lacking compared to their on-prem-ises counterparts.

First, most modern on-premises backup products provide near continuous data pro-tection at the block level. If a data loss event were to occur, such a product should be able to restore all but the last few minutes’ worth of data. In contrast, the backup offerings for Office 365 (at least the ones that I have seen) are more like legacy backup products. Rather than performing continuous backups, such products perform daily scheduled backups. This means that a data loss event could result in several hours’ worth of data being lost.

The other major shortcoming in Office 365 backup platforms is that they offer different degrees of protection for the various Office 365 products. To the best of my knowledge, there is no product that provides comprehen-sive protection for all Office 365 data. The backup features that I have seen tend to have

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decent protection for Office 365 Exchange, less impressive protection for SharePoint Online, and little to no protection for Link and Yam-mer. Protecting Office 365 Exchange is easy, but protecting other Office 365 data can be more challenging.

HOW DOES THE CLOUD-TO-CLOUD

BACKUP FEATURE WORK WITH ASIGRA

CLOUD BACKUP?

The Cloud-to-Cloud Backup feature pro-tects data created in the cloud using popular software as a service applications. It was first added to the agentless Asigra Cloud Backup software platform in 2012, when the company announced the ability to back up Salesforce data. Asigra has since added the ability to pro-tect Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365 data. Backup data from these applications can be integrated and managed with the rest of an organization’s data, and stored on premises or

in an Asigra partner’s cloud. Users can also schedule automated back-

ups at regular intervals and retain data to meet their organization’s regulatory compli-ance needs. Asigra Cloud Backup software also offers Advanced Encryption Standard 256-bit encryption for data in flight and at rest, and an automated restore function to repopulate data created in the cloud.

It’s a fairly common misconception that because data is created in the cloud, the soft-ware-as-a-service provider is responsible for backing up data. And while they do create backups for their own purposes, users pay a fee to recover any data.

Salesforce, for example, offers a service called Data Recovery. According to the company’s website, Data Recovery is a “last resort process [which can be used to] recover your data at a specific point in time, in the case that it has been permanently deleted or mangled during a data import.” The service has a flat rate of

It’s a common misconception that because data is created in the cloud, the software-as-a-service provider is responsible for backing up data.

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$10,000; according to Salesforce, the price is based on the amount of manual work and time needed to perform the recovery (usually a min-imum of 20 days).

A number of vendors, such as Datto’s Backu-pify and EMC’s Spanning, also offer backup

software designed to protect data created in the cloud, but Asigra is the first to build the func-tion into an all-purpose backup application. The company sells its Asigra Cloud Backup software exclusively through channel partners.

–Brien Posey and Andrew Burton

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Cloud-to-Cloud’s Role in Cloud Backup

Backup was the first broad use case for cloud storage.

What started as an ideal way to back up con-sumer desktops spread to enterprise endpoint protection and now many cloud backup pro-viders offer protection of physical and virtual servers. Cloud backup is a very crowded market with vendors bringing software and services to market almost every week.

There are an almost overwhelming number of options available to IT professionals establish-ing a cloud-based backup strategy.

CLOUD CATEGORIZATION

Organizations use the cloud for data protec-tion in a variety of ways. Some opt for native cloud providers, in which cloud is the cen-tral point of the data protection process. Other companies, especially legacy vendors, have treated the cloud as an add-on to the

data protection process. For them, the cloud becomes another backup target.

There is also differentiation among service providers. Some providers are really software developers that use an existing, generic cloud service like Amazon, Azure or Google for cloud storage. Others have created their own cloud-based data centers, purpose-built to store cus-tomer data. There are also managed service providers or regional cloud providers that use a third-party software product to provide data protection to their customers.

The advantage of a generic service is that the cost of entry for the provider is very low and that may be reflected in the cost of their service. But they have limited control over the environment, so troubleshooting a technical support problem may be as much a problem for them as it is for the customer.

The advantage of a purpose-built cloud is that the provider owns it all, software and

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hardware. While the cost to entry is higher for these vendors, the ability for them to scale specifically to their customers’ needs, as well as solve any support challenges, should be better.

The third type of provider is really a facili-ties specialist that has added cloud-based backup as part of their feature set. They tend to use off-the-shelf software products that have been broadly adopted in the market. This type of product is ideal for a customer that wants to continue using their current backup software and wants to move data off-site without the expense of creating a disaster recovery site.

HYBRID BACKUP

In this model, backup data resides on premises as well as in the cloud.

Typically, an appliance receives backups from the data center’s servers and then replicates that data to the cloud provider’s facility. The on-site appliance can be used for rapid recov-ery of servers and the cloud copy can be used in case of a disaster.

Also, many legacy backup products can back up data locally and to the cloud. Or, data can

be backed up on-site and then replicated to the cloud.

BACKUP CAPABILITIES

Native cloud backup providers have raised the data protection bar significantly over the last few years. Most started by overcoming the somewhat obvious challenge that cloud-based backup presents—the latency of an Internet connection. The initial products focused on moving data more efficiently across that con-nection, using technologies like block-level incremental backup, deduplication, compres-sion and WAN optimization. They have also significantly closed the gap in terms of plat-form coverage, moving from the endpoint protection, to full server protection of Linux, Windows and VMware.

Many more traditional backup software and hardware vendors have also added support for cloud storage. However, most of the time, these vendors view the cloud as a secondary storage repository; it often does not minimize on-site capacity or bring any additional capabilities.

One of the major challenges that cloud

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providers and users faced was time to recover. While block-level incremental, deduplication and compression all improved the backup pro-cess, they did little to help the recovery process. In the event of a storage system failure or site loss, all the data needed to be restored across a relatively low bandwidth connection. And, of course, a full system recovery is often time-crit-ical, because application downtime is unaccept-able for many businesses. These shortcomings led to one of the most significant advances in cloud backup: disaster recovery as a service.

DISASTER RECOVERY AS A SERVICE

Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) allows users to run an instance of a virtual machine (VM) in the cloud backup provider’s data cen-ter. Assuming that all the networking issues can be resolved, this means that users can be back online in a matter of minutes.

DRaaS does require some new consider-ations as well as some potential changes in an organization’s data center. The first thing to understand is what performance will be like during the DR event. Given the length of the

outage and time it will take to restore all the data, the application may be running in the cloud provider’s data center for some time. It is important to consider whether the cloud pro-vider will meet a service-level agreement (SLA) based on performance during that time.

Also, the cloud provider will need to demon-strate the ability to host many organizations’ applications simultaneously in their data cen-ter. If a regional disaster such as a hurricane occurs, cloud providers can be overwhelmed with recovery requests. An SLA provides a way to make sure that performance is acceptable for long-term use.

You must also understand how failback will work. In the event that the organization’s entire data center is destroyed, all this data needs to be recovered. Do they provide a bulk trans-fer capability like shipping hard drives or tape media to the organization to facilitate a faster local recovery? If the entire data center is not destroyed, a much more common outcome in a disaster, do they have a way to intelligently recover data so that only the data that changed while the application was running in the cloud will be restored?

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DRaaS may also require infrastructure changes. First, most DRaaS offerings lever-age virtualization to deliver the functionality. This means that physical servers may need to be virtualized or the provider may need to have physical-to-virtual conversion capability on their end.

Finally, for DRaaS to work, networking must be properly re-routed to provide a seamless transfer between the organization’s data cen-ter and the cloud provider. Fortunately, most native cloud backup providers are more than willing to assist in making sure the various networking configurations are set up properly.

CLOUD ACCELERATORS

Another new cloud backup strategy is the replacement of the cloud backup appliance with a cloud backup accelerator. Many appliances execute a 1:1 translation to the cloud, meaning that 100% of the data being backed up needs

to be stored locally and in the cloud. To accom-modate this, the appliance needs to have capac-ity added to it continually. There is no practical reason why these backups are not deleted or moved after a period of time, just that the soft-ware has not been updated or designed to sup-port that capability. While some providers do have the ability to tier older copies of data for cloud storage only, most require at least 100% of the latest full backup to be stored on-site.

An accelerator changes this by utilizing more of a caching methodology. The local accelera-tor does not need to store all of the data, or even the most recent backup. Instead, data is removed from the appliance as soon as its arrival in the cloud is confirmed. These acceler-ators are generally controlled by policy so that certain mission-critical applications can be set to always have the most recent copy of their data reside both on-site and in the cloud.

This is ideal for companies with a few large databases and a lot of file data. Since most file

Yet another new cloud backup strategy is the replacement of the cloud backup appliance with a cloud backup accelerator.

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data is not mission-critical and is recovered a file at a time, the latency of the cloud is not as much an issue for their recovery. A large database needs to be restored all at once, as quickly as possible, so having this copy backed up locally is often a requirement. The ability to control this by policy allows the on-site accel-erator to be one-third the size of an on-site appliance, thereby reducing costs and simplify-ing the on-site operational requirement.

CLOUD-TO-CLOUD BACKUP

Another feature that cloud backup vendors are beginning to provide is cloud-to-cloud backup. By granting the backup provider access, they are given a direct connection to the cloud service. This allows them to directly back up software as a service (SaaS) providers such as Box.com, Dropbox, Google Drive, Office 365 and Salesforce.

Most users assume that because data is in the cloud that it is also protected. To some extent, this is true. Cloud-based data is backed up, but only to protect the cloud pro-vider, not the organization. If, for example, an

employee deletes files, there is little that can be done to recover them without paying restore fees. Cloud-to-cloud backup protects against this type of data loss.

THE DOWNSIDE OF CLOUD-BASED BACKUP

While there is a lot to like about cloud backup, there are some downsides that need to be taken into consideration. The first is of course security, a common concern about any cloud service. It is important that the cloud backup product provides complete end-to-end encryp-tion, where data is not only encrypted in tran-sit to the provider, but also while at rest in the provider’s facility. Organizations with highly sensitive data should also only consider prod-ucts that allow them to hold the encryption keys, instead of the provider.

Another area of concern is flexibility. For example, some organizations may want to per-form recovery in a secondary facility of their choice instead of being forced to recover to the provider’s location. Also, cloud providers that supply appliances will force the organization to use the included disks, instead of potentially

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using what the organization already has in place.

Finally, and maybe most surprising, is the potential cost of the cloud product when con-sidered over time. Cloud-based backup prod-ucts capture the attention of organizations partly because of their low upfront costs. But when these monthly or quarterly costs are mul-tiplied out over five years, the life expectancy for an on-site backup product, cloud backup products can actually be more expensive than traditional, on-site backup. This is especially true as backup capacities grow, since most pro-viders charge by the capacity under protection.

REVERSE INCREMENTAL BACKUP

Reverse incremental backup is another fea-ture that reduces the time it takes for a server instance to be recovered. With traditional, block-level incremental backups, an initial full backup is completed as normal. Then, when the next backup is taken, just the changed blocks are copied to backup storage and stored in a separate file, which is linked to the original full backup. If there is a failure, the original file and

each of these linked files need to be recovered in reverse order, which is a time-consuming process.

Reverse incremental merges incremental backups into the full backup as each incremen-tal is completed. But each incremental is also maintained as a separate file. This allows the full image to be kept up to date while still main-taining a rich version history. In the event that the latest server image needs to be recovered in the shortest time possible, all that has to be restored is this one file. While the size of that VM will impact recovery time, in most cases, a single VM with no additional incrementals to be merged will restore relatively quickly over a business class Internet connection. But reverse incremental backup still provides access to var-ious versions of individual files that can still be restored from the incremental copies.

Reverse incremental backup is another feature that reduces the time it takes for a server instance to be recovered.

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Cloud backup has evolved over the past few years to offer a variety of important functions. There are now several products that offer simi-lar platform coverage and features to traditional enterprise products. Add to that new capabili-ties like DRaaS, cloud-to-cloud backup, and

reverse incremental backup, and these offerings become very compelling. While not perfect (See: “The downside of cloud-based backup”) a cloud-based backup strategy should be consid-ered any time a data protection refresh project is underway. —George Crump

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ABOUT THE

AUTHORS

ANDREW BURTON is a former executive editor with TechTarget.

GEORGE CRUMP is president of Storage Switzerland, an IT analyst firm focused on the storage and virtualization segments.

BRIEN POSEY is a Microsoft MVP with two decades of IT experience. Before becoming a freelance technical writer, Posey worked as a CIO for a national chain of hospitals and health care facilities. He has also served as a net- work administrator for some of the nation’s largest in-surance companies and for the Department of Defense at Fort Knox.

Learn How to Back Up Data Created in the Cloud is a SearchDataBackup.com e-publication.

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