cloud backup and recovery

June 1 – Finally Microsoft SQL Server 2016 gets GA release date!

Shantha Kumari

Database fans, start your clocks: Microsoft announced Monday that its new version of SQL Server will be out of beta and ready for commercial release on June 1.

The news means that companies waiting to pick up SQL Server 2016 until its general availability can start planning their adoption. Expect two new features to power up your databases – Stretch Database and Always Encrypted function.

Sysfore already has a long standing expertise in implementing the earlier editions of SQL Server for its clients. We can help your migrate your existing database server to the SQL Server 2016 smoothly.

MS SQL Server 2016 June 1 release

 

SQL Server 2016 comes with a suite of new features over its predecessor, including a new Stretch Database function that allows users to store some of their data in a database on-premises and send infrequently used  data to Microsoft’s Azure cloud. An application connected to a database using that feature can still see all the data from different sources, though.

Another marquee feature is the new Always Encrypted function, which makes it possible for users to encrypt data at the column level both at rest and in memory. That’s still only scratching the surface of the software, which also supports creating mobile business intelligence dashboards and new functionality for big data applications.

SQL Server 2016 will come in four editions: Enterprise, Standard, Developer and Express. The latter two will be available for free, similar to what Microsoft offered with SQL Server 2014.

In addition to its on-premises release, Microsoft will also have a virtual machine available on June 1 through its Azure cloud platform that will make it easy for companies to deploy SQL Server 2016 in the cloud.

Many of the new features in SQL Server 2016 like Always Encrypted and Stretch Database are already available in Microsoft’s Azure SQL Database managed service, but the virtual machine will be useful for companies that prefer to manage their own database infrastructure or that plan to roll out SQL Server 2016 on premises and want to test it in the cloud.

All of this comes a few months after Microsoft announced that it would also release SQL Server on Linux in the future. That’s a powerful sign of Microsoft’s strategy of making its tools available to users on a wide variety of platforms, even those that the company doesn’t control.

Sysfore can help you build, secure, and seamlessly scale your existing database to MS SQL Server 2016. Contact us at  info@sysfore.com or call us at +91-80-4110-5555, +91 9845189275 or +91 9845698669 to know more.

Cloud Backup or Cloud Disaster Recovery – What’s the difference?

Shantha Kumari

Cloud Data Backup is not Cloud Disaster Recovery. One particular misunderstanding among the customers is about cloud backup, storage and disaster recovery. Its mainly due to the misrepresentation by the cloud vendors, and lack of background information on their part.

Many organizations are considering cloud backup because it eliminates tape-based backup technology, automates backups, removes the human capital component and other services like off-site tape storage fees.

Get your facts clear about Cloud Backup, Cloud Storage and Disaster Recovery with a free consultation with Sysfore cloud experts.

Before discussing about the difference, here is the definition of Cloud Storage, Cloud Backup, and Disaster Recovery.

The Cloud Defined

In the beginning stages of disaster recovery planning, decision makers are often mistaken about what constitutes a disaster recovery plan. Many times they are misled by the idea that data backup is sufficient precaution in the event of a disaster.

While having a backup strategy is important, it is not the same as a disaster recovery strategy; rather, the beginning stages of establishing a proper DR plan. A backup is a copy of your data; a disaster recovery plan is insurance that guarantees its recovery.

However, there is a misconception that cloud backups can improve an organization’s recovery time simply because it is a disk-based backup. In reality, it may take you longer than tape to restore.

There are three easy questions to ask to determine if a cloud backup service can work as part of your disaster recovery strategy:

  • Can you get your data from where it is in the cloud to where it needs to be for restoration and recovery and still meet your recovery time objective (RTO) requirements?
  • Can you perform your disaster recovery using additional cloud services from the same provider thus the data is where it needs to be for restoration and recovery of your critical systems in the cloud?
  • Can you regularly test either of these two scenarios (or both) as a part of your contract before locking in a long-term contract with the cloud backup provider you are considering.

So, what makes backups and disaster recovery different?

  1. Data retention requirements

Backups are typically performed on a daily basis to ensure necessary data retention at a single location, for the single purpose of copying data.

Disaster recovery requires the determination of the RTO (recovery time objective) in order to designate the maximum amount of time the business can be without IT systems post-disaster. Traditionally, the ability to meet a given RTO requires at least one duplicate of the IT infrastructure in a secondary location to allow for replication between the production and DR site.

  1. Recovery ability

Disaster recovery is the process of failing over your primary environment to an alternate environment that is capable of sustaining your business continuity.

Backups are useful for immediate access in the event of the need to restore a document. It does not facilitate the failover of your total environment should your infrastructure become compromised. They also do not include the physical resources required to bring them online.

  1. Additional resource needs

A backup is simply a copy of data intended to be restored to the original source.

DR requires a separate production environment where the data can live. All aspects of the current environment should be considered, including physical resources, software, connectivity and security.

  1. Planning process

Planning a backup routine is relatively simple, since typically the only goals are to meet the RPO (recovery point objective) and data retention requirements.

A complete disaster recovery strategy requires additional planning, including determining which systems are considered mission critical, creating a recovery order and communication process, and most importantly, a way to perform a valid test.

The overall benefits and importance of a DR plan are to mitigate risk and downtime, maintain compliance and avoid outages. Backups serve a simpler purpose. Make sure you know which solution makes sense for your business needs.

Sysfore can clear your misconceptions about Cloud Data Backup and Cloud Disaster Recovery. Get in touch through info@sysfore.com or call us at +91-80-4110-5555.

Leverage Sysfore to Build Your Business around Veeam Powered DRaaS Solutions

Shantha Kumari

Sysfore Technologies as a service partner for Veeam, will act as a hosting, cloud (CSP) or managed service provider (MSP). We will use Veeam’s award-winning software as part of our service offerings to provide cloud solutions to our customers.

Veeam’s strategy is to partner with cloud and service providers, like Sysfore, who are experts in delivering cloud and managed services. Therefore, Veeam doesn’t provide its own cloud or cloud services. Rather than competing with service providers, Veeam enables providers to offer Veeam-powered solutions to their customers. Being part of the growing Veeam Cloud & Service Provider (VCSP) program, Sysfore can benefit from the recurring revenue and increase business valuation.

Veeam’s USP is DRaaS

Disaster recovery is one aspect that is a vital part of your business continuity plan in the event of planned or unplanned events or disasters. Veeam defines DRaaS, by offering it as part of a comprehensive availability strategy. It provides a consistent user experience and reducing overall cost to protect your data (backup + replication + cloud). This is a huge market opportunity for the service providers, as they can enable DRaaS and fuel their growth and success.

Veeam DRaaS

Veeam’s flagship software is the Availability for the Always-On Enterprise, which delivers recovery time and point objectives (RTPO) of < 15 minutes for ALL applications and data. With Veeam, you’ll get a solution that delivers: High-Speed Recovery, Data Loss Avoidance, Verified Protection, Leveraged Data, Complete Visibility.

Disaster Recovery is available as part of the V9 Availability suite.

Veeam’s Cloud Connect for Service Providers is it’s breakthrough cloud technology, that allows a service provider to easily set up and maintain a secure multi-tenant environment for hosting Veeam backups and standby VMs. With Cloud Connect Replication for Service Providers makes DRaaS easy, profitable, and practical for any customer environment.

You can benefit from having the Veeam DRaaS solution in your business continuity plan:

  • Easy licensing and pricing including monthly rental by the VM for service providers and customers, no VM minimum limit.
  • A ready market and channel partner to implement DRaaS for you.
  • Secure and safe data backup, storage and recovery.
  • DR for any workload – Efficient, cost-effective and storage application and OS independent diagnostics.
  • Fast, flexible failoverof specific VMs or an entire site.
  • Streamlined failbackwith zero data loss and minimal disruption to users.
  • Recovery assurance with affordable and efficient, imaged-based replication for true DR,  including support for replica and failover testing and alternating production between sites.
  • Seamless integration with Veeam user interfaces, workflows and data collection. It handles advanced networking capabilities for you without any complex setup or VPN.

How does Veeam Connect works

Veeam Cloud Connect presents your customers with a “cloud host” that they can replicate VMs to:

  • Your customers simply click “Add Service Provider” from the Veeam console and enter the credentials you’ve given them.
  • Their cloud hosts appear in their Veeam infrastructure.

There are no VPN, no separate consoles. Using the cloud hosts, customers can provision them on demand, without having to maintain a second site. This is exactly like other replication targets. Veeam Cloud Connect includes multi-tenant support, requires only a single port, and securely transfers data over SSL/TLS (no VPN required).

Veeam Connect

Why Veeam is better?

No dependency on third-party software – You only require a hypervisor, without additional technology for network extension, WAN acceleration, etc, as everything is available right out of the box. Multi-tenancy is even built in, so you can securely host multiple customers on the same hardware, with complete isolation between tenants.

Expedited onboarding – A single port is all that’s needed. Veeam Cloud Connect encapsulates and encrypts all network traffic – for management, replication and even inter-VM communication – to securely transmit data over a single port using SSL/TLS. There’s no need to set up and maintain VPN connections or open multiple ports.

Automated network reconfiguration – Eliminates the high cost and headaches of reconfiguring networks for DR testing or full or partial failover. Veeam network extension appliances preserve communication with and between running VMs regardless of their location.

Bandwidth friendly features – Seeding, Built-in WAN Acceleration and more allow you to provide DRaaS to customers with slow or unreliable WAN connections or a large number of VMs.

Wide market coverage – You can offer DRaaS to any customer regardless of the storage, applications and operating systems they use as Veeam replicates at the hypervisor layer. It supports both VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V.

Sysfore will offer the Veeam powered cloud based DRaaS to build your business. You can reach out to us on info@sysfore.com or call us at +91-80-4110-5555 for more information.