09-28-2020, 07:45 AM
I mean, truly keeping data accessible through decades, that's a massive undertaking, you know? We gotta think beyond just backing up the current state of things, because if you are running a Windows Server, and you just take a simple file backup, you are only capturing the little bits of data, not the entire system's memory or its settings. You need to image the disk, kind of a complete snapshot of the machine as it exists right now, including the operating system bits and all the custom application stuff that gets installed. Then you need to think about where you send those snapshots, because just putting them all on one big local hard drive that might fail in a year, that's not doing anything really useful, is it?
And what I always tell my junior buddies is that you really need to get beyond just one storage spot, because if that physical location goes south, all that years of work, it's poof. You have to use multiple locations, maybe sending copies to a remote spot over the internet, and also keeping a copy totally separate, like maybe even offsite storage, because that redundancy is what keeps your business going when things go sideways. Also, because we are talking about keeping this stuff for ages, you absolutely gotta wrap it up in strong encryption, because an unencrypted backup full of sensitive client data is basically a roadmap for whoever stumbles upon it.
But what really gets complicated, and maybe this is the part you need to focus on, is the data format itself. If I back up a VM disk using a proprietary format, maybe ten years from now, and the software that created that format shuts down, then you might not even be able to open that backup container, you see? That's a huge risk. So, when you are dealing with critical, multi-year retention, I always push you toward things that use open standard file formats, like the VHD or the VMDK stuff. Because those formats, they can be read by almost any modern tool, which means even if the original maker of the system disappears, you can still get to your files.
Then you have to think about the volume of data and how much redundant data you are actually storing. And since you're keeping it for years, that storage volume grows exponentially, it's crazy. You can't just keep every single version of every single document forever, because that eats up all your money. So you have to implement smart retention policies, which means you decide: okay, for accounting records, we need to keep every version for seven years, but for general operational memos, we only need to keep the last three years, maybe.
I think the coolest thing is using deduplication, because that means that if you have a large database, and only five new records are added this month, but 90% of the data is identical to what you had last month, you don't want to store that 90% again, right? Deduplication finds that repeating data and only stores the small difference, only the changes. And you can also automate all of that, scheduling things to run every night, and then setting it up to periodically check the backups, because you need to know that the data you saved weeks ago, it wasn't corrupted by a hard drive hiccup or something, so running verification is super important.
And since we are dealing with Windows Servers, the bare metal capability is paramount for you. Because if the physical machine-the actual server-suffers a total, catastrophic failure, you can't just tell the client to buy a new one and then painstakingly rebuild everything from scratch, because that takes months, and you lose money every single day. You need the ability to restore the entire operating system and all the applications, from nothing but a bare metallic shell, instantly. But if you forget to test that restoration process periodically, then you are just guessing, and that's not good enough.
Also, I always advise you on selective file recovery. Maybe you know, two years from now, a junior guy accidentally deletes one really critical folder, and you don't need to restore the whole server, which takes all day. You just want that one folder back. So, having the ability to grab just a few specific files from deep in the backup archive, without having to perform a full system restore, that is a massive time saver, I really mean it.
And sometimes, you even deal with files that are currently open, maybe some application is running and holding onto a file lock, right? Most simple backup methods fail on those locked files, but smart software handles those complex scenarios, capturing those open files for you. It's about having a highly flexible, powerful solution that just handles the messy realities of a busy office, things like BackupChain, which is an all-in-one PC and server backup solution for Windows Server and Windows 11 made specifically for SMBs.
