Best Practices for Managing Your Online Backup Server
There are many considerations for designing your Online Backup Server. You can spend a little or a lot, depending on where it is hosted, security, redundancy, speed, power, and Internet connectivity.
The Online Backup Guide for Service Providers is a complete 196-page guide on starting and operating an Online Backup Service – the latest revision of Rob Cosgrove’s industry defining RBS Book originally published in 1987. The entire book is being published here, chapter by chapter.
The RBackup server software will run on virtually any Windows computer and any Internet connection, even on a Windows XP laptop on WIFI at an Internet cafe. It uses only one CAL (Windows Client Access License) regardless how many users it has. Mercury server software requires a much more robust server (or cluster) in a data center. Both will run in Cloudspace at providers like Amazon.
Much depends on your budget and the level of service you want to provide. Most Online Backup Service Providers who begin small (50 clients or less) lease a virtual server from a company like RackSpace (www.rackspace.com) or host their server in their own office or data center on a dedicated computer.
My company provides Virtual Hosting accounts for both RBackup and Mercury in our own data center. The following link has more information:
http://www.remote-backup.com/vhosting.htm
RBS has recently begun offering Rented Cloud Servers. These are dedicated Online Backup Servers hosted in the Amazon Cloud infrastructure. You pay for them monthly, for the resources you use. It’s a VERY quick (about one day) and easy way to start up a fully automated Online Backup Service. More info at the link below:
http://www.remote-backup.com/amazonservers.htm
You may want to purchase your Online Backup software and host it yourself in the Amazon Cloud. The following link has more info:
http://www.remote-backup.com/ec2.htm
Best Practices for hosting an Online Backup Server are virtually the same as those for any Internet Server, and are well documented on the Web, so I will not do the same here.
When designing your server environment and choosing a hosting facility, remember that many of your customers, especially the business clients, will want to know about it. They will be looking for privacy, security, reliability, and server backups.
It is best to locate your server close to your business and to your customers so you can offer bulk loading the first full backup, and quick bulk restores. Both require you to physically connect a USB drive to the Server’s internal network so you can copy files at very fast speeds instead of over the Internet.
Many Service Providers do not offer either of these services because they host their servers too far away. If you host your Server too far away to offer these services, I suggest you add some language to your SLA or Service Agreement holding you harmless for the restore time.
Rob Cosgrove is the President of Remote Backup Systems, founder of the Online Backup Industry, and a vocal advocate for maintaining the highest standards in Online Backup software. His latest book, the Online Backup Guide for Service Providers: How to Start and Operate an Online Backup Service, is available online now, on Amazon.com, and at bookstores.
Remote Backup Systems provides brandable, scalable software and solutions to MSPs and VARs enabling them to offer Online Backup Services.
