Port-to-Port has spent more than a year evaluating options for performing a backup that doesn’t involve someone swapping tapes every day. We evaluated network devices and online services from big name companies and brand new startups. In the end, we believe the best solution involves a combination of the two options. By adding a device that performs continuous data protection (CDP) for your server then having that device stream its content to an offsite location, you can have a full backup available onsite at all times and a copy that is offsite at all times as well. In addition, your data is recoverable within minutes of the failure rather than to last night. The cost of this combination is slightly higher than the traditional tape drive configuration, but it works without daily intervention.
We’ve devised an approach to doing CDP with the option to stream the data to our offices for the offsite location. Having Port-to-Port as the offsite location makes it much easier to perform a restore from a major disaster because we don’t have to wait for the remote data to get to us. It also opens up the possibility for developing an offsite location for your company in the future.
In testing, we’ve found this approach to be more reliable than tape, more convenient when single files need to be recovered, and more rapid when full server restores are required. The speed of business keeps getting faster. Port-to-Port keeps working to reduce the time loss that network malfunctions cause in your operation. CDP and online streaming will reduce the amount of data lost and the time required to become operational if some kind of business disaster strikes you.