Backup Hardware Overview For MSPs 2003

Published 8 months ago5 min readEnterprise Backup Solutions...

Backup hardware equipment in all its forms is the discussion of all articles in this grouping of backup related articles.

Included in this group of articles is anything to do with hardware primarily used for the task of backing up a clients company information.

These are articles specifically related to topics backup support service organizations have relating to backup hardware. The articles below concentrate on hardware across all categories regardless as to if it is Network Attached Storage, Storage Area Network Hardware, repurposed server hardware or backup appliances.

Any easy way to work out if the article is to be included here is to ask “Can I physically hold the item in my hand or see it in front of me” If it passes that test then it will be listed below. Virtual hardware including virtual routers, switches or VOIP related virtual hardware does not count and will be categorized under backup applications instead.

The lines between backup apps and hardware are getting more and more blurred so it is important to state a definition as to what is backup hardware versus what is considered a backup application.

While you are here, take a look at some of our other Backup overviews which break down several important backup topics that may interest service providers:

Backup Hardware Types

Below are types of backup hardware that the articles below will focus on. Each backup hardware type has a different task that it specializes in and they all have strengths and weaknesses depending on the backup strategy required.

Universal Hardware Devices

Articles on backup accessories used across all hardware classes such as Solid State Devices, Hard Disk Drives and network interfaces will be included below.

Network Attached Storage Devices

NAS drives are simpler than SANs and are often single devices attached using either ethernet or fiber connectivity. They can be joined to each other so that they can handle failover and high availability functions.

Any articles relating to NAS drives or related hardware such as SSDs or old fashioned hard drives will be listed below.

Storage Area Network Devices

While Storage Area Network devices seem to be changing over to hybrid SAN systems where the devices can either be SAN/NAS capable, we have kept a separate category for the time being.

SANs differ from say a NAS device more often than not through function rather than actual specifications, although SANs by nature usually use fiber channel connectivity and also store data at the block level rather than the file level.

SANs also tend to be a group of storage based devices that are segregated from the primary local area network and usually have better natural redundancy capabilities and are more scalable than NAS backup device vendors.

Still it should be mentioned that there are many NAS devices that have SAN capability and so it is becoming more and more decided on deployment decisions and strategies rather than the device itself. I believe the term hyper converged storage platforms is what a device that has both capabilities is called.

When looking at a SAN from a desktop computer, they often appear as another disk attached to the computer itself rather than a mapped network drive or file server.

Any articles relating to SANs or related hardware such as SSDs or old fashioned hard drives will be listed below.

Re Purposed File Servers

Servers can be built specifically for the use as backup hardware and any articles discussing file servers for this purpose will be listed below. This can be because it can sometimes be a more cost effective backup strategy.

File servers can have many advantages when compared to say a NAS device and one of them is straight line speed and capacity to scale up easily however the cost can rapidly escalate and it is less contained than a NAS.

You need to bring your own open source storage operating system and have a few years technical experience to set up a server as a NAS device without any issues.

Backup Appliances

Any hardware that comes as an all in one unit including software and or storage operating system will be listed in the articles below.

All in one backup appliances are normally at the higher end of the pricing scale and expect pricing to start at 8K. They tend to be locked down pretty tight with limited upgrades so you need to purchase knowing the capacity you need at the time.

Backup Appliances will also come with a period of full maintenance for both the software and hardware and they are generally much easier to set up than having to build your own custom solution using open source storage operating systems.

They suit set and forget situations although do have some disadvantages such as putting all your eggs in one basket. They often come with both a local backup component as well as a cloud backup component so if the backup vendor decides to go rogue then you could find yourself in that sticky position of having no backup visibility at any level.

You also are locked into a single vendor meaning if say you get in a situation where your backup as a service goes dark and you cannot login to your admin console for instance and it takes them a week to respond to a service request then how do you handle the risk during that week?

At what point in time do you advise your client or clients that they might or might not have backups running and how does that reflect upon your own organization? If you have committed to a single backup appliance across 50 clients, you have to carefully consider the response and at what point your clients deserve a response versus the fact your clients now know you are not providing a service they are paying for.

The worst part of that is you may actually be still running backups however if there is a visibility issue with backups then you do not know. This can lead to some serious miscalculations in judgments and no right or wrong answers.

Open Source Data Storage Operating Systems

Open source operating systems specifically created to run hardware devices such as NAS units or file storage servers will be listed here.

These days open source is a fairly loose term in that you can almost be sure that while yes there is an open source free variant of whatever data storage operating system you care to think of, there will be a commercial version of the exact same product and guess what?

The commercial version will have all the data storage features you really want. I have no issue with this, people have invested time and effort into making a free version into something with better features and they should certainly be compensated for the effort.

Miscellaneous Backup Hardware Articles

Anything that does not fit cleanly in the above backup related topics will be added below. Anything from Macintosh backups, AzureAD to determining if cloud based backups are a viable alternative to NAS devices.