Remote backup definition and strategies.

What is a remote backup? Remote data backup solution types.

Remote backup as a part of data protection in companies has a vital importance since it guarantees the organization its operational continuity and functionality in the occurrence of loss or damage to critical data that may affect them, such as:

• Loss of the DB of company personnel
• Corruption of the DB and / or application that control automated production processes
• Loss of historical organizational data, while the company is in the process of auditing or evaluating quality standards
• Loss of information on the balance sheets and management indicators of the different organizational processes
• Theft of a computer or device, even by the people who handle confidential management information

In summary: situations and events often arise that compromise the integrity of the data of processes and users, and therefore the operation of the company. A sophisticated remote data backup strategy helps to be prepared in the events of disaster.

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However, it is of course necessary that the backed up data is stored in secure sites, which may or may not be managed and maintained by the same company. This data may also be stored in places physically outside of the company. To backup and store the data outside of the organization companies use remote backup solutions.

Therefore, there are two potential destinations for storage of backup volumes:

• Local locations working with internal backup software;
• Remote locations utilizing special backup solutions.

Local locations are used, generally, to back up information on devices (such as disks, tape drives, automatic tape replacement robots, NAS and SAN devices) located in the same physical space or accessible at very close distances, commonly, through a LAN.

The configuration and use of these locations allow data recovery in case of losses that do not affect the total productivity of the data center. Although they require recovery actions, their involvement is partial, or focused on the process or place where it occurs. Usually, they are managed by the same company's personnel.

The use of remote backup software allows organizations to store the volumes that contain the backups to external sites, which may or may not belong to them, thus guaranteeing mechanisms and tools for recovery in the event of information loss – possibly in situations that the organization cannot control, such as natural disasters, fires, floods, physical faults in the infrastructure, electrical faults, thefts, etc., and which could significantly impact the company’s normal activities and operating processes.

Due to the features that data backup tools offer and the technological improvements that have emerged in terms of network connectivity, optimization of servers and equipment, improvements at the level of cabling and interconnection, among others, remote data backup has shaped as a tool that is increasingly relied on to protect the corporate data.

Remote backup software allows organizations to perform automated backups of information efficiently to remote sites, either through a WAN or the Internet. Like network backup software, it is composed of several elements (master or director process, clients that run the application agents and storage management services) that work together for the configuration and execution of the organizational backup policy.

Due to the increase in the amount of information generated in the companies at present and the increasing need to access this information in a timely manner, the use of the public or private clouds as a destination and location for remote backup is increasingly employed as a valuable resource, either as a single or hybrid solution.

Inside this category there is a remote backup solution to the cloud, which allow copies of data and information on remote storage sites on the Internet. This service is made available by different providers such as Amazon, Azure, Google or any other that offers resources with the appropriate levels of security, accessibility and operation required for this process.

Additionally, the use of backup solutions to remote destinations in the cloud will be more common due to the existence of operating environments in the area of technology with hybrid modes. These have resources defined in local scenarios and others configured in the cloud, which offer tools and applications to be used in organizations.