MSP Business
D2D2C: The best way to protect your client's data?
29 August, 2013
How does your MSP business typically back up client systems?
Hopefully you’ve moved, at least partially, to a form of online backup. Having a safe copy of client data forced to an offsite location means that you are finally immune to “text-book” SME backup disasters. These include when the office administrators responsible for swapping tapes or hard drives leave them in a taxi or a bar. Another popular one is when backups fail for months on end because nobody has been checking the logs.
If scenarios like the one above are still part of your daily life, it really is time to begin to alleviate that stress, and the very best way is to start to run your backups according to a popular new methodology: D2D2C (disk-to-disk-to-cloud).
D2D2C is a relatively new way to backup IT systems, that’s developed from the D2D2T (disk-to-disk-to-tape) methodology that’s been popular in recent years.
A D2D2C backup essentially involves the following:
1. Running scheduled backups from server drives to other disk-based media (either external hard drives or other disk-based types of network storage).
2. Using these disk-based backups for ad-hoc, short-term recovery operations.
3. Running scheduled backups to archive backup data off to a cloud-based location, be it a private datacenter or a shared storage area provided by an online backup service.
The benefits of D2D2C are probably already apparent to you, but here are just some of them:
1. The backup’s eventual location in the cloud means you can restore it to anywhere. This off-site storage isn’t dependent on anyone remembering to take a tape or hard drive offsite. As well as providing peace of mind, this contributes to a disaster recovery plan.
2. Data transfer to the cloud can take place at a time when the related Internet traffic won’t have an impact on the business. Or, alternatively, it can be uploaded using a completely separate Internet connection.
3. Using disk as an intermediate “stage” for the backup means that ad-hoc restores are quick and simple.
4. It’s easy to customize a D2D2C solution to incorporate additional functionality, for example replicating backups to a branch office as part of a DR plan.
Of course, all of the benefits above are mostly benefits to the customer. Aside, of course, from the fact that knowing your clients’ backup solutions are rock solid will help you rest easy at night! However, one of the main benefits of D2D2C is the level of revenue opportunity it creates for the MSP.
It’s possible to build D2D2C into a full-blown backup and DR solution for your clients, and there are opportunities for income all along the way: consultancy fees for configuration, commission or mark-up on the cloud data storage, and income from periodic DR tests if disaster recovery is part of the eventual solution.
So, next time you need to put a backup regime in place, make sure you consider D2D2C – it’s the smart way to protect your customer data. (And of course, we'd be remiss if we didn't let you know that GFI MAX offer MAX Backup a fast and reliable D2D2C backup solution worth considering.)
How does your MSP business typically back up client systems? Are you using a D2D2C approach? Let us know with a comment below!
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