Data Backup/Restoration

Backup Practices

We acknowledge the fact that data is of utmost importance to any business organization. Failing to take a backup of your business data is a sure shot recipe for disaster. In a perfect world, we do not have to worry about any sorts of failure. Unfortunately we do not live in a perfect world and we know for certain that every electronic device including computers and peripherals will fail, sooner or later. This is when you have to consider an infallible backup plan for your mission critical business data so that the data can be restored after a device or hardware failure to continue the business operation without any impairment.

Right from the initial Client engagement exercise, ASPGulf’s experienced pre-sales team learns the business processes and educates the Client on the sensitivity and dependency factors of their data. By doing this, we are better equipped to recommend multiple options and narrow down on an optimal backup plan that balances “real” business requirements to cost.

Backup Infrastrucutre

 

Our backup backbone is tightly built around a dedicated backup network (LAN) where all the hosted servers are connected thru a dedicated Network Interface Card (NIC). This removes any network latency arising due to the amount of backup data that is being transmitted. All servers are connected in subset to backup servers that are in turn connected to Network Attached Storage and tape drives. The segmentation is done based on the aggregate amount of data that need to be backed up rather than the number of servers. Our dedicated backup specialists constantly monitor the backup processes and take proactive measures on any potential glitches that might disturb the backup activity including advising end Clients. We have also commissioned De-Duplication appliance to further enhance the entire backup service portfolio.

  • A dedicated 2nd NIC card is used to connect to the backup LAN
  • Ever server has a different back up IP's (subnets)
  • All the switches are all 10/100/1000 Mbps
  • Data is backed up on a NAS and later on to a tape
  • De Duplication appliance add to the backup policies

 

Backup Policy

We believe that every business requirements are unique and while devising a backup strategy, the requirements need to be thoroughly analyzed. By default, we adhere to following practices though they are very much customizable depending on the business needs.

  1. There are separate polices for Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, Oracle, Flat files on Windows environment and separate one for Linux/SUN based servers
  2. Our data retention period is for 28 days (4 weeks)
  3. Our default backup size per server is 20 GB for flat files and 50 GB for Exchange data
  4. Weekly backup tapes are remotely stored in climate controlled and highly secured vault as part of the Disaster Recovery Plan
  5. Medias are replaced every 6 months.