Snapshot Cloud Backup
About Snapshot Cloud
The Snapshot Cloud service provides offsite replication of your ShadowProtect® backups without any need for investment in IT infrastructure at a secondary location. You retain control of your onsite backups while leveraging Plan B's systems and experience to provide secure cloud storage and offsite recovery options.
The Snapshot Cloud service is New Zealand owned and operated.
Why this solution?
Plan B's Snapshot Cloud makes it easy for you to:
- Retain control of your backup process and what you want to transfer offsite.
- Transfer backups offsite without physically transporting backup media or manually moving backup files.
- Utilise existing IT infrastructure to replicate your data offsite.
- Set your own schedule to replicate offsite as frequently as you require to provide appropriate restore points and minimise data loss.
- Transfer data securely using FTPS (FTP over SSL) to ensure security of your data in transit.
- Verify the integrity of your offsite backups once transferred.
- Utilise New Zealand-based infrastructure and your local bandwidth.
Plan B's solution provides a simple, secure offsite storage option for your existing self-managed ShadowProtect backup environment.
Snapshot Cloud Benefits
The key features & benefits of Plan B's Snapshot Cloud are:
| Features | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Self-managed service | You retain control and are responsible for your backups and offsite replication. You choose what is replicated to Plan B. |
| Automated offsite replication | You won't need to physically transport backup media or manage backups from your site as your selected backups are automatically transferred offsite every day. |
| No additional onsite infrastructure | Set up is fast and simple, utilising existing servers and Internet connectivity to replicate your data offsite. |
| High frequency backups | Servers can be replicated offsite as frequently as every 15 minutes allowing you to have more offsite recovery points. In a crisis, you will have very recent restore points to recover from and minimise data loss. |
| Fully scalable with no capital investment required | Plan B provides the offsite replication systems so you don't need to commit any capital investment for offsite infrastructure. |
| Secure data transfer | Data is transferred using FTPS (FTP over SSL) to ensure security of your data in transit. |
| Automated consistency checking | MD5 hash checks of backup data are automatically performed once replicated offsite to verify the integrity of the backup file. |
| Access to other services | You can access a range of other Plan B business continuity services to help recover your data or business in the event of an interruption including standby offices & IT infrastructure, recovery testing, and consulting services. |
Implementing Snapshot Cloud
Plan B will provide you with a Snapshot Cloud account and recommended configuration settings. This includes documentation for installation and configuration of ImageManager, offsite replication and recommendations for your backup policies.
Once communications links are in place, the implementation of your service will follow these steps:
- Plan B configures and provides Snapshot Cloud account details along with configuration guides.
- You ensure all service requirements are met and install ImageManager on designated servers.
- You configure continuous incremental backups to onsite storage.
- After your servers have completed an initial backup to your onsite storage, you can opt to either use a temporary storage device to send the seed data offsite or replicate the data using ImageManager over your communications link to Plan B.
- The replication partnership between the onsite Image Manger server and Plan B's Snapshot Cloud storage network is then configured and subsequent backups only transfer the new, changed blocks of data to Plan B.
- Plan B configures the consolidation policy for each backup job that is replicated to Plan B.
Long-term Data Retention Option
Plan B's Long-term Data Retention service is available to Online Backup, Online Snapshot, and Veeam Cloud Connect customers. The service offers a cost-efficient option to retain data and store it offsite at a secure storage facility for up to seven years. The data can be accessed if required, but recovery times will be dependent on the time required to obtain and restore from tape rather than disk.
This service includes:
- Cost-efficient long-term data retention in a managed, secure environment for up to seven years (for subscribers to qualifying services)
- Ability to request recovery from tape when required
Tape archives are often confused with data backups. Tape archives protect older information that is not needed for everyday business operations but may occasionally need to be accessed for investigations and compliance requirements.