As computers and hard drives become increasingly short-lived, experienced users try different backup software to insure them against data loss and system failure. Similar to all other types of programs, one backup software package rarely fits all purposes and depending on the user's setting, several backup utilities may become necessary. For example, users often need one backup tool for their server appliance and one for each personal computer.
Computer backup has been practiced by most professional computer users since the 1990s. The challenge with workstation backups is that data may need to be backed up while the user is working; hence, the backup tool needs to impact the system minimally, yet provide satisfying performance. In addition, another hurdle for backup software is that workstations are subject to frequent software installations and system configuration alterations.
Hard drive burglary affects computers but also media. Especially backup media is subject theft because its completeness of information-a company's backup tape in possession of a thief can be a real disaster because the entire company's intellectual property is within that one medium. The thieves can analyze the tape at their leisure, hidden from the public, and leak sensitive material to competitors. The industry's answer to this problem is naturally backup encryption and the recommendation to physically secure backup media, for example in safes.
By and large, file backup and data backup are key ingredients of a server backup software package. Better than disk imaging on servers is the ability to handle files in configurable ways. A recent trend has been to avoid disk imaging, or to limit it to system partitions, and to focus on more efficient ways to process files, since data files are the vast majority of data volumes stored on servers.
In a manufacturing setting, network backup is a frequent practice. Backup targets of several computers are consolidated on a central machine, which is then backed up separately usually after business hours. IT administrators should consider using network backup software that allows bandwidth limitation to prevent the network from slowing down during work hours. Alternatively, backup should be scheduled to run at night.
Virtual machine and virtual host backup is a different method of backup, such as the backup of a virtual machine in Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. To back up a virtual machine while running, specialized virtual backup software is needed that generates a VHD backup that is crash consistent. A simple VM backup script is usually not adequate.
For a successful backup of Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, the backup tool needs to aware and custom-made to fit into the limited operating system landscape created by Microsoft. Because Core Installations are very limited in their operating system features, regular tools will not work and specialized Hyper-V backup software needs to be purchased.
In general terms, a virtual server backup software copies virtual server files and settings. To copy virtual machines, one needs to either take them offline from the virtual host server, or a dedicated backup software needs to be applied that works closely with the virtual host server system to access the underlying virtual disks.
As a newcomer, USB backup software has become very popular due to the proliferation of external hard disks. External hard drive backups are economic even to small and medium-sized companies because the cost per gigabyte is generally very low and the transfer speeds are phenomenal, especially with the recent innovation of USB 3.0.
To decrease the space required for backups, users often deploy a differential backup strategy, which compares the current state of a hard drive to that of the first backup run. A differential backup can also be restored relatively quickly because it is generally applied after the first backup has been restored.
The diminishing cost of Internet hosting and bandwidth has made FTP backup a feasible alternative to on-site backup. While FTP is supported by several backup products, specialized FTP backup software may be necessary for power users who work with a variety of files, such as international file names and files larger than 4 GB. FTP backups are probably not suited as general backup strategies because the cost per GB is still relatively high compared to that of USB and external hard drives.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.articlecontentdirectory.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites