Disaster proof Network Storage for Backup

We back up mutliple notebooks to our server and then back our server up to a removable hard drive that goes off site. I'm wondering is it possible to have an on site network storage unit ( pref wireless)
that is either fire and water proof or perhaps something we can house in a fireproof safe.
Any one done something like this. All other ideas are welcome.
Manually changing backup disks is to unreliable and I want a series of backups over time = more storage space.

Richard

I am trying to understand why you would want that. If you have a fire or extreme water damage, would not your server, laptop, and other equipment also be damaged? Having an up to the second backup would be the least of your issues.

Putting a backup device in a water/fireproof case would be very expensive. You need wires for power and connection to your system. Armaguard and Terralogic makes water proof cabinets for computers.

The best solution is to use a online backup service like storage guardian or barracuda networks where they update the changes as they are being made and will send you a disk (overnight) with a full backup of information.

just my 2 cents

Thanks for your thoughts ellery.
Risk - our building caught fire, got flooded or if we we broken into and our server stolen. All our laptops are taken of site at night.
We have a semi manual backup system that requires a removable disk to be swapped every day and taken off site at night - human error means this does not always happen.
I just thought if I had a network storage unit hidden in our building with reasonable protection for water or fire damage then I could automatically back up to this without human intervention.
According to our fire service a fridge is the best place - every time they go through a burnt down house the contents of the fridge are perfect !

online back up service seem worth exploring but I see two issues, cost and upstream bandwidth ( especially via VPN)

Richard

ooooh, I get it.

I do a monthly usb hard drive backup, that I take home. I use a three drive rotation. You could do that nightly quite easily. The frig is also a nice ideal except that you will need to keep the hard disk in a baggy to keep it away from the moisture.

I still like the idea of having removable media that is not electronically, physically, or electronically connected all the time to the system that it is backing up. So a remote Network Attached Storage allowing your system to be backed up off site could be an important part of the "belt and suspenders" methodology, and could be invaluable when human error did not take the media off site for a few days.

I would check with your ISP and see if they could offer any private FTP space or could co-locate a NAS for you at their office.

Alternatively perhaps there is another NPO or business that is friendly to you that you could co-locate some equipment at and then VPN a connection to copy your data to on a nightly basis.

Because of security and reliability I would be hesitant to attempt this using wireless. Also you have to consider your network speed and throughput, compared to the amount of data you need to save to be sure you have enough hours to accomplish the task.

Dave

Thanks , looks like I need to explore more fully the idea of off site /online back up.

Bandwidth could be an issue but maybe if I time it at night and work on a incremental backup it may stack up.

 

We use a service called DataChambers. See www.datachambers.com.  It works great.  we currently backup our Exchange Server 2003, SQL Server 2000 and 2 File Servers to this service over the internet to a secured encrypted storage facility located in a different part of the country. 

DataChambers eBackup Service is designed for organizations that need more than just backup and recovery features in their data protection programs. As data protection needs increase in complexity, the benefits of a flexible and scalable architecture become more apparent. Advantages of DataChambers eBackup intelligent data protection service include savings in administrator time, speed of data recovery, and reliability and integrity of backups.

DataChambers eBackup service which is based on IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) offers a full backup & restore solution. DataChambers eBackup Service can be combined with other DataChambers services to provide a complete business continuity solution.

Features Include:

• Automated scheduling of Changed Data Backup
• Guaranteed Daily Backup
• No expensive hardware or software to purchase
• Service is economical and easy to use
• Intelligent Data Protection using enterprise class infrastructure that is redundant and fault tolerant
• Highly secure encryption technology
• Restore and backup from a Web based GUI
• Data Storage offsite in a secure environment
• 24 x 7 support and monitoring to ensure success
• Multiple Agents and Wide range of Client support
• Service can utilize existing Internet connections
• Quick installation and implementation
• Pay only for what you backup

DataChambers eBackup Service provides organizations with a simple, complete and comprehensive,

 

We currently have removable hard drives that are stored offsite that are rotated weekly.  We also have an online backup through Carbonite (www.carbonite.com).  This is the most economical solution that I have found.  The online backup updates automatically.  We have about 70gigs or so stored offsite through Carbonite.

Interesting.  These are some new services that I had not heard of.

I've used everything under the sun to back up things -- from solutions that costs $100K+ to ones I've scripted myself -- so it's interesting to see a few different perspectives here.

My tried and true friend on NT servers has been xxcopy.  Damn, that little tool has saved my rear several times!

Online backup is such a wonderful thing I'm surprised more people aren't using it. I have it running on my home computer all the time, and use it extensively at work.

Take a look at Carbonite and Mozy. I also use Data Deposit Box, which charges more per gigabyte but allows you to back up as many computers as you want with a single account.

There also are software packages you can buy that allow you to do this as well. This works great if your organization has more than one location -- just backup the files to a computer at another site and you have daily offsite backup. The system I'm familiar with is from Ahsay (www.ahsay.com). There are others out there as well.

I only like Carbonite for home users, it lacks a lot of features that MozyPro has for business applications like SQL and Exchange.