Tag Archives: Backing Up

SSD 101: How Reliable are SSDs?

Post Syndicated from original https://backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com/blog/how-reliable-are-ssds/

A decorative image showing an illustration of an SSD drive that exposes the interior. A headline reads How Reliable Are SSDs?
This article has been updated since it was originally published in 2023.

Solid state drives (SSDs) continue to grow in popularity, and no wonder. Compared to hard disk drives (HDDs), they are faster, smaller, more power efficient, and sturdier since they have no moving parts to jostle around. And, they are becoming available in larger and larger capacities while their cost comes down.

But are they really as dependable as they claim to be? SSDs still have vulnerabilities, and storage tech that lasts thousands of years isn’t commercially viable (yet!). 

In this post we’re going to consider the issue of SSD reliability. We’ll take a closer look at:

  • SSD tech.
  • SSD storage memory.
  • Reliability factors.
  • Signs of SSD failure.

So, how reliable is an SSD? Let’s dig in.

But First, Back It Up

Of course, as a data storage and backup company, you know what we’re going to say right off: No matter how you store your data, you should always back it up. Even if your data is stored on a brand new SSD, it won’t do you any good if your computer is stolen, destroyed by a flood, or lost in a fire or other act of nature. We recommend using a 3-2-1 backup strategy to safeguard your data.

SSD Tech

Almost all types of today’s SSDs use NAND flash memory. NAND isn’t an acronym like a lot of computer terms. Instead, it’s a name that’s derived from its logic gate, the basic building block of its memory cells, called “NOT AND.” (For the curious, a NAND gate is a logic gate that produces an output that is false only if all its inputs are true.)

A diagram of the interior motherboard of an SSD identifying the cache, controller, and NAND Flash Memory.

Flash (the term following NAND) refers to a non-volatile solid state memory that retains data even when the power source is removed. 

NAND storage has specific properties that affect how long it will last. NAND flash memory works by storing data in individual memory cells organized in a grid-like array. When data (a 1 or a 0) is written to a NAND cell (also known as programming), the data must be erased before new data can be written to that same cell. When writing and erasing a NAND cell, electrons are sent through an insulator and back, and the insulator starts to wear. Eventually, the insulator wears to the point where it may have difficulty keeping the electrons in their correct (programmed) location, which makes it increasingly more difficult to determine if the electrons are where they should be and to indicate the correct value (1 or 0) of the cell.

This means that flash type memory cells can only be reliably programmed and erased a given number of times. This is measured in programmed/erase cycles, more commonly known as P/E cycles.

P/E cycles are an important measurement of SSD reliability, but there are other factors that are important to consider as well including TBW (terabytes written) and MTBF (mean time between failures). Here are a few definitions to help keep everything straight:

Programmed/Erase Cycles (P/E Cycles)

A P/E cycle in solid state storage involves writing data to a NAND flash memory cell then erasing that data, so it is ready to be rewritten. The endurance of an SSD, measured in P/E cycles, varies depending on the technology, but typically falls somewhere between 500 and 100,000 P/E cycles. 

Terabytes Written (TBW)

Terabytes written is the total amount of data that can be written to an SSD before it is likely to fail. For example, here are the TBW warranties for the popular Samsung V-NAND SSD 870 EVO:

  • 250GB model: 150TBW
  • 500GB model: 300TBW
  • 1TB model: 600TBW
  • 2TB model: 1,200TBW
  • 4TB model: 2,400TBW

All of these models are warrantied for five years or TBW, whichever comes first.

Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)

MTBF is a metric used to gauge the reliability of a hardware component throughout its anticipated lifespan. For most components, the measure is typically in thousands or even tens of thousands of hours between failures. For example, an HDD may have a mean time between failures of 300,000 hours, while an SSD might have 1.5 million hours.

Manufacturers provide these specifications for their products. They can help you understand your drives’ expected lifespan as well as its suitability for specific applications.

Be careful when reviewing the specifications though, as they don’t guarantee your particular SSD will last for that specific duration. Rather, they indicate that, based on a sample set of the SSD model, errors are anticipated to occur at a certain rate. A 1.2 million hour MTBF means that, assuming the drive is used at an average of eight hours a day, a sample size of 1,000 SSDs would be expected to have one failure every 150 days, or about twice a year.

Today, many SSDs come with a utility which monitors the life expectancy of the drive. Their recommendations are based on monitoring the SMART attributes of the drive. As we discussed in a previous post, there is little consistency between the different SSD manufacturers in what attributes they monitor and how they calculate drive life expectancy. Therefore, it is important that you read the manual for your particular SSD if you are interested in using this information to decide when to replace your SSD.

SSD Storage Memory

There are currently five different NAND flash cell technologies based on the number of bits stored per cell, which we’ll discuss below. Generally, as the number of bits stored per cell increases, the cost per bit decreases, but endurance and performance may decrease as well.

SLC (Single Level Cell): One Bit Per Cell

SLC was the first type of NAND flash storage developed. It stores one bit per cell. SLC storage is fast and wear is minimal. On the downside, it’s not space-efficient; that is, the physical size of the SSD form factor used.

MLC (Multi-Level Cell): Two Bits Per Cell

MLC stores two bits per cell. This basically doubled the amount of storage and lowered the cost for a given form factor. But MLC is slower as it has to distinguish between the two bits in a given cell.

TLC (Triple Level Cell): Three Bits Per Cell

The trend continued with TLC where three bits are stored per cell. This advancement had two interesting consequences. First, the unit cost started to be appealing to most audiences. While still two to three times as expensive as a comparable hard drive, a TLC-based SSD was affordable. Second, the TLC technology hastened the introduction of caching within the SSD, as the unaided read/write speeds had dipped to near those of a hard drive.

QLC (Quad Level Cell): Four Bits Per Cell

QLC is the current “standard.” It stores four bits per cell. This increases storage density yet again, lowers the price even more, and, with caching improvements, continues to deliver superior speed. On the downside, the drive can wear out sooner, especially as it fills up.

3D NAND

In the previous technologies the cells are side by side in a single, two-dimensional layer—this design is described as planar. In 3D NAND, the cells are stacked three-dimensionally. This improves storage density and speed, but increases the manufacturing cost and lowers endurance over time.

In general SLC and MLC are faster and last longer, but are limited to the amount of space. TLC and QLC technologies can store data at a lower cost, but may be slower. However, the difference in speed is probably negligible for the average consumer, and is sometimes made up for by things like dynamic caching. The 3D NAND technology is a great choice, but be prepared to pay more.

SSD Reliability Factors to Consider

Compared to HDDs, SSDs are sturdier. Since they don’t have moving parts like actuator arms and spinning platters, they can withstand accidental drops and other shocks, vibration, extreme temperatures, and magnetic fields better than HDDs. Add to that their small size and lower power consumption, and the idea of replacing HDDs with SSDs could be worth the time and effort.

That’s not exactly the whole story though. There are different performance and reliability criteria you should use depending on whether the SSD will be used in a home desktop computer, a data center, or an exploration vehicle on Mars. And SSD manufacturers are increasingly marketing SSDs for specific workloads such as write-intensive, read-intensive, or mixed-use. What that means is that you can select the optimal level of SSD endurance and capacity for a particular use case. 

For instance, an enterprise user with a high-transaction database might opt for a drive that can withstand a higher number of writes at the expense of capacity. Or, a user operating a database that doesn’t get frequent writes might choose a lower performance drive with a higher capacity. By doing this, the manufacturers are hiding the complexity embedded in the technology like storage NAND (SLC, MLC, etc), caching, and so on. That said, it does make it easier to match your requirements to the best type of SSD.

Signs of SSD Failure

You’ve likely encountered the dreaded clicking sound that emanates from a dying HDD. An SSD has no moving parts, so you won’t get an audible warning that an SSD is about to fail, but there are usually other signs of when that’s going to happen. If you start to notice any of them, take action by replacing that drive with a new one. Indicators that your SSD is nearing its end of life include:

1) Errors Involving Bad Blocks

Much like bad sectors on HDDs, there are bad blocks on SSDs. If you have a bad block, the computer will typically try to read or save a file, but it takes an unusually long time and ends in failure, so the system eventually gives up and sends an error message.

2) Files Cannot Be Read or Written

There are two ways in which a bad block can affect your files. First, the system detects the bad block while writing data to the drive, and thus refuses to write data, or second, the system detects the bad block after the data has been written, and thus refuses to read that data.

3) The File System Needs Repair

Getting an error message like this on your screen can happen simply because the computer was not shut down properly, but it also could be a sign of an SSD developing bad blocks or other problems.

4) Crashing During Boot

A crash during the computer boot is a sign that your drive could be developing a problem. You should make sure you have a current backup of all your data before it gets worse and the drive fails completely.

5) The Drive Becomes Read-Only

Your drive might refuse to write any more data to disk and can only read data. Fortunately, you can still get your data off the disk, and you should.

So, How Reliable Is an SSD?

Let’s break down the reliability of SSDs into three, more specific questions:

Question 1: How long can we reasonably expect an SSD to last?

Answer: An SSD should ideally last as long as its manufacturer expects it to last (generally five years), provided that the use of the drive is not excessive for the technology it employs (e.g. using a QLC in an application with a high number of writes). Consult the manufacturer’s recommendations to ensure that how you’re using the SSD matches its best use.

Here at Backblaze we use SSDs for many different applications. The one use case we have rigorous reliability data for is as boot drives in our storage servers. This cohort of drives does more than boot these servers; they also write, store, read, and delete log files of various types recorded by the storage servers on a daily basis. The latest Drive Stats SSD Edition illuminates the reliability of the drive models we use for this purpose.

Question 2: Do SSDs fail faster than HDDs?

Answer: There are many variables in comparing the reliability of HDDs and SSDs, the primary one being how they are used. In the SSD Drive Stats report noted above, we compared SSD and HDD boot drives as they performed the same function in the same types of systems, storage servers. While it seems in the first three years or so the different drives are similar in their failure curves, the curves separate after four years, with the HDDs failing at a higher rate. So far the SSDs have maintained a 1% or less Annualized Failure Rate (AFR) through the first four years.

SSD users are far more likely to replace their storage drive because they’re ready to upgrade to a newer technology, higher capacity, or faster drive, than having to replace the drive due to a short lifespan. Under normal use we can expect an SSD to last years. If you replace your computer every three years, as most users do, then you probably needn’t worry about whether your SSD will last as long as your computer. What’s important is whether the SSD will be sufficiently reliable that you won’t lose your data during its lifetime.

Question 3: Are SSDs good for long-term storage?

Answer: SSDs, like hard drives, are meant to be used. An external drive stuffed into a closet for a couple of years is never a good thing, and it doesn’t matter whether it is an SSD or HDD inside. The evidence of whether an SSD will fare better than a HDD in such a circumstance is anecdotal at best. Still, it is better to use an external drive as a backup of your computer as part of your backup plan—just don’t make it your only backup.

Summary

It’s good to understand how the different SSD technologies affect their reliability, and whether it’s worth it to spend extra money for SLC over MLC or QLC. However, unless you’re using an SSD in a specialized application with more writes than reads as we described above, just selecting a good quality SSD from a reputable manufacturer should be enough to make you feel confident that your SSD will have a useful life span.

Keep an eye out for any signs of failure or bad sectors, and, of course, be sure to have a solid backup plan no matter what type of drive you’re using.

FAQs

1. How do you measure SSD reliability?

There are a number of metrics that can help you understand SSD reliability, including programmed/erase (P/E) cycles, terabytes written (TBW), and mean time between failures (MBTF). These metrics alone won’t be able to tell you how long a given SSD will last, but they can help you understand roughly where your SSD is in its lifecycle. Check the manufacturer’s warranty and endurance rating in TBW. Higher values indicate better durability.

2. What are programmed/erase (P/E) cycles?

A solid-state storage programmed/erase (P/E) cycle is a sequence of events in which data is written to a solid-state NAND flash memory cell, then erased, and then rewritten. How many P/E cycles a SSD can endure varies with the technology used, somewhere between 500 to 100,000 P/E cycles.

3. What SSD should I buy?

The ideal SSD to buy depends on your specific needs. Consider factors like capacity, speed, and budget. For most users, a mid-range SSD from a reputable brand offers a good balance of performance and affordability. SSD manufacturers are increasingly marketing SSDs for specific workloads such as write-intensive, read-intensive, or mixed-use. What that means is that you can select the optimal level of SSD endurance and capacity for a particular use case. For instance, an enterprise user with a high-transaction database might opt for a drive that can withstand a higher number of writes at the expense of capacity. Or, a user operating a database that doesn’t get frequent writes might choose a lower performance drive with a higher capacity.

4. How do I know my SSD is going to fail?

SSDs will eventually fail, but there usually are advance warnings of when that’s going to happen. Some warning signs include errors involving bad blocks, being unable to read or write files, getting error messages that the file system needs repair, crashes during boot, or when your drive becomes read-only. When this happens, make sure you have a good backup.

5. How long can I expect an SSD to last?

An SSD should ideally last as long as its manufacturer expects it to last (generally five years), provided that the use of the drive is not excessive for the technology it employs. Consult the manufacturer’s recommendations to ensure that how you’re using the SSD matches its best use.

6. Do SSDs fail faster than HDDs?

There are many variables in comparing the reliability of HDDs and SSDs, the primary one being how they are used. SSD users are far more likely to replace their storage drive because they’re ready to upgrade to a newer technology, higher capacity, or faster drive, than having to replace the drive due to a short lifespan. Under normal use we can expect an SSD to last years. If you replace your computer every three years, as most users do, then you probably needn’t worry about whether your SSD will last as long as your computer. What’s important is whether the SSD will be sufficiently reliable that you won’t lose your data during its lifetime.

7. Are SSDs good for long-term storage?

SSDs, like hard drives, are meant to be used. An external drive stuffed into a closet for a couple of years is never a good thing, and it doesn’t matter whether it is an SSD or HDD inside. The evidence of whether an SSD will fare better than a HDD in such a circumstance is anecdotal at best. Still, it is better to use an external drive as a backup of your computer as part of your backup plan—just don’t make it your only backup.

The post SSD 101: How Reliable are SSDs? appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Building Your (Digital) Go Bag

Post Syndicated from Stephanie Doyle original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/building-your-digital-go-bag/

A decorative image of several icons that represent photos, documents, identification cards, and money flowing into a backpack.

Quick! You have 10 minutes to get your most important documents out of your house. What do you need?

Here’s another scenario: you’re away from home and you find out there was a fire. Are you confident that you have all your important information somewhere you can access?

It’s never fun to imagine disaster scenarios, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid the necessary preparation. Building a good emergency kit checklist—and digitizing the things you can—is one of the easiest things you can do to give yourself peace of mind. Today, I’m covering all the things that can and should go into your digital go bag.

Editor’s Note

We’ve had this article on our calendar for a while now, and it’s part of our campaign to celebrate World Backup Day. But, we never want to be the ones shifting the focus from the victims of natural disasters. With the devastating storms that rolled through the U.S. South and beyond this weekend, we wanted to take a moment to say that our thoughts are with everyone affected, and if you have the ability to donate, this is a great boots-on-the-ground charity helping folks out right now.

Disaster Prep: Better Known as Recovery Planning

It may seem far-fetched that you’ll be in the position to get the essentials in only 10 minutes, but speaking from personal experience, that’s exactly what happened to me when the 2003 Cedar Fire struck in San Diego—there’s nothing like seeing your friends’ homes on the national news, let me tell you. And, having spent much of my adult life in hurricane-prone New Orleans, disaster readiness is just a way of life. It’s common to discuss the incoming storms with the old-timers in your neighborhood bar over a $2 afternoon High Life, and they are almost always right in predicting if a hurricane is going to turn and hit Florida.

A photo of Jim Cantore in a storm pointing ahead.
And you always know it’s a serious weather event when Jim Cantore comes to town. Source.

One of the things these experiences have taught me is that disasters and recovery happen in stages. There’s the inciting event—a house fire, a hurricane, etc.—and then there’s the displacement and recovery. You’re trying to call an insurance company when the lines are all tied up, and when you finally get through, you need to give them information that they need when you’re far from home and in crisis. You may have renter’s insurance, but when you’re trying to re-buy your book collection, really, which ones did you have? And, there are some things that can’t be replaced—photos are a great example. Finding a way to organize and digitize these things means that you don’t have to worry about stuff when you should be worrying about people.

All that to say, the more you can do to be prepared ahead of time, the better. That means not only having your documents in a place you can access, but also knowing what documents you need in the first place. While this type of file organization started out in response to natural disasters, it’s actually helped in many other ways—I always know where my files are to give to my tax guy, and I’ve implemented a good 3-2-1 backup strategy, which means I’m confident my data is protected and accessible.

As it happens, there’s a name for this type of intentional preparation when you’re building an emergency kit: folks call those kits go bags. It makes sense right? You have a bag that holds the things you need to go. These days, though, many of the things that you’d traditionally include in that physical bag can also be digitized. So, with all that in mind, let’s talk about how to build your (digital) go bag.

What Documents Do I Need in My Emergency Kit?

A little caveat here: just because you can digitize something, doesn’t mean that should be your only copy. There are some things that you just flat-out need to have in person, like your driver’s license, though some states have experimented with digital wallets that contain official, legal copies of those things. Nevertheless, having a digital backup of your important physical documents means that you’ll have the information to replace them should you need to.

After that, you can break your go bag checklist into a few different categories.

  • Household Identification
  • Financial and Legal Information
  • Medical Information
  • Emergency Contact Information
  • Valuables and Priceless Personal Items

We’ve shamelessly borrowed this information from a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) list of essentials, and we’ve added a few notes as well. Let’s break down each category.

Household Identification

These are all the things you need to prove you are who you say you are, and to prove that your kids, pets, and spouse are, in fact, your kids, pets, and spouse. It may seem like this isn’t important, but there were whole organizations dedicated to reuniting pets with their rightful owners after Hurricane Katrina—and it wasn’t easy. And, imagine if you’ve divorced and don’t have custody papers in an emergency. Sure, courts have records of those agreements, but sometimes those papers take weeks or months to get copies of.

The List

  • Vital Records: Birth certificates, marriage agreements, divorce decrees, adoption or custody papers.
  • Identity Records: Passports, driver’s license, i.d. card, Social Security card, green card, visa, military service i.d.
  • Pet Records: Pet ownership papers, identification tags, microchip information.
A photo of a woman kissing her very cute dog in front of a window.
Your dog, blissfully unaware that your legal relationship to each other is documented.

Financial and Legal Information

If your home or income is affected during a disaster, you’ll need documentation to request assistance from your insurance company or government disaster assistance programs. Remember that even after you get assistance, all that comes with tax implications down the road (for better or worse). Both of those processes take time, so in addition to having your information organized and ready to go, try to keep some emergency cash on hand during high-risk time periods.

The List

  • Housing Documents: Lease or rental agreements, mortgage agreement, home equity line of credit, house or property deed, lists of/receipts for repairs.
  • Bills: Utility bills, student loans, alimony, child support, elder care, gym memberships, streaming services.
  • Vehicle Documents: Loan documents, VIN number, registration, title.
  • Financial Accounts: Checking, savings, debit cards, credit cards, retirement accounts, investment accounts.
  • Insurance Policies: Homeowners, renters, auto, life, flood, fire.
    • Note: Don’t forget to document your property! Make a list of items covered by insurance with their estimated values, and take pictures of all that stuff.
  • Sources of Income: Pay stubs, government benefits, alimony, child support, rent payments, 1099 income.
  • Tax Statements: Federal/state income tax returns, property tax, vehicle tax.
  • Estates Planning: Wills, trusts, powers of attorney.

Medical Information

Even more so than the other sections on this list, it’s important to make sure you have thorough documentation for each member of your household. Remember that there are some items on this list that you’ll need sooner rather than later—think prescription refills. And, make sure that allergy information is front and center, especially life-threatening allergies (like to seafood or nuts).

The List

  • Insurance Information: Health and dental insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Administration (VA) health benefits.
  • Medical Records: List of medications, illnesses/disabilities, immunizations, allergies, prescriptions, medical equipment and devices, pharmacy information.
  • Legal Documents: Living will, medical powers of attorney, Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) documents, caregiver agency contracts, disabilities documentations, Social Security (SSI) benefits information.
  • Contact Information: A list of doctors, specialists, dentists, pediatricians.

(Emergency) Contact Info

Finally, you’ll want all of the contact information you may need in one place—it’ll save you time and headaches when you’re trying to make calls, plus you may be able to delegate some phone calls to others. The exercise itself is useful to help you remember any miscellaneous items you may have forgotten in your other documents. Bonus: you can keep a list of extensions or direct phone lines and skip the automated phone tree.

A photo of a man wearing a phone headset and sitting at a computer, smiling at the viewer of the photo.
Press one for more options.

The List

  • Employers
  • Schools
  • Houses of worship
  • Homeowners’ associations
  • Home repair services
  • Relatives/emergency contacts
  • Utility companies
  • Insurance companies
  • Lawyers
  • Local non-emergency services
  • Government agencies

Valuables and Priceless Personal Items

Most of the things that fit in this section aren’t able to be digitized—your wedding dress, heirlooms, jewelry, and the like. Still, don’t forget that those things may have a paper trail you want to keep in your records, especially if you have additional insurance on things like the jewelry.

And, you can never forget to mention photos in this section. While most of us are now in the habit of using our smartphones as cameras, so most of our new photos are already stored in the cloud, don’t forget to digitize all of your photos, including the ones passed down by relatives, taken by professionals, and so on. And, even though it seems like our phones are safer than other formats, you’ll want to back up your mobile devices as well.

Go Bag: Go for Backups

Here’s the short answer to the question of what to digitize: anything you can. Even if the digital copies aren’t legally acceptable, like in our i.d. example above, you’ll at least have the information to fill out online forms or re-order the documents as necessary.

Once you have digital copies of all of these documents, it’s also easy to backup your information. We recommend that you follow a 3-2-1 backup strategy: having three copies of your files in two separate locations with one of those locations off-site. That way, you can grab your documents and go if you’re at home, or if the worst happens and you can’t access that on-site information, you can access all that information in the cloud.

A decorative image of a lightbulb with 3-2-1 in a halo surrounding it. Also, a title that says "3-2-1 Backup Strategy"
The 3-2-1 backup strategy: always a great idea.

Is My Go Bag Safe Online?

Good question. This is the most important information in your life, and we’re asking you to store it all online, the playground of cybercriminals. There’s a lot you can do to protect yourself, though. You’ve already achieved one of those things: setting up a backup strategy. You should also store your data in a secure location. Watch out for clever phishing attempts. And, make sure you follow password best practices, including setting up multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Make It a Holiday to Update Your Information Regularly

Remember that a lot of the information on this list will change over time. Maybe you’re the type of person who remembers to update their files continuously or when something big changes, but it’s a good idea to set one day per year (Around tax day? Maybe going into hurricane season? Groundhog’s Day?) that you intentionally set as Update Important Information Day. (We’re big fans of holidays that combine the whimsical and the practical here at Backblaze.) Feel free to workshop the holiday title and celebrate judiciously. Then, use a backup service like Backblaze Personal Backup that continuously and automatically backs up your data, and you’ll be pretty well prepared for whatever life throws at you.

The post Building Your (Digital) Go Bag appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

The Best Backups in Football History, Part One

Post Syndicated from Stephanie Doyle original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-best-backups-in-football-history-part-one/

Ah, football. A beautiful 18 weeks from September to January when we cheer for our favorite teams, eat an uncomfortable amount of dippable appetizers and hand-held foodstuffs, and generally have more exciting Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays than the rest of the year. And of course, Super Bowl Sunday is the pinnacle of all that joy.

One of the things that we love about football is that it’s given us some incredible moments proving the importance of—you guessed it—backups. Sure, there are only 11 players on the field at any one time, but the team roster has 53 players total, and there’s a reason for that. At any time, the players toward the bottom of the roster could be called up to save the day. And we at Backblaze celebrate times when backups shine.

So, let’s talk about some of our favorite (football) backups of all time and relive those exciting moments.

The Highlight Reel

Brock Purdy, San Francisco 49ers, 2022

We’re based in San Mateo which means we’ve got a lot of Niners fans here at Backblaze. So, you can imagine the joy (and heartbreak) in our office this year. Brock Purdy was the final pick of the 2022 NFL Draft, therefore this season’s Mr. Irrelevant. (We know. It’s kind of mean, but we didn’t make up the name.)

As a third string QB in his rookie season, Purdy likely imagined he’d have little to no play time. Then, first string QB Trey Lance went out with an injury in week two, and Jimmy Garoppolo followed in week 13. Purdy started his first game against the Buccaneers and became the only quarterback in his first career start to beat a team led by Tom Brady.

Backup Steward Yev Pusin rocking his Purdy shirt in the Backblaze offices.
Backblaze’s Ryan Hopkins repping his love for the Chiefs.

After winning the Wild Card game, he suffered an injury to his right elbow, and then his replacement Josh Johnson got a concussion. Sadly, that meant the 49ers were out for the season, but there’s no argument that Purdy outperformed everyone’s expectations. What a backup! (And we hope everyone recovers well.)

We’d like to note here that part of the reason the Niners’ backups got to shine is that the offensive line was so strong this year, so shout out to all the players who put in that work.

The Backup Bottom Line: In our minds, the ability to protect your backups is the hallmark of any good backup strategy.

Max McGee, Green Bay Packers, 1966

This one is truly the stuff of legends, and we need to set the historical stage a bit to truly squeeze the juice, as they say.

The Super Bowl we know and love today pits the two conferences of the NFL against each other. But, back in the day, the Super Bowl was created because oil heir Lamar Hunt created an upstart league called the American Football League (AFL). After a contentious draft, player poaching, and so on, the AFL was looking to prove its legitimacy by challenging the established NFL teams—and so, in 1966, the first Super Bowl was held.

Backblazer Crystal Matina at a game.
Her daughter Chiara (right) showing Niners love from a young age.

The Green Bay Packers, helmed by the great Vince Lombardi, won the NFL Championship versus the Cowboys and earned the right to face the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl I. Lombardi was reportedly extremely invested in defending the honor of the NFL, and he raised the penalties for breaking curfew to record-high levels. However, that didn’t stop Max McGee.

McGee had gone pro in 1954, and, at that point in 1962, was seemingly close to retirement. That season, he’d only caught four passes total and did not expect to play in the Super Bowl. So, he made plans with two flight attendants and spent the night before the big game drinking, eventually returning to the hotel at 6:30 a.m. game day. (We won’t speculate on what else happened, though Sports Illustrated wrote a fantastic article about McGee.)

In what now only seems fateful, starting receiver Boyd Dowler suffered a shoulder injury in the second drive and was out of the game. A few plays later, hungover and sleep deprived, McGee made a one-handed catch and ran 37 yards to score the first touchdown of the game—the first touchdown in Super Bowl history. By the end of it all, he had 138 receiving yards and two touchdowns, contributing to the Packers’ victory.

McGee went on to retire the following season, but he will never be forgotten.

The Backup Bottom Line: Just like a computer backup, McGee was there when the team most needed him and least suspected it.

Nick Foles, Philadelphia Eagles, 2012–2013

Nick Foles is a great example of someone who found himself bouncing between backup and starter. If you’re not familiar with the Eagles’ 2012 season, their overall record was a dismal four wins, 12 losses. Midseason, starting QB Michael Vick suffered a concussion and Foles got his chance. He started Week 14’s game against the Bucs, and delivered the Eagles’ first win since game four.

When the 2013 season rolled around, the Eagles weren’t quite ready to part ways with Vick. Vick won the starter spot with excellent preseason play, while Foles only gave an average performance. But, when Vick suffered a hamstring injury, Foles again stepped in. By weeks nine and 10, Foles was putting up extremely high passer ratings, and became the first quarterback in NFL history to post passer ratings above 149 in consecutive weeks. He led the team to the NFC East division title and the Wild Card playoffs, and then lost to the Saints who scored a last minute field goal to advance.

Ryan Ross bringing the Bills pride!
Backblaze Editor Molly Clancy showing up for the Steelers.

Still, the Eagles ended the 2013 season 10–6, a huge improvement from 2012. After an unsuccessful 2014 season, Foles was traded to the Rams. Since then, he’s repeated this same story with the Eagles in 2017 and 2018, but couldn’t seem to make the same magic with the Jaguars (due to injury), the Bears, or the Colts. Ultimately, Foles may be a backup, but he’s responsible for some insane stats—including the best touchdown-interception ratio in the season (2013) and putting up a perfect passer rating in a game (2013, Eagles vs. Raiders).

The Backup Bottom Line: You can never count out your backups. Just when you think they’re an artifact, they bring your best moments back to you.

Darren Sproles, San Diego Chargers, 2005–2011

Speaking of insane stats, let’s talk Darren Sproles. Calling out my bias here, I’m a huge Darren Sproles fan. Also, like Sproles, I spent my youth with the Chargers, then moved onwards and upwards to the Saints. (Yes, San Diego is still salty about the move to L.A. No, I didn’t randomly choose the Saints.)

If you’re unfamiliar with Darren Sproles, he has what is likely the least-probable body type for football, at just 5’6, 190 lbs. I can’t imagine how many times he was likely told to consider football an unrealistic dream by a well-meaning adult in his life. On the other hand, he’s incredibly fast, super powerful in the pocket, and can change directions on a dime. (Plus, it goes without saying he can take a hit.) When Sproles was on the Chargers, word on the street was that he benched more than any player on the O-line.

The author in her natural habitat, diligently writing this article for you.
Lily, a very gifted linebacker and roommate of Backblazer Nicole Gale.

At the time, first string running back LaDainian Tomlinson (LT) was—there’s no other word for it—crushing it. Widely regarded as one of the best receivers of all time, he has a career 624 receptions, with 100 of those in the Chargers’ 2001 season. He’s currently 7th place in overall rushing yards, with 13,684 career yards. When Sproles joined the team in 2005, he was third string behind LT and Michael Turner (also an incredible running back, and he almost made our list here).

As Sproles became a big part of the Chargers’ offensive strategy, things became more balanced. That’s not because Darren Sproles was in competition for the top spot; Sproles is a scat back and a specialist in conversions. When it’s third down and you need yards, you want Sproles to have the ball.

Sproles is also an incredible special teams player, so he was often doing double duty in games. When the Chargers played the Colts in 2007, Sproles made history by returning a kickoff and a punt for his first two NFL touchdowns. In 2008, he became the second player in NFL history with 50 rushing yards, 50 receiving yards, and 100 return yards in one game. In 2010, he appeared in all 16 games, with 59 receptions, 50 carries, 51 kick returns, and 24 punt returns.

Sproles went to the Saints in 2011, and in that season, he broke the NFL record for single-season all purpose yardage—2,696 yards. At this point, he’s ranked 6th in career all-purpose yards in NFL history, with 19,696 yards. LaDanian Tomlinson is ranked 10th, with 18,456 yards.

The Backup Bottom Line: Your backups fulfill a totally different purpose than your active data, and often they’re working better (by some measures).

The 49ers fans are back with Backblaze’s Nico Azizian.
Another Bills fan at Backblaze, Amy Kunde.

Earl Morrall, Baltimore Colts & Miami Dolphins, 1968–1977

Earl Morrall started his career in 1956 as a quarterback and occasional punter. To summarize the first decade or so of his NFL career, he played capably and suffered a few major injuries at key times.

In 1968, he found himself playing for the Baltimore Colts as second string to Hall-of-Famer Johnny Unitas. When Unitas was injured during preseason, Morrall was left to lead the offense, and the team went 13–1 in the regular season. Morrall led the league with 26 touchdowns, and threw for 2,909 yards. After a shutout in the NFL Championship (remember: this is in the days where the American Football League existed), the Colts advanced to Super Bowl III. Widely regarded as one of the greatest upsets in sports history, the Colts lost the Super Bowl after Morrall threw three interceptions, and Unitas came in late in the game and scored the only touchdown of the game. The Colts later won Super Bowl V—which was also the first year after the NFL bought the AFL, and thus the Super Bowl was the ultimate championship in the NFL.

Despite his success, backing up was as far as Morrall would get with the Colts, and in 1972, Morrall went to the Miami Dolphins. Football fans probably already know: In 1972, the Miami Dolphins achieved the first and only perfect season in NFL history. And in game five of that perfect season, starting quarterback Bob Griese broke his ankle—leaving Morrall to start the remaining nine games of the season. In the postseason, he started the Divisional playoff game and the AFC Championship, though Griese came back in the third quarter to finish that one out and then started in the Super Bowl. To make that math simple: That means that in the 1972 Dolphins perfect season, Morrall started 11 of the 17 total games.

Backblaze’s Juan Lopez-Nava shares another perfect thing in football: his pup and dedicated 49ers fan, Mila.

Morrall went on to retire from the Dolphins in 1977 with only sporadic playtime marking the time in between.

The Backup Bottom Line: It just goes to show: having a great backup means that you can rely on the system to work, even if key parts of your initial strategy go down.

Even Our Backup Stories Had Backups

When we first started talking about this article, we were sure there’d be great backup stories, but it’s incredible how many we found. We have a whole list of players whose moments didn’t get highlighted in this piece simply because we ran out of space, and, frankly, some of them are just as impressive (maybe even more so?) when compared to those above. If you want to do some further investigation, check out Geno Smith, Teddy Bridgewater, Michael Turner, Kurt Warner, Jeff Hofstetler, Trey McBride, Cordarrelle Patterson, Devin Hester—and then let us know who else you turn up in the comments section, because we’re sure we missed some good stories.

The post The Best Backups in Football History, Part One appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Backblaze vs. Dropbox: Backing Up Our Backup Claims

Post Syndicated from Stephanie Doyle original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-vs-dropbox-backing-up-our-backup-claims/


If you follow the Backblaze blog, you’ve likely come across some of our “How to Back Up Your Life” posts. We’re interested in helping you, our readers, design the best backup plan for your needs, regardless of what your setup is, what social networks you’re on, or if you’re on a Mac or a PC.

Of course, Dropbox has shown up in that content. We have several articles talking about the best ways to integrate with their platform, and some articles that just talk about how to deal with the differences between sync and backup.

How to Back Up Your Life

The guides in this series help you protect your content across many different platforms. We’re working on developing this list—please comment below if you’d like to see another platform covered.

Recently, we heard that Dropbox released a backup product and wrote an article comparing our two services. (We’re flattered that they consider Backblaze to be the gold standard to compare to!) We thought we’d take this opportunity to respond, mostly because we want our library of guides to include their new offering, and a little bit because, well, there were some interesting interpretations included in the article.

Without further ado, our thoughts on the differences between Backblaze and Dropbox backup.

Backup vs. Sync

Dropbox started out as a syncing service, which, as we’ve noted before, is not the same as a backup service. When you’re using a sync service, you can easily delete or change a file, save it, and then lose the one you actually wanted to keep. This is one of the big reasons you should back up, even if your files are synced.

Over the past several years, Dropbox has been expanding their offerings, including file transfer, document signing, and now backup. It makes a lot of sense if you want to be a leading file management system. But, does Dropbox Backup stack up as a functional, independent product—or is it more of an add-on they’re offering to their sync functionality?

A Quick Note on Citing Your Sources…

When I set out to write this article, I first wanted to see if the things Dropbox claims hold water—After all, innovation is about iteration, and you don’t change or get better if you believe your product is perfect. Maybe we could learn something.

I kept hearing about this product research they’d done:

Source: Dropbox Backup vs. Backblaze.

You know we at Backblaze love data, so I was curious—How did they collect this data? Who were these users? I couldn’t find much more information about it in the article. But, after some digging, I found this on their product page:

Source: Dropbox Backup page.

It makes sense that people who already use Dropbox would like a product similar to the one they’re paying for. But, do the rest of the claims of the article hold true?

Let’s Talk Pricing

Hey, price is definitely a part of my decision when I purchase services, and I’m sure it’s part of yours too. So, let’s get the big argument out of the way first.

Backblaze Personal Backup is $7 per month. That license includes an automatic, set-it-and-forget-it backup service, unlimited data storage, 30-day version history, and you can add one-year version history for just $2 per month or forever version history for $2 per month plus $0.005 per GB for anything over 10GB.

For argument’s sake, let’s grant that Dropbox also built a backup product that runs smoothly in the background. I haven’t personally tried it, but I’ve used Dropbox for file management, and it’s a great service.

Dropbox Backup has several tiers of payment. It’s also included in many of their other paid plans—so, in other words, if you’re already paying $12–$90+ per month for Dropbox, you can take advantage of Dropbox Backup. But, if you’re trying to purchase just Dropbox Backup, there are several tiers of licensing, and (like most SaaS companies) there are discounts for paying monthly versus yearly.

So, let’s try to compare apples to apples here. Say you only have $10 per month budgeted for your backup plan. Here’s what you’d get with Dropbox:

  • Year-long commitment – so no flexibility to cancel
  • 2,000GB data cap
  • 30-day version history

For the same $10 per month, here’s what you’d get with Backblaze:

  • Monthly commitment – flexibility to cancel
  • No data cap
  • One-year version history

For reference, in 2020 most consumers were storing around 500GB of data in their personal storage clouds, but, unsurprisingly, we store more data every year. According to experts, data storage is doubling about every four years. So, you can certainly expect those “running out of space” notifications to be pushing you to upgrade your Dropbox service, and probably sooner than you’d expect.

Speaking of Flexibility

Once you check out Dropbox’s Help docs, there are a few other things to note. Essentially, if you want to use Dropbox Backup, you have to turn off other syncing and backup services (except for OneDrive).

Source: How to Use Dropbox Backup.

In order for Dropbox Backup to work, you have to turn off iCloud and Google Backup/Sync services, both of which are super compatible with your mobile devices and which many many folks rely on (two billion Google customers can’t be wrong). And, what about business use cases? Say you’re an enterprise client who wants to work in G-Suite—Dropbox Backup is not your answer. To put it simply: Dropbox Backup works best if Dropbox is the product you also use to store your files in the cloud.

Backblaze, on the other hand, works with whatever other services you’re rocking. Many of the choices we’ve made are reflective of that, including our restoration process. Dropbox offers restoration in place—if you use Dropbox to manage your files already. Basically, when you restore in place, you’re making a change to the virtual environment of your files (their copy of your hard drive that lives in Dropbox), and then they send that back to your computer. If you use a different syncing service or are accessing a file from another device, well, you’re going through the same download/restore process as every other backup service.

Restores for All

Here’s another thing: It’s a main point in Dropbox’s article that we offer recovery via USB. They turn their noses up at delivering files via the mail—Why would you wait for that?

Well, if you’ve lived in areas with not-great internet, dealt with being the family IT hero, or have a ton of data that needs to be moved, you know that having many ways to restore is key. Sure, it’s easy to scoff at all things analog, “OMG a USB drive via the mail?!” But an external drive (in this example, a USB) comes in super handy when you’re not tech savvy or have a ton of data to move—anyone who’s had to migrate lots of files (at work or at home) knows that sometimes the internet is not as fast as moving data via external devices.

Sure, there are tech reasons rapid ingest devices matter. But these guys matter too.

And, of course, you can always restore files from the internet with your Backblaze Personal Backup account. That’s our front-line method in our Help docs, and we’ve built a Download Manager to make things more seamless for our customers. We’ve made updates to our mobile apps, and just as importantly, we offer Backblaze B2 Storage Cloud and Backblaze Business Backup products. That means that if you ever outgrow our Personal Backup services, we’ve got you covered.

To Sum Up

We’re always happy there are more backup options for consumers. A little Backblaze flame warms our hearts when we know peoples’ data is backed up. Of course, we’d love it if everyone used Backblaze, but we want people to back up their data, even if it’s with a competitor.

If you’re already a paying Dropbox user, this may be a great option for you. But, if you’re like the majority of people and need something that works, no matter where/how you store your files or what other services you use, Backblaze Personal Backup is still your easy, affordable, and proven option.

The post Backblaze vs. Dropbox: Backing Up Our Backup Claims appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

How to Download and Back Up Your Mastodon Account

Post Syndicated from Stephanie Doyle original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/how-to-download-and-back-up-your-mastodon-account/

Mastodon: Have you heard of it? As a social media platform, it’s unique in that it’s free, open-source, and crowdfunded. It doesn’t have ads, and it’s not owned by a corporation. When you set up an account on Mastodon, you select a server (called an “instance”) where your account lives. All of that can sound confusing to your average computer user, though it also makes it a favorite amongst the more tech-savvy users in the world.

The truth of Mastodon’s distributed servers is that it doesn’t really matter which server you choose to set up on. Since each server talks to every other server (just like email), you’ll be able to use the social network just like you would Twitter or any other microblogging platform. You can publish text posts (adorably called “toots”) and attach media such as pictures, audio, video, or polls. Mastodon lets you follow friends and discover new ones, and also uses hashtags to find communities or topics you may be interested in.

Also just any other social media site, you’ll want to back up all your posts. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. 

How Mastodon Works: The Nuts and Bolts

There are some people who want to host their own Mastodon server (if that’s you, it means that other accounts would be hosted on your server, and you’d be responsible for setting standards to moderate content). In that case, you may want to back up your Mastodon server data to Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage—or even use our always-hot storage to actively run your server like this Mastodon user who kept running out of storage and used Backblaze for a cost-effective storage solution.

Stay tuned: We’re planning on writing about this in the future.

But, if you’re just using your account like you would on any other social media platform—that is, you’re posting, finding friends, sharing cute pictures of dogs, etc.—you’ll want to make sure that your posts and memories are protected. There’s the normal run of data loss dangers: natural disasters, computer crashes, and so on. But also, since anyone can bring up their own Mastodon server, they can just as easily take them down. In that case, having a backup means that you can easily move your account to another server on the Mastodon platform without losing your toots.

Let’s talk about the best way to keep your data backed up with Backblaze Computer Backup.

Download Your Mastodon Data

Like most services that prioritize open sourcing, Mastodon has a fantastic documentation center. If you ever have questions, start there first (that’s what we did). To get started with your Mastodon back up, you’ll want to download your account information. After you log into your account, navigate to Settings > Export. The screen should look like this:

As you can see, there are lots of lists you can download straight from this screen. These include your block lists and mute lists—an excellent feature which means you can maintain your privacy settings if you need to move your account, or open a new account on a different server.

To get your toots as well as any uploaded media, like photos or videos, you simply click the button to request your archive. You can request this archive once every seven days.

Once you have that file, you can either upload a copy of it to Backblaze B2 (which is free for your first 10GB of storage), or, Backblaze Personal Backup (we’ve got a free trial there too, of course). Backblaze Personal Backup is super easy—just save that file natively on your computer so that it’s included in your always-running backup service.

While You’re At It…

We’ve gathered a handful of guides to help you protect your content across many different platforms. We’re working on developing this list—please comment below if you’d like to see another platform covered.

Why Back Up Your Mastodon Archive?

It’s always smart to protect your data with a 3-2-1 backup strategy. This means that you’ll have three copies of your data stored in two different local destinations with one copy kept off-site.

Taking your Mastodon archive file as an example, let’s see where those files would live to make sure we satisfy the 3-2-1 backup strategy:

  1. The downloaded copy of your Mastodon archive is saved to your personal computer.
  2. You also back up that archive on your external hard drive.
  3. You have a third copy of the file saved in your Backblaze account.

Especially if you’re using a sync service for the files on your computer, sometimes things get modified or deleted accidentally. When that happens, you can restore from the backup copy on your hard drive. If your hard drive crashes for some reason, then you also have another copy you can easily restore from your Backblaze account. Since it lives in the cloud, even if your computer and your hard drive are lost (say, in a natural disaster), you will still have another copy of your data you can use to get back online.

Even better: If you enable Extended Version History on your Backblaze Computer Backup account, you can see older versions of your file. That’s useful if you accidentally replace your Mastodon archive and there was something you needed, but got changed. They have the same name, right? It’d be an easy mistake to make and not notice until you need to restore. With Extended Version History, you’d just choose an earlier instance of the file, restore it, and then move that file back to your computer and hard drive.

Mastodon Users Are On Top of Back Up

Of course, you can always go above those minimum standards, as these folks were discussing in this Mastodon thread.

We’re not surprised that Mastodon users are talking about their intricate back up systems. Generally speaking, if you’re someone who is interested in or uses open-source tech, you know that it can be a double-edged sword. The community is constantly finding and fixing bugs, asking questions, and creating tech. It’s exciting and creative, but sometimes you have to do a bit more legwork to make things work well.

So, users on Mastodon know the risks when they choose to host their data on someone else’s server, and Mastodon gives you options for how to reconstitute your account if that happens. It’s one of the reasons we love Mastodon: they thought about how to back up when they built the platform.

And, because Mastodon is open source, “they” = users who are (often) also contributing to the code. Of course they’re having spirited debates about how to make their tech lives better and more secure—and we love to see it!

In Theory, It’s Easier to Lose Your Data on Mastodon

We said at the beginning of this article that it really doesn’t matter which server (“instance”) you choose to host your Mastodon account on—and it doesn’t, when you’re talking about interacting with the platform as a user.

The thing that is different about Mastodon is that because it runs on distributed servers, Mastodon is (in theory) more vulnerable than other networks to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. If your server gets overloaded, it may result in you losing data.

A DDoS attack is like all these people shouting different questions at you at the same time and expecting answers—you’d crash and burn too.

Another thing to take note of is that Mastodon doesn’t have automatic updates. As a user, the onus is on you to check GitHub and to update accordingly. Since platform updates are often released to close security vulnerabilities, if you aren’t on top of this, you’re at risk of losing your data from a cyberattack.

This doesn’t mean that Mastodon as a social media site is less safe. In fact, because they automatically set up multi-factor authentication (MFA) and store less of your personal identifiable information, in some ways it’s safer than other platforms.

As long as you’re regularly backing up your Mastodon archive, you should be totally (“toot-ally”?) covered. Start your free trial with Backblaze Computer Backup, follow the steps we’ve set out above, and you’ll be all set.

The post How to Download and Back Up Your Mastodon Account appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

What’s the Diff: Image-Based Backup vs. File-Based Backup

Post Syndicated from Kari Rivas original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/whats-the-diff-image-based-backup-vs-file-based-backup/

When you’re planning your backup strategy, one important decision to make is whether to use image-based or file-based backups. Both methods have pros and cons and both are useful in different situations. Think of it like packing for a trip: Sometimes you need to take everything plus the kitchen sink (image-based), and sometimes you only need the essentials (file-based). It’s not a perfect metaphor, but it will make more sense once you understand the differences between these two backup types. Let’s dig in.

The TLDR: What’s the Difference Between Image-Based and File-Based Backups?

The short answer is this: An image-based backup (also known as a bare metal backup, which is a deeply cool name) is a backup of an entire machine or server, including the operating system (OS) and applications as well as all of the files. A file-based backup only includes the files. We’ll dig deeper into the implications of each below, but that should give you a good base of knowledge to start.

First, Some Basic Backup Best Practices

In addition to understanding the difference between file-based and image-based backups and when to use them, there are a few key elements of a backup strategy you should have in your playbook:

Want a Deeper Dive?

Check out “Server Backup: A Comprehensive Guide to Protecting The Data on Your Servers” for an in-depth look at creating a bulletproof backup strategy.

➔ Download the Guide

Why Is Your Backup Configuration Important?

Properly configuring your backups, including when to use file-based versus image-based backups, is important for a couple reasons. First, it enables you to optimize your cloud storage usage and costs. Image-based backups are typically larger than file-based backups, so they’ll cost more to store. File-based backups are smaller and cost less to store, but they’re also not as robust. Finding the right mix is important as you’re planning your cloud storage strategy.

It’s also important to properly configure your backups so that you can recover more effectively in the case of a disaster. Restoring from an image-based backup will allow you to bring your entire operation back online. Understanding how each type of backup works will help you decide which to use when (and when you should use both).

What Is a File-Based Backup?

A file-based backup, sometimes called a file backup or a file-level backup, is a backup of a single file, multiple files, or even all the files on your system. The biggest distinction from an image-based backup is that it does not include a backup of the OS.

When configuring a file-based backup, you can choose which files you want to back up. For instance, you might choose to back up only certain file types, like Word documents or databases. Or you might choose to back up a particular set of files for one department, such as accounting files.

To understand when to use a file-based backup, it helps to know the pros and cons. We’ll dig into those next.

Advantages of File-Based Backup

File-based backups are simple and straightforward—you just need to back up files versus the entire system. Advantages of this type of backup include:

  • More control over what gets backed up. You can choose specific files or folders that get backed up or sent to cloud storage.
  • More control over what you recover. You can be more granular when it comes to choosing which files you need to restore should you need to.
  • Less storage utilization and faster backups. Since file-based backups are typically smaller in size than image-based, they take up less storage space and can be faster to run.
  • Ability to customize. Some backup applications allow you to set customized backup cadences for different types of files. For example, you could back up accounting files daily, but other project files weekly. Or, you could back up all files on a specific schedule.

Disadvantages of File-Based Backup

There are two main disadvantages of file-based backups:

  • The files are saved, but not the applications that created them. If you need to restore files to a different machine, you need to make sure that machine has all of the appropriate applications to read and use the files.
  • File-based backups are very limited in a disaster recovery scenario. If you need to restore an entire environment after a natural disaster or a ransomware attack, you would need to recover all of your files, then spend additional time reconstructing your OS, reinstalling all of your applications, reconfiguring them, etc.

What Is an Image-Based Backup?

An image-based backup, also known as a bare metal backup, disk backup, disk image backup, or mirror backup, allows you to back up all of the volumes on your server, creating a copy of your whole system.

As opposed to a file-based backup, an image-based backup backs up your entire OS, including settings, applications, configurations, and executable programs.

An image-based backup is more robust, which makes it larger. That comes with some advantages and disadvantages as well.

Advantages of Image-Based Backup

Image-based backups are comprehensive. Going back to our packing metaphor, this is the kitchen sink method. Advantages of this type of backup include:

  • The ability to restore a server in its entirety. This is great when you need to protect your entire server, including the OS.
  • The flexibility to restore individual files or the entire system. With an image-based backup, you get the same restore capabilities as a file-based backup, but with the added option to restore the entire disk if needed.
  • Faster recoveries. If you need to meet specific recovery time objectives (RTOs), image-based backups can save you time. You don’t need to reinstall and patch the OS.

Disadvantages of Image-Based Backup

There are a few disadvantages of image-based backups, including:

  • More time-consuming and bandwidth-hogging during backup. Since you’re backing up everything, image-based backups are going to take longer and use more internet bandwidth when you’re saving them to cloud storage. Backing up after work hours is typically recommended.
  • More expensive to store. Image-based backups take up more cloud storage space and hence cost more to store.
  • Could be overkill for day-to-day recovery needs. When you only need to recover a file that’s accidentally been deleted or corrupted, you don’t need a full image-based backup.

Image-Based vs. File-Based: How to Choose?

Now that you know the difference between image-based and file-based backups, how do you know when to use each type? Here are a few basic guidelines.

Choose a file-based backup for the following scenarios:

  1. If you have a virtualized environment. When you can reimage a new OS quickly in a virtualized environment, you may not want or need to back up the full OS.
  2. To back up employee workstations. Employees will most often need to restore individual files, and a file-based backup will cover this use case. If you ever needed to do a full restore, chances are good that you can just reinstall the OS easily.

Choose an image-based backup for the following scenarios:

  1. For servers with mission-critical data. If you can’t function without it, you should do a full image-based backup.
  2. For anything that would take a long time to configure. In a recovery situation, you don’t want to be spending time reconfiguring settings and reinstalling applications.

Why Not Use Both? Optimizing for Cost and Utility

Rather than choosing between file-based or image-based, you could design a backup strategy that employs both. This allows you to manage your storage usage and costs while maximizing your ability to recover quickly. For example, you could consider doing an image-based backup monthly and file-based backups more frequently. Or you could do an image-based backup of your mission critical servers and file-based backups of employee workstations. The right combination will help you to keep your costs low while maintaining the fidelity of your environment in a disaster scenario.

Storing Backups in the Cloud

Whether you choose image-based or file-based backups, you need somewhere safe to store them. According to the 3-2-1 backup strategy, one of those copies should live off-site in a geographically distant location, and cloud storage is a great fit. Check out server backup solutions from Backblaze B2 to learn more about storing your image-based and file-based backups in the cloud.

The post What’s the Diff: Image-Based Backup vs. File-Based Backup appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

The Beginner’s Guide to Computer Backup with Backblaze

Post Syndicated from Stephanie Doyle original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/beginner-guide-to-computer-backup/

Wouldn’t it be great if computers never crashed? If laptops never got lost? If that cup of coffee never spilled across your keyboard? As much as we’d like to believe that our computers will always work and the data on them will always be safe and accessible, accidents happen. Regardless of how you’re using your computer, you’re storing data that needs to be backed up.

Whether you’ve accidentally deleted a synced file, have a social media presence that’s just too valuable to lose, are going back to school, or you want to make sure you’re protected from cyberattacks, having your data backed up means that your important information isn’t lost forever. So, let’s talk about how to get the most out of your Backblaze account.

1. Set Yourself Up for Success

Backblaze backs up all the files on your computer, including documents, photos, music, movies, and more. When you’re creating your account for the first time, that can take some time—longer than you might think depending on how much data you have and how fast your internet connection is. (If you think it will take a really long time, you should probably be considering Backblaze B2 and our Universal Data Migration solutions). It’s important that your computer is on and awake during that time period, so we suggest that you turn off your computer’s sleep mode during your initial backup.

2. Keep Your Account Secure

We’ve talked before about how to keep your passwords safe, but we just want to make sure it’s clear how important that is for your backups. When backups are your last line of defense—your only option for recovery—then it’s imperative that you use unique passwords and practice a 3-2-1 backup strategy.

Like Librarians, We Work Quietly

Backblaze works quietly in the background while you go about your normal computer life. Note that we’ll only backup a document that’s not actively open. So, make sure to close out your projects when you’re done for the night (or day).

3. Bring Your Drive to the Table

If you have external drives, it’s essential that you connect them to your computer to be backed up to your Backblaze account. In order to give us enough time to scan the whole drive, make sure that it’s plugged into your primary computer for at least four hours in a row, once every two weeks. Here’s some more information on using external hard drives with Backblaze.

4. Check In

Once a week, it’s a great idea to check that your backups are working properly. If they’re not, make sure that you have the most recent version of Backblaze, or you can always contact our Support Team to make sure everything is running smoothly.

And, once a month, it’s a good idea to try to restore files from your online account. This is especially important if you have external devices. It’s always good practice to double check that things are running well, but it also gives you an opportunity to make sure you’ve backed up your external drive successfully.

5. On Restoration: The Sooner, The Better

When you’ve lost data, make sure you restore your data ASAP. If you’re ever worried you may need data continuity, remember that you can easily enable Extended Version History for $2/month. That will give you the ability to restore any version of a file for one year—or forever—depending on what you need.

Remember that Backblaze offers lots of file restoration options. Of course, you can use our website, but you can also restore from your mobile device or even order a USB. (We know; old school.)

Backup and Beyond

We are big advocates of backing up, of course. Hey, it’s for good reason. We want our tech to be accessible to all types of users. We love when you tell your friends about us, or you can use us to help your family and friends. If we’re missing any good tips or you have questions for us, feel free to comment below, say hi on socials, or contact Support.

The post The Beginner’s Guide to Computer Backup with Backblaze appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Let’s Not Go Phishing Today: Tips for Home Computer Users

Post Syndicated from original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/lets-not-go-phishing-today-tips-for-home-computer-users/

Every so often, a family member or friend will ask me if an email they received is a phishing email. That’s part of my job as the unofficial family tech person. Email phishing and its cousins vishing (voice phishing) and smishing (text phishing), are still a serious problem for the average home computer user. While businesses are slowly implementing phishing detection tools—and, more importantly, user training—to help tackle the problem, home computer users are, for the most part, left to fend for themselves.

Our goal in this post is to provide a few tips and tricks for those oft-forgotten home computer users—your old-school neighbor, your unassuming grandma, or your friend who’s just not that tech savvy—in their effort to use their computer without losing their life savings by clicking on the wrong link.

You can scroll past the first few sections to the phishing tips we’ve prepared so that you can use to better understand and identify a phishing email. Or, continue reading to learn more about the phishing problem, why it matters, and then finish up with the phishing tips.

Why It Matters

Phishing is the use of social engineering techniques—tactics that use psychological manipulation like impersonating someone you know—to get you to take an action that can lead to your downloading a virus or malware, having your account credentials stolen, becoming an extortion victim, or some other malicious action.

While detection and blocking technology has advanced over the years, Dark Reading, a cyber security news site, estimates that up to one percent of all emails that make it to the end user’s mailbox are phishing emails. For home users, who typically have to rely on their internet service provider (referred to as an ISP) or their browser (like Chrome or Safari) to keep them safe, the number is probably higher. Still, 1% doesn’t sound like much—until you consider that to get to that point, these phishing emails are the best of the best. Suddenly, it starts to make sense as to why up to 70% of phishing emails are opened by the recipient.

Who Owns the Phishing Problem?

My friends and family are not creators or purveyors of technology; they are primarily users. Asking them to identify phishing emails by deciphering the email raw source or header is not in their wheelhouse, nor should it be. We take planes, trains, and automobiles without knowing much about how they work. It should be possible to safely receive and interact with an email without having to understand sender authentication or bone up on RFC 5322.

You as the family IT manager.

Back in 2005, when most of us first heard of phishing, we had a pretty good idea which businesses and people would contact us and how they would reach us. Today, nearly every company or organization we interact with has a website, an email subscription, an app, social media, and maybe a phone number or two. The daily number of messages we receive via email, phone, text, and so on has easily increased 10-fold (100-fold?) over that time. Do you really have any idea how many accounts you’ve created in your lifetime, and if so, how each of them reaches and interacts with you?

Making matters worse is the proliferation of data collection services—legitimate, shady, and illegal—which will sell personal information to nearly anyone with a purchase order, credit card, or better yet, the latest cryptocurrency. Personal data such as your name, address, last four digits of a credit card, and much more are readily available. As a result, a phishing email can use your name and provide additional personal details along the way in an effort to make you believe it is valid ← that’s social engineering at work.

What Can You Do?

For home computer users, the phishing problem may not be of your making, but you cannot rely on technology if you want to safely function in today’s highly connected world. Phishing uses some really crafty tactics (i.e. social engineering) to get you to believe that when you receive a message from the bad guys, it is okay to do what they are asking you to do. That means you have to be at your best when the incoming message chime rings.

To that end, below we’ve provided you with a little social engineering education in the form of some easy to remember tips you can use to ferret out a phish. We’ll use email in our examples, but the techniques can apply to most inbound communications you’ll receive. In addition, you don’t have to have any special technical superpowers, just some common sense and the ability to lower your FOMO (fear of missing out) threshold.

You can read the tips below, but we’ve also prepared a 20-minute Let’s Not Go Phishing Today webinar which provides a little more depth for each of these tips. You can read the tips below, watch the webinar, or both. The webinar is available on the Backblaze channel on BrightTALK. Keep in mind that you will need to register to watch.

Tip 1: No trust and not useful.

Situation You receive an email from a business, organization, or person. You are certain you do not know or trust the sender and you were not expecting to receive the email.
Example You receive an email to lower your mortgage interest rate from a bank you do not use. Oh, and you rent.
Considerations There are zero reasons to open this email. There is no upside here at all for you. Even if this is not phishing, it is most likely spam.
Disposition Delete the email while crooning, “But there ain’t no Coupe de Ville hiding at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box,” in the style of Meat Loaf (“Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad,” Bat Out of Hell, 1977).

Your on-stage moment is at 2:27.

Tip 2: No trust, but you’re not sure.

Okay, tip one was pretty simple. They get a little harder now.

Situation You receive an email from a business, organization, or person. You might know the sender, but you really weren’t expecting an email.
Example You receive an email and the sender name sounds familiar, but that’s it. Maybe you stopped by a store and provided your email to the clerk, maybe you bought a shirt from them two years ago, or maybe it’s just some advertisement you saw, but nothing is ringing a bell.
Considerations
  • Don’t open the email right away, let it sit in your inbox for a day or two to see if there is a follow up message or perhaps you remember something.
  • Often phishers will use time to pressure you into acting. Surely you would have remembered something so important, so don’t let time pressure you into doing something you shouldn’t. Trust yourself.
  • If you do open the email do not click on any of the links and do not call any phone numbers you may find in the email. Just read the email to see if anything jogs your memory.
Disposition
  • After a day or two, if nothing rings a bell, delete the email. If it was important, they’ll resend. Click delete.
  • If you think the email could be legit—Okay, really, just lower your FOMO threshold and click delete. I am sure that a bank in Ireland is not waiting to give you a million dollars if you call them.

Fun fact: $1 million in $1 bills weighs 1.1 tons. Say that three times fast!

Tip 3: Trust, but verify.

Situation You receive an email from a business, organization, or person. You know the sender, but you weren’t really expecting an email from them.
Example You receive a promotional email from a business. You are a customer of this business and even have an online account with them. You were not expecting the email, but the email makes you an offer that is interesting to you.
Considerations
  • You can receive promotional emails anytime, but they are more prevalent around holidays and marketing events like Cyber Monday. Phishers know this and will use this to their advantage to avoid detection.
  • A phisher can send out millions of emails in an attack spoofing a given business. If you have a relationship with that business, you are prime pickings. Do not assume that just because you are a customer, the email is legitimate.
  • A phisher can also send out very targeted emails using personal information they have collected from data breaches and other sources, both public and private. Just because an email has your name and other personal details, it does not mean it is legitimate.
  • If you decide to open the email do not click on any of the links and do not call any phone numbers you may find in the email. Read the email and see what they are asking you to do.
Disposition
  • If you think the promotional offer is legitimate, then open a new browser window and type in the URL to go to the website, or open the app on your phone/tablet for that business. You may have to sign in to your account, but the promotion should be available in one of those places. If the promotion is only available via the email, contact customer service for the business and ask. Remember to use the website or app to contact customer service, not any of the contact information provided in the email.
  • Sometimes, an offer is only available by clicking on a link in the email. In my opinion this is lazy marketing and puts you at risk. Let the business know this is not acceptable.

Spam or Phish?

The email described above could be just a spam email. Whether an email is spam or phishing can be confusing, but in general spam messages are just trying to sell you something and phishing emails have some harmful intent. That said, the same tips we are using for identifying a phishing email can be used to identify spam messages as well.

Tip 4: Trust, but still verify.

Situation You receive an email from a business, organization, or person. You know the sender and you were expecting the email.
Example You receive an email on the 10th of the month from your credit card company saying your statement is ready. They always send you this email on the 10th of the month. The email says you can click on the link to sign in to your account and view the statement.
Considerations
  • It is highly likely this is a legitimate email, but given this email concerns your financial affairs, being extra careful is imperative. Opening up a web browser and typing in the URL to go to the bank’s website to sign in there is safer. This also enforces the good behavior of not clicking on links in emails.
  • Many financial companies and health care providers are starting to maintain a list of messages they send you via email and/or text. You can log into your account to view the list to make sure that any message you received was actually sent by the provider—before you interact with the message. This is an excellent best practice and such businesses should be commended for thinking about their customer’s online safety and security.
Disposition Even if you think the email is legitimate, use a web browser to access your online account, or use their app to take the requested action.

Downloading Email Attachments?

Only download an attachment that you were expecting to receive, preferably after you were notified via another email—or better yet another method such as a text message. For example, you or whomever you’re interacting with may say, “Hey Monique, I’m going to email those pictures in a minute.” Downloading unsolicited or unexpected attachments is not recommended.

Think of email, text messaging, and voicemail as read-only services, especially when it comes to your financial and health information. This is sometimes really hard with text messages that encourage you to “click this link to…” and voicemail messages saying “call us back at a specific number.” Such messages offer convenience and help move things forward—and sometimes, they are the only way to get things done. At that point, you have to trust the vendor and your instincts.

What to Do When You’re Forced to Click

There are two common situations where you are forced to click a link in an email or message in order to move forward: email newsletters and two factor (2FA) or multifactor (MFA) authentication.

We’re this happy about 2FA security too.

Newsletters

Newsletters can deliver valuable information and often link to other content for additional details. The trouble is, those links are often obscured by tracking redirects used to count how many clicks the link gets—It’s a marketing thing. The average user has little hope of figuring out where the link is actually going, so they are faced with ignoring the information or clicking to the unknown. Let’s break down an example.

Situation You receive a newsletter from a company you do business with and have received newsletters from them before.
Example Backblaze sends you a customer newsletter. There’s an article on a new feature and you want to learn more. To do so you have to click on a link, but when you rollover the link (don’t click) it reads something like:
“https://hub.backblaze.com/xxt/XXt/R+000/xx-h-99/V88XHdW7_bXrN4b0ml7W7xsyK94Tmm-9N2x86z13q3phV1-WJV7CgHCJW7swZm-8j6kXwW6cD…” plus 50-60 more characters that are not displayed.
Considerations
  • It may seem it goes to the Backblaze website (backblaze.com), but without seeing the entire URL you can’t be sure. It could end with “.../bad-guys-website.com“, which would not take you to Backblaze.
  • Were you expecting this newsletter or at least have you gotten a newsletter from Backblaze before? If it is the first time, did you just sign up?
  • What is the intent of the newsletter? Providing information or asking for something? If the newsletter is asking you to sign in to your account for example, it is easy enough to open a new web browser window and sign in from there.
Disposition
  • This one is all about trust, timing, and clicks. Let’s assume you trust Backblaze as a good sender, the newsletter looks very Backblaze-y, and this is something you would expect. If you do click on the newsletter links, there are two primary things to consider.
    • First, if the link takes you to a sign up or sign in page, stop. Always open a new browser window, enter the URL to go to the site, and sign in from there.
    • Second, make sure the click takes you where you expected to go. If you get pop-ups for downloading a toolbar or extension, land on an unexpected webpage, or other unusual browser behavior (e.g. an automatic download), close the browser window and everything else on your system. Then, run a full antivirus scan immediately.
  • If you are not inclined to click on any links in newsletters, we understand. In our case most of the links on a Backblaze newsletter will go to our blog or our website. You can open a new browser window and find the content on the Backblaze website. This works for the many different newsletters you may get daily. That is: You can usually find the content directly versus clicking on the link.

Tell Us More…

The problem with not clicking on the links in newsletters and other similar communications is that marketing folks lose information about what is important to the recipients, but your peace of mind is more important. So, a healthy alternative is that you could send an email or post something on social media about what you like and what you don’t. Even visiting the pages and interacting with the articles the newsletter highlighted will help. Marketers get feedback, you give your opinion on good content, and you’re a little safer from phishing attacks.

2FA or MFA

More and more websites are requiring the use of two factor or multifactor authentication. Here are a couple of scenarios to help you deal with the messages you might receive.

Scenario 1

Situation Your bank’s website uses text message-based two factor authentication to confirm access to your accounts.
Example Using a browser, you log in to your bank’s website. A couple of seconds later, you receive the text on your phone with a code that you need to enter on the website.
Disposition By asking to log in to your bank, you expect to get the text which provides the authentication code. You’re good.

Scenario 2

Situation Your bank’s website uses two factor authentication to confirm access to your accounts. You believe it is text message-based authentication.
Example Using a browser, you log in to your bank’s website. A couple of seconds later, you receive an email asking to click a link to allow the log in to your account.
Considerations
  • This is one of those cases where you need to know how the bank will contact you for the second factor. It could be a text message with the code (like the first example above). It could also be by clicking the link in a test message, or through an authentication app on your phone, or by email message, or even by phone.
  • Given the timing of the events in this example, it is highly likely that you had set up email as your second factor. But, sometimes it is not that easy to tell, especially if there are several minutes before you get the authentication message—or worse, if you don’t get the message at all.
  • One way to make this easier on you is to try to use the same authentication method for each website. The trouble is that different companies support different methods and not others. In some cases, you may be able to find information on the bank’s website to determine the authentication method they use.
Disposition If you’re not sure of the authentication method that was set up, you can abandon the sign-in, then open a new browser window and start again. If you get the same authentication method, you can be reasonably confident you’re doing the right thing.

Moving Forward

Over the past couple of years, vendors involved with providing email, text, and voicemail services have gotten better at detecting and eliminating phishing, spam, and malware before it reaches you. That’s great. But the bad guys haven’t given up, and many would say they’ve gotten better.

These tips are a good starting point for improving your ability to stay safe using the internet, email, and your phone. There are many websites and resources where you can learn more and stay informed about phishing and other forms of malware. We listed a few below. You can click on the links, but (if you are a little paranoid at this point), you can search for “consumer phishing resources” or just “phishing resources” using your favorite search engine. Good luck, and stay safe.

Select Phishing Resources

  1. Knowbe4: The world’s first and largest new-school security awareness training and simulated phishing platform.
  2. Phishing.org: A project from KnowBe4 that is a resource for IT professionals to keep you up to date on the latest phishing threats. The Resources page has some free tools to help improve your phishing knowledge.
  3. Phishing info from the Federal Trade Commission.
  4. A phishing primer from the National Cybersecurity Alliance.

The post Let’s Not Go Phishing Today: Tips for Home Computer Users appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

How to Download and Back Up Your Twitter Account

Post Syndicated from Barry Kaufman original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/how-to-download-and-back-up-your-twitter-account/

If you’ve been following the news lately, you might be thinking now is a good time to start downloading and backing up your Twitter history.

It’s officially the Elon Age of Twitter, and subsequently, there have been a few people rumbling about leaving the platform following Musk’s firing of top executives and an alarming rise in hate speech. Needless to say, we’re sticking around—you might have stumbled upon this article from Twitter itself. We just can’t quit the little blue bird quite yet. But there is one thing we can do, and that’s help you download and back up your Twitter archive—most likely for free.

Whether you’re anti-Elon or you’re just worried that the folks who are good at building electric cars or spaceships might not know how to manage a social media algorithm, you can take a few easy steps to protect your treasured Twitter memories. Here’s how.

Downloading Your Twitter Data

The first step is to log in to your Twitter account on a web browser. Once logged in, click on the “More” section in the navigation bar. From there, a new navigation bar will appear. You should select the “Settings and Support” dropdown, followed by the “Settings and Privacy” tab to progress.

Under the “Your Account” section, you will find an area labeled “Download an archive of your data.” The function of this is pretty self-explanatory, but does lead to a further menu that allows you to request an archive of your Twitter data or Periscope data.

After requesting your archive you will receive a notification with a link when your archive is ready for download. This archive will consist of a ZIP file with data that Twitter has deemed most relevant or useful to you, including DMs, moments, profile media and any media you may have used in your Tweets such as gifs, photos, and videos.

Archive Your Twitter Data for Free

Once you download your Twitter data, you can then save a full archive copy in the cloud on Backblaze B2—for free if it’s under 10GB.

Click here to get started with Backblaze B2 Storage Cloud today.

Back Up Your Twitter Data (Not Free, But Super Easy)

In addition to an archive copy, it’s important to use a secure backup strategy so all of those Tweets and memories will be preserved and kept safe from accidental deletion, equipment failure, or disasters (whether they’re natural or Musk-made). This is where a 3-2-1 backup strategy comes in handy. Using a 3-2-1 approach means keeping one copy of your data locally, one copy on a different type of media like an external hard drive, and one off-site (the cloud is a great place to keep it!).

You’ll need to manually download your Twitter data periodically, but once you have it on your machine, you can ensure it’s backed up with Backblaze Computer Backup—it automatically backs up all of your files, including documents, photos, music, movies, and, yes, all of that Twitter data you downloaded.

Click here to sign up for a 15-day trial of Backblaze Computer Backup, and save those Tweets.

While You’re At It…

We’ve gathered a handful of guides to help you protect social content across many different platforms. We’re working on developing this list—please comment below if you’d like to see another platform covered.

The post How to Download and Back Up Your Twitter Account appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

How to Download and Back Up OneDrive Data

Post Syndicated from Lora Maslenitsyna original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/how-to-download-and-back-up-onedrive-data/

On the Backblaze blog, we’ve been sharing tips for backing up and doing more with your data, especially when it comes to data digitally scattered across social media platforms. We asked what you, our readers, wanted to know about protecting your data online and you responded with this question: How do you download and back up data on Microsoft OneDrive?

OneDrive is an online file hosting service that many users take advantage of to sync the data on their computer. Although it offers 5GB of storage space for free, users pay a fee to store data that exceeds tiers of 100GB, 1TB, and 6TB. OneDrive even notes on their website that to free up space on your OneDrive account, you should download that file or folder to a location outside of your OneDrive folders, and then delete the OneDrive copy of the file or folder to reduce your storage amount. Of course, this means that the document is no longer syncing. And by doing so, you’re forced to constantly juggle the amount of data saved in OneDrive to stay under the free limit. Worse yet, the data you remove from OneDrive is no longer protected using the 3-2-1 backup method.

This guide walks you through ensuring your data on OneDrive is safely backed up and how to keep your data safe using the 3-2-1 backup strategy. So, read on to learn how to save your OneDrive data, including:

  • A step-by-step guide to accessing and downloading your data.
  • What to do with your downloaded OneDrive data to ensure it stays protected.

Back Up Everything But the Kitchen Sync

If you’re reading this blog post, you probably already know that saving your data to a sync service is not the same as backing it up. Sync and backup services are complimentary, but only a backup will save a copy of your data and keep it safe against accidental deletion, updates, a ransomware attack, and more.

To help you save your synced computer data, we’re developing a series of guides to downloading and backing up your data across different sync services. Below is a list of our other guides, and comment below to let us know what other sync services you’d like to see us cover.

How to Download Data From Microsoft OneDrive

    1. Open your OneDrive account and select the files or folders you want to download. You can select individual items by clicking the circle check box next to each item. You can also select several files at once by clicking on one file, scrolling down the list, then left-clicking while holding down the Shift key on the last item in the list you want to select. To select all of the files in a folder, click the circle to the left of the top row, or simply press CTRL + A (or COMMAND + A on a Mac).
    2. In the top menu, select Download. You can also right-click an individual file and select Download. If you choose multiple files or folders and then select Download, your browser will download a ZIP file containing all the data you selected. If you’re in a folder and you select Download without selecting any files or folders, your browser will download everything saved in that folder.

    3. Save your OneDrive data on your computer. Your browser will download your files to the Downloads folder of your computer. Select the files and save them to a permanent location. For some users, your browser may prompt you to choose the location where you want to save the download.

    Now that you’ve downloaded your OneDrive data, keep reading to find out how to ensure that data is safely backed up.

    The 3-2-1 Method in a Nutshell

    Back up your data based on these principles:

    1. Redundancy. Have several copies of your data.
    2. Geographic Distance. Have those copies in different locations.
    3. Access. Have different types of access to your backup data. A good example here: you don’t want all of your data to be connected to the internet to reduce the risk of cyberattacks. You also don’t want all copies of your data stored in your home in case of disaster or theft.

    How to Back Up OneDrive Data

    Once you have all of your OneDrive data downloaded on your computer, you’ve fulfilled the first step of the 3-2-1 backup strategy by storing your data on your local device. Next, you should make sure to follow the next steps and save your data on a secondary, external device and in a third, off-site location. Cloud storage is the one of the best options for easily securing your data off-site.

    If you’re using Backblaze Personal Backup to protect all of the data on your computer and external drives, you’re all set! Backblaze automatically and continuously backs up a copy of all of your data to the cloud.

    Another option to consider when you want to securely store your data and offload some of it from your local device is to upload your data to Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage directly. As long as you are still keeping a copy of that data on other local drives or devices, you’re still fulfilling the 3-2-1 backup method. You can learn more about the difference between using Personal Backup and B2 Cloud Storage and how to save and organize your data in cloud storage by reading this blog post.

    Read On to Get the Most Out of Backblaze and OneDrive

    Our help section is filled with useful guides on maximizing the integration of Backblaze and OneDrive. Check out our guides for Windows or Mac to learn more.

    Don’t Rely on Sync Services to Secure Your Data

    Chances are, the data you have saved in your OneDrive folders is data you want to keep. Don’t wait until you accidentally get locked out of your account or a software update wreaks havoc on your synced data. Back up your data today, and comment below to let us know what else you’d like to know about to help you keep your data safe.

The post How to Download and Back Up OneDrive Data appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Announcing: Backblaze Computer Backup v8.5

Post Syndicated from original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/announcing-backblaze-computer-backup-v8-5/

Announcing Backblaze Computer Backup 8.5! Our latest release builds on version 8.0’s speed boosts and brings with it not only a redesigned application for Mac and PC, but an improvement to our Safety Freeze feature, which prevents your backups from becoming corrupted. Here’s a brief overview of what’s new for this release:

macOS and Windows:

  • Safety Freeze enhancements: improved efficiency and reduced false-positives.
  • Visual refresh: We’ve completely refreshed both of our client apps.
  • Minor text, bug, and performance improvements: We’ve cleaned up some of the language to make things easier to understand and have tightened up some of the code.

macOS:

  • SwiftUI redesign: the macOS app has been completely redesigned from the ground up using SwiftUI.

In More Detail

Safety Freeze Enhancements

Our Safety Freeze feature is designed to protect your backups and prevent them from being corrupted if something goes wrong on your computer. Over the years we’ve updated the feature based on feedback and tried to make it more transparent to the end user. With the updates in version 8.5, we’ve added a self-healing component which attempts to fix some of the false positives that caused an erroneous Safety Freeze to occur, especially when a user is moving from one computer to another.

Visual Refresh

With the Swift redesign on macOS, we felt now would be the perfect time to also change some of the visuals in our apps. We’ve updated both of our client apps to make them better looking, simpler to use, less cluttered, and easier to understand.

SwiftUI Redesign

In preparation for macOS Ventura, we’ve rewritten the macOS app in SwiftUI. There’s nothing but good news here. This refresh helps future-proof our macOS app and also keeps the same system efficiency you know and love from Backblaze-built applications.

General Performance Improvements

Everyone’s favorite: “general bug fixes and performance improvements.” We’ve also updated and simplified a lot of our client text to go along with the visual refresh and deliver a better, easier-to-understand overall app.

Backblaze v8.5 Is Available Today: September 15, 2022

We hope you love this new release! We will be slowly auto-updating all users in the coming weeks, but if you can’t wait and want to update now on your Mac or PC:

  1. Right click on the Backblaze icon in your menu or taskbar.
  2. Select Check for Updates.
  3. Download v8.5 from the Backblaze Updates page.

Also, this version is now the default download on www.backblaze.com. Please reach out to support if you have any questions or if you want to give feedback—we always like to know how things are going.

The post Announcing: Backblaze Computer Backup v8.5 appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Packing Up and Backing Up: It’s Time for School

Post Syndicated from Josephine Quock original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/packing-up-and-backing-up-its-time-for-school/

Note from the Editor: When students head off to college, they take their data and computers with them. We wanted to dig into what students and other young tech users are doing to save and protect their data, so we invited our intern, Josephine, to develop some resources for you before she heads off to college.

Apart from discovering the outside world and learning more about who you are as a person, the university experience is, at its core, about the pursuit of knowledge. In years past, students would store that knowledge in spiral-bound notebooks or scattered sheets of loose leaf, but today it’s all digital. While there’s no doubt that computers have changed everything from how we research to how assignments are turned in, technology comes with its own set of challenges. I wondered: how much are students taught about how to keep their data safe? My experience at Backblaze has taught me a lot about the importance of backing up your data, and I want to share that with other college students.

Lesson One: Syncing is Not Backing Up

If students do think about how to preserve their data, most are content to let services like iCloud or OneDrive handle it. What they may not realize (and I didn’t) is that these sync services are completely different from a true backup. Before interning at Backblaze, I didn’t even think about backing up, let alone understand the importance of it or the best strategies to back up my data. I couldn’t tell you the difference between backup and sync services. Because my photos and contacts were synced on my iPhone, iPad, and even my MacBook, I assumed all this data was saved and in good hands. However, working at Backblaze taught me the importance of backing up to prevent losing my data.

For example, if I were to delete a photo on my iPhone, syncing means that it would also delete on my other devices. Backing up gives you an additional copy of the data that doesn’t follow the same rules as your syncing services. If I accidentally delete something or get a virus, a backup with version history means that I could restore an earlier version of my files or library. This is why ensuring the safety of your data is proactive, as backing up can provide security in the event of hardware failure, cyber attack, natural disaster, or even a careless mistake.

Lesson Two: You Might Need Your Old Data

Let me provide an example that we college students have experienced at least once throughout our time in university: the frustration and annoyance of endlessly searching through the deepest corners of our devices to find an important document, only to not find it in the end.

A few months ago, I was given the option to select a prompt for an essay of my choosing from a couple of short stories. “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe immediately caught my eye because I had read it and written a paper on it in high school. I enjoyed the story in high school and liked the idea of comparing my new paper with my old to see how much I’d grown as a writer. I browsed and inspected every possible drive on multiple email accounts—no luck.

Looking back, I wished that I had saved all the files and emails from middle and high school. But since I didn’t, I wasn’t able to review what I had written and couldn’t see the progress and improvement in my writing. Had I backed up all the data of my high school years, I could have read my essay on “The Tell-Tale Heart” and expanded on my original ideas. I was warned many times that all my documents from my account would be deleted. I knew this information and yet I still didn’t do anything about it.

Lesson Three: There Are Easy Answers

As a college student, I need a backup service that’s easy to use and affordable. Since Backblaze first started offering consumer backup, they’ve prioritized both of those things. According to an internal Backblaze’s Customer Survey in 2022, users love using the service because of the price, unlimited data backup, and most importantly ease of use. Backups are automatic, and 45% of Backblaze users spend less than $100 per year on all their backup services (including Backblaze).

Now that I will be going into my fourth year in college, I will have other important documents beyond my school work since I am going to be applying for more internships and jobs when I graduate. My resume, job applications, school projects, and essays are all things that I can’t risk losing. Additionally, lots of my photos are saved to social media accounts, and I want to save them somewhere besides my phone or on those platforms.

Lesson Learned!

After college, I plan on purchasing a new computer and will need to back everything up on my current computer to transfer over to my new laptop. Not only will that make sure that I don’t lose data when I change devices, but (rather than buying an external drive that I need to keep track of) I can use my Backblaze account. I will be using multiple devices to access my single Backblaze account. Once I have my new laptop, I just have to log in from my new device and restore all my files. I won’t have to worry about losing an external hard drive or making sure the files on a hard drive are updated.

With school back in session and the end of my university experience approaching, my social media, school work, and job search exist on all my devices. I can’t imagine losing any of it. After interning at Backblaze and hearing so many disaster stories, I will definitely be backing up my data, and I recommend that other students do too. That’s why services like Backblaze are really helpful.

The post Packing Up and Backing Up: It’s Time for School appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

How to Back Up Veeam to the Cloud

Post Syndicated from Kari Rivas original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/how-to-back-up-veeam-to-the-cloud/

Backups are your best defense against ransomware and other types of data loss. Thankfully it is quick and easy to back up all your Veeam data to Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage within minutes—and we have the videos to prove it!

What is Veeam?

Veeam is well-respected backup and disaster recovery software that works across many platforms and hardware/software configurations. Founded in 2006, Veeam Software is a U.S.-based company that operates in over 180 countries and has 400,000 customers—many of them Fortune 500 companies.

The Veeam and Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage Integration

Backblaze has partnered with Veeam to deliver the most reliable, affordable, and secure data protection and cloud storage target for your data. Veeam Backup & Replication provides modern data protection for your cloud, virtual, and physical workloads to solve your challenges around backup, recovery, archive, disaster recovery, and ransomware.

With a transparent pricing model that is a fraction of the competitors’ cost, Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage helps you plan your budget effectively and store more than four times the restore points you could otherwise. With Backblaze B2 as your cloud tier storage destination in Veeam, you can store your data for $5/TB per month with no minimum retention requirement, tiers, or hidden fees.

Additionally, Backblaze is certified as Veeam Ready—Object and Veeam Ready—Object with Immutability. Immutability is an important part of protecting backups from threats such as ransomware or stolen credentials because it allows you to protect objects from being changed, deleted, manipulated, copied, or encrypted for a specified, user-defined time period. Even better, Backblaze does not charge an extra fee for the use of the object lock feature.

How Does Veeam Work with Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage?

Backblaze is a proud partner of Veeam and is fully compatible with Veeam Cloud Tier. Using Backblaze B2’s S3-compatible API, you can set B2 Cloud Storage as your Cloud Tier in Veeam’s Scale-Out Backup Repository.

In Veeam v11 and earlier versions, you must first establish the Performance Tier, or Local Repository, before you can set up the Cloud Tier.

If you’ve been using Veeam, you probably already know how to add a local storage repository to Veeam. However, if you are one of our B2 users who are exploring this partnership for the first time, we have a video to guide you through the process. Watch as Greg Hamer, Senior Developer Evangelist, demonstrates how to set up the Local Repository in just a few minutes. If your Local Repository is already configured, then you’re ready to proceed to cloud backup!

Steps to Back Up Your Data with Veeam and Cloud Storage

To make things easy, we have created a video about How to Back Up Veeam to the Cloud. In the video, Greg demonstrates how you can securely store your Veeam data in just 20 minutes.

If you’re not a visual learner, you can easily back up all of your Veeam data to Backblaze’s B2 Cloud Storage using the five easy steps below.

Step 1: Create a Backblaze Account

First, you need to set up a Backblaze account. If you already have a Backblaze account, you’re all set and can move on to step two. Otherwise, visit Backblaze’s Veeam page and click the Start Now button to create one.

The Start Now button will take you to a simple sign-up form where you only have to enter your email address and a password. Don’t worry about setting up billing just yet. You have 10GB of free space to test drive B2 Cloud Storage before you have to set up any billing information.

Once you successfully create a new account, you will create a bucket to store your data in, then collect and save some information from your Backblaze dashboard to use later.

Step 2: Create a Backblaze B2 Bucket and Set Up an Application Key

A “bucket” is a container that holds your files uploaded by your Veeam software to Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage. When configuring your bucket, you will give it a unique name, choose whether it’s private or public (most customers choose private buckets), and turn on Object Lock to secure your files and make them immutable. (This is an important security step you won’t want to miss.)

Each bucket is associated with a name and an S3 Endpoint. You should jot down this Endpoint to use later in Veeam to connect with Backblaze.

Before you exit the Backblaze console, you will set up an Application Key that allows Veeam to connect to and access your storage bucket securely. You give the Application Key a name and make some additional choices to finish setting it up. Finally, you will jot down some details for the Application Key, such as keyID, keyName, and applicationKey, which is essentially a passcode for the key. Be sure to write these down immediately after creating the key, or you won’t be able to access it in plaintext again.

Step 3: Add Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage as a Cloud Tier Repository in Veeam

Switching over to the Veeam console, you will log into your software and create a Cloud Tier repository to interface with Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage.

Before you do that, however, you need to have a local repository created. The tutorial assumes that you have one already and have been using Veeam to backup locally.

To set up your cloud tier, you will follow a few simple steps:

  1. Choose your object storage type.
  2. Give it a name.
  3. Enter your Backblaze S3 Endpoint value.

You will also be prompted to enter your credentials, which is the Application Key information you’ve already set up when you created your Backblaze B2 Bucket. Before exiting that area, Veeam will test the connection to ensure it can reach your Bucket. The final stage in this step allows you to turn on Object Lock to keep your backup files safe.

Step 4: Create the Scale-Out Backup Repository in Veeam

Still working within the Veeam console, you will also set up a scale-out repository to handle backup data load. During this step, you will name your Veeam Scale-Out repository, choose a few options, select the Cloud Tier repository you just created in step three, and ensure that your files are backed up immediately.

Step 5: Create a Backup Job in Veeam

The final stage of our backup tutorial walks you through the process of setting up a backup job. You will continue working in Veeam to create a new backup job using cloud storage. In the video we show you a Virtual Machine backup, but you can create several other types of backup jobs as needed. You can then name your backup job, add the files you want to backup, and choose where you want to save them (in this case, the Scale-Out repository we just created).

You also have options to optimize storage and schedule your backup job to run as often as you like. Then, you can test it immediately to see how it goes.

We hope this video guide and brief explanation were useful in helping you get the most out of both Veeam and Backblaze. If you have thoughts for topics on future videos, sound off in the comments. And be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more great content!

The post How to Back Up Veeam to the Cloud appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Keeping Passwords Secret and Your Data Safe

Post Syndicated from Laura Debney original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/keeping-passwords-secret-and-your-data-safe/


Even if you’ve heard about the 3.27 billion email and password combinations made public on an English language hacker forum in 2020, you may not have heard the worst of it.

Anyone could buy the list for $2 a download.

You’d think that was the scariest part of what became known as the Compilation of Many Breaches (COMB) leak–but it’s not.

The scariest and most preventable part of this breach is that people reuse their passwords and cybercriminals know it.

You may have read Backblaze’s post about credential stuffing attacks. Briefly, it’s a brute force attack using credentials from a list like COMB to unlock an account, most likely with a weak and common password like 123456 or “passwort” (if you’re German).

Is there a better reason than COMB to stop reusing passwords for multiple devices, apps and websites? That alone should do it, but if you need more reasons, they are legion.

There’s no denying how hard it can be to remember 12 to 15 pieces of information in length. After all, our telephone numbers are only seven digits long by design–which happens to be the length of any sequence of numbers we humans can easily recall.

While we each have responsibility for implementing password best practices, the COMB attacks show us that personal password protection isn’t enough. Cloud service providers (CSP) are also responsible for protecting the data entrusted to them. Backblaze uses a sophisticated security approach to protect access.

Regardless, user verification is just more effective with strong passwords, so here are a few tips on keeping your password secret and your data safe.

What Is a Password?

First and foremost, a password is a secret authenticator, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). They have a lot to say about the strength of passwords by complexity, length, and manner of creation. We’ll get into details a little later.

The string of letters, numbers, and symbols used in a password can’t be easy to guess or forget. This is tougher to achieve than it sounds, and typically users choose short, memorable passwords for convenience.

If you want to eliminate the possibility of being the next victim of credential stuffing, here are some things you shouldn’t do:

  1. Use the same password for more than one online account or website.
  2. Recycle or rotate passwords.
  3. Store passwords where anyone can access them (e.g. on a piece of paper or as an autofill setting in your browser).

The reality is that hackers can (and have) released accurate email and password combinations, and the best way to render that old information utterly useless is never to use those passwords again. (Also, stop adding a “2” at the end of “Password1.” You’re not fooling anyone.)

How Does a Strong Password Help Keep Your Data Safe?

You should know that verifying a digital identity with an email and a password isn’t as straightforward as presenting your photo ID at the airport. And, password authentication isn’t as safe as it once was, thanks to cybercrimes resulting in lists like COMB. In light of the security risks hackers pose, new authentication guidelines were created to help CSPs ensure the authenticity of a user.

The Three Authenticators

There are three types of authenticators.

    1. Something you know (e.g. password).
    2. Something you have (e.g. a cellphone).
    3. Something you are (e.g. biometric data).

CSPs or verifiers can employ different combinations of authenticators to achieve different levels of assurance that will ultimately help to reduce successful cybersecurity attacks. The different combinations of authenticators create an authentication assurance level (AAL). For example, when you log in, a CSP might use a combination of your password and a code generated by an authenticator app.

A strong password is essential to each authentication level. Each AAL meets the recommended privacy controls and relies on something that only you know and is difficult to estimate. Cyber criminals only need to guess one reused email and password combination to make a costly mess of things for you or your business.

Strong Passwords Defined

This may sound too simplistic, but the NIST (SP 800-63-3 Appendix A) qualifies a password’s strength by its length. In the case of brute force attacks, shorter passwords are too easy to uncover before rate limitings results in a lockout. Passwords of sufficient length reduce the success of credential stuffing or denial-of-service attacks. The NIST recommends that CSPs allow passwords or password phrases of almost any length so long as it doesn’t demand excessive time to disguise with a salting of random letters, numbers, and hashing algorithm.

The next thing to consider when creating a strong password is complexity. That said, the NIST recommends that password complexity not impede memorability, which would defeat the purpose of using a password to authenticate something you know. Too complex of a password leads people to writing down passwords or storing them in unsafe places rather than forgetting them. This vulnerability has to be addressed when CSPs provide instructions for creating passwords for users.

Unfortunately, analysis of breached data reveals that combining complexity and length isn’t a foolproof deterrent. However, a sufficiently long password is harder to guess, and an adequately complex one will improve the masking efforts like salting and hashing.

One more way to ensure you’re using a strong password is to use a tool to randomly generate one based on a set of standards, like length, type of character, readability, etc.. Randomly produced passwords are harder to brute force attack or guess. While there are a few different places you can find a random password generator, we love password managers like BitWarden, 1Password, and LastPass, which generate, organize, and secure passwords.

Remember that breached data can provide insights into what an old password might be for the same account or similar type because cybercriminals know that we are creatures of habit. Not only that, but some facts are immutable. A great example is when you always select the same challenge question. If that data has been breached, it’s likely known to cybercriminals; also, your mother’s maiden name is not going to change. As another layer, you can use randomly generated answers to security questions the same way you use randomly generated passwords, meaning those answers won’t be able to be reused (or easily gleaned from dumb Facebook quizzes).

Next, let’s get into how you can keep hackers from guessing your strong passwords.

How to Create a Strong Password

To review, strong passwords are long, complex, and secret. These days you can take advantage of a password generator and save it to your password manager. However, there are times you need to come up with a strong password.

Consider these two steps for making a password strong:

Step one: Use a memorable phrase that’s 12 to 15 characters long (e.g. she sells seashells).

Step two: Lightly salt your version with some random characters (e.g. sHe sellz seasHells).

A few ideas for memorable phrases are to use a song lyric, a poetic verse or a line from a movie.

Pro Tip: When you lightly salt your memorable phrase, try not to use @ for the letter ‘a’ or the number zero for the letter ‘o’.

Avoid being predictable. Also, avoid the temptation to use sensitive information like your child’s birthdate or your first and last name or 12345678. Trust me, using this type of information is uber common worldwide.

Another way to check that you’re using a unique password is by culling breached data records. According to Troy Hunt’s pwned.com site, the password Qwerty was used 71,219 times before I typed it into Have I Been Pwned Password API. As Hunt points out, the NIST recommends that CSPs compare user-generated passwords with unacceptable ones. A blocklist should have passwords from previous breaches and predictable options that include the service name, like using the password ‘G000gle’ for your Gmail account.

What Else Can You Do to Protect Against Credential Stuffing Attacks?

In the battle against brute force attacks from hackers that can compute ridiculous numbers of hashes without rate limiting, users play a critical role in protecting your data with strong passwords.

Here are a few other ways to keep your data safer:

The good news is that even as cybercriminals get more ingenious, new and innovative tools have been created to make personal data security easier than ever. And, as data nerds ourselves, Backblaze takes your cybersecurity seriously. Check out some of the ways we secure your data here.

The post Keeping Passwords Secret and Your Data Safe appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

The 3-2-1 Backup Strategy

Post Syndicated from original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/

Backing up your computer files isn’t like buying comprehensive car insurance, e.g., something you hope you never have to use but are sure glad you have when you need it. Of course, you want to protect your personal information, photos, work files, and other important data from hard drive crashes, accidental deletions, drink spills, theft, or malware. While Backblaze can’t help with power outages, computer encryption, or anti-theft technologies (though we can locate a computer), we can help make backing up your files a no-brainer. And (at least to our most recent survey) with only 10% of respondents who own a computer backing up daily, folks need the help!

Warning

Some cloud service providers suggest that encouraging people to keep multiple copies of their data reflects a lack of faith in our product. Still, redundant failsafes should always be part of your plan. It’s like investing, diversification is key. The truth is that anything and everything can fail. Hard drives fail. Good employees make bad mistakes. Bad employees make worse mistakes. And whether it was the Amazon Web Services outage that took down a large swath of the internet or the Google Cloud Storage outage that affected platforms like Snapchat, Shopify, and Discord, even the biggest providers can let you down in your time of need. That’s why the 3-2-1 strategy exists.

What’s Changed About the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy?

You may have heard of the 3-2-1 backup strategy. It means having at least three copies of your data, two local (on-site) but on different media (read: devices), and at least one copy off-site.

We’ll use “socialsecurity.jpg” as an example for this scenario. Socialsecurity.jpg lives on your computer at home; let’s say you took a picture of it for your tax accountant years ago for some tax-related stuff (as tax accountants are wont to do). That’s one copy of the data.

You also have an external hard drive to back up your computer; if you’re on a Mac, you might use it as a Time Machine drive (and Backblaze loves Time Machine). That external hard drive will back up socialsecurity.jpg as part of its backup process. That’s a second copy on a different device or medium.

In addition to that external hard drive, you also have an online backup solution (we recommend Backblaze, go figure!). The online backup continuously scans your computer and uploads your data to an off-site data center. Socialsecurity.jpg is included in this upload, becoming the third copy of your data.

Oh! And, your paper social security card is hopefully stored in a fire-proof safe (not your wallet). Does that sound pretty air-tight to you? It is, or at least it used to be.

The rise in ransomware attacks calls for strengthening the basic principles of the 3-2-1 strategy—redundancy, geographic distance, and access—with added protections. Cybercrimes targeting networked machines and capturing all data, including backups, is a growing problem. Data geeks who know about backup and recovery are going “comprehensive” with their backup “insurance.” New versions of the tried-and-true backup strategy have emerged, such as the 3-2-1-1-0 or 4-3-2 backups. Sounds like overkill? It isn’t. The good news is that companies like Backblaze exist to make at least the off-site component less stressful, they do the work and keep up with security best practices for you.

Why Is It Important to Back Up On-site and Off-site?

Whether you are interested in backing up a Mac or a PC, an on-site backup is a simple way to access your data quickly should anything happen to your computer. If your laptop or desktop’s hard drive crashes, and you have an up-to-date external hard drive available, you can quickly get most of your data back or use the external drive on another computer while yours gets fixed or replaced. If you remember to keep that external hard drive fairly up to date, the exposure for data loss is negligible, as you might only lose the uncopied files on your laptop. Most external hard drives even come with software to ensure they’re readily updated.

Having an on-site backup is a great start, but having an off-site backup is a key component in having a complete backup strategy, including cloud storage. The newer backup strategies build on the cloud’s strengths:

  • Convenience: Backing up large volumes of data in the cloud is fast.
  • Durability and reliability: Cloud storage centers protect against fires, natural disasters, and more.
  • Collaboration: Sharing with permissions is intuitive and effortless in the cloud.

With millions working in the cloud, those three copies in the 3-2-1-1-0 backup are separated by media on-site, off-site, and offline. This backup strategy exceeds the original model in its zero error copy. This fidelity to your files’ durability and reliability is possible with the help of a backup protection tool like Object Lock, which makes it impossible to modify or delete data (for a certain amount of time) because of its Write Once, Read Many (WORM) model. If you’re using cloud storage, consider a backup strategy that uses the principles of redundancy, distance, access, and immutability like 3-2-1-1-0. And in the case of Backblaze, retention history (like our Extended Version History feature of Computer Backup) adds additional layers of protection in how long those copies are kept should anything happen to your physical devices.

Is 3-2-1 Perfect?

There is no such thing as a perfect backup system, but the 3-2-1 approach is a great start for most people and businesses. Even the United States government recommends this approach. In a 2012 paper for US-CERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team), Carnegie Mellon recommended the 3-2-1 method in their publication: Data Backup Options.

Backing Up Is the Best Insurance

The 3-2-1-1-0 plan is great for getting your files backed up. If you view the strategy like an insurance policy, you want one that provides the coverage needed should the unthinkable happen. Service also matters; having a local, off-site, and offline backup gives you more options for backup recovery. And a zero error policy for recoverability is a “no questions asked” claims process. One can dream! We did.

That’s how, and why, Backblaze created the world’s easiest cloud backup.

The post The 3-2-1 Backup Strategy appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

What Is Extended Version History?

Post Syndicated from original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/what-is-extended-version-history/

Our recent Backup Awareness Survey showed that 61% of Americans who own a computer and back it up are not very confident that all of their data is being backed up. That just goes to show how complicated some backup solutions are.

And what good is a backup service if it’s hard to get your data back when you need it?

The Backblaze Computer Backup client is designed to stay out of the way and back up your data, while making restoring that data a walk in the park. One of the popular ways of enhancing our backup service is a feature called Extended Version History. But, we’ve found that some people still don’t quite understand what it does. With that in mind, I wanted to write an overview of the feature, how it works, and why it’s useful for anyone that uses our Computer Backup service, whether it’s for personal use or for their company or family group.

Extended Version History Explained

First, we need to define two key terms, “retention” and “version,” to help explain Extended Version History.

What Is Retention?

In simple terms, retention is how long something in your backup is kept backed up.

What Is a Version?

It seems simple enough, but it’s worth explaining what we mean by a “version.” Without getting in the weeds, whenever a file is added or created on your computer, that is a version. Whenever you change a file on your computer, whether you add more lines to a spreadsheet or edit your recent vacation photos, those changes also create another version of the file.

When you understand what retention is and what a version is, it’s easy to understand Extended Version History. It’s a feature that allows you to set a retention timeframe that specifies how long all the older versions—the version history—of your files should be kept as part of your backup.

How Long Is Backblaze’s Retention?

The standard Backblaze Computer Backup service comes with 30 days of Version History for the files that are backed up. This means that you can go back in time (using our roll back time feature) and access older versions of files for 30 days from the date they were last changed or deleted. After that 30-day mark, the version of the file that’s 30 days old will leave your backup, but any newer files will remain.

Note: If you last changed or added a file more than 30 days ago, but have not made any changes to it, it will remain in your backup as long as it remains on your computer (or is unchanged). If it gets removed or changed, that’s when the 30-day retention period starts.

What Does Extended Version History Do?

With Extended Version History, you can increase that 30-day period to one year or even forever. This essentially increases the duration for which you can roll back time when going to access your data.

A Very Simple Example (With Babies!)

As a new uncle, I have babies on the brain. Let’s say that a baby was born on July 1st and our family creates a spreadsheet to chart the growth of the baby. Every single day, we add a row to the spreadsheet to add in the baby’s weight, height, and maybe a cute note. The previous rows don’t get deleted, and so the spreadsheet grows by one row every single day.
On July 30th, our spreadsheet will have 30 rows (one per day). If that spreadsheet was being backed up by Backblaze, I could go back in time to July 1st and get a copy of that spreadsheet from the very first day, with just a single row of baby information. However, if I tried to do that on July 31, that original version would be gone, but I could go back and get a copy from July 2nd, the version with the first two rows of baby data. If I tried to go back on, say, August 30th, I could get a copy from August 1, which would have all of July’s rows of baby data.

To illustrate the point, here’s me as a Soviet baby.

With Extended Version History, using that same example, I have more time (a year or forever) to go back and retrieve that original copy of the spreadsheet created on July 1 with just the first row.

Why would you want the spreadsheet with just one row? Who knows, it’s an example!

Why Extended Version History? Because Mistakes Happen!

Our Backup Awareness Month survey found that 67% of respondents have reported accidentally deleting a file. 44% reported losing data, or access to data, because a shared or synced drive or folder was deleted. Having Extended Version History turned on for your Backblaze backup helps avoid data loss because of accidental deletions.

You may not always realize right away (or within 30 days) that you deleted a file accidentally. Or you may not regularly check that shared drive until it’s too late and your older versions are gone. With Extended Version History, you can go back in time up to a year later or forever later and get those files back.

How to Get Extended Version History?

I encourage everyone I know to enable Extended Version History as soon as they install Backblaze on their computer.
Step 1: Click “Upgrade.”

Step 2: Select how long you want to keep files—one year or forever.

One thing to keep in mind is that simply turning on Extended Version History won’t automatically extend the “life” of your files retroactively. For example, if you open your account on July 1 and enable Extended Version History on July 28, only the versions from July 28 onward will have Extended Version History, not the versions created between July 1 and July 28. Once enabled, any new or changed files will have their retention rate increased, which is why doing so when you first install Backblaze is the best policy.

Consider Extended Version History as getting additional “mistake insurance” for your data. If something happens, or you lose access to shared files and that goes unnoticed, we’ll have your back!

The post What Is Extended Version History? appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Server Backup 101: Disaster Recovery Planning

Post Syndicated from Kari Rivas original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/server-backup-101-disaster-recovery-planning/

In any business, time is money. What may shock you is how much money that time is actually worth. According to Gartner, the average cost of one hour of downtime for a business is roughly $300,000. That’s $5,600 a minute. Multiply that out by the amount of time it takes to recover from data theft, sabotage, or a natural disaster, and you could easily be looking at millions of dollars in lost revenue. That is, unless you’ve planned ahead with an effective disaster recovery plan.

Even one hour of lost time due to a cyberattack or natural disaster could adversely affect your business operations. Read on to learn how to develop an effective disaster recovery plan so you can quickly rebound no matter what happens, including:

  • Knowing what a disaster recovery plan is and why you need it.
  • Developing an effective strategy.
  • Identifying key roles.
  • Prioritizing business operations and objectives.
  • Deploying backups.
Check out the other posts in our Server Backup 101 series:

What Is a Disaster Recovery Plan?

A disaster recovery plan is made up of resources and processes that a business can use to restore apps, data, digital assets, equipment, and network operations in the event of any unplanned disruption.

Events such as natural disasters (floods, fires, earthquakes, etc.), theft, and cybercrime often interrupt business operations or restrict access to data. The goal of a disaster recovery plan is to get back up and running as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Some companies will choose to write their own disaster recovery plans, while others may contract with a managed service provider (MSP) specializing in disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS). Either way, crafting a disaster recovery plan that covers you for any contingency is crucial.

Why Do You Need a Disaster Recovery Plan?

A disaster recovery plan is not just a good idea, it is an essential component of your business. Cybercrime is on the rise, targeting small and medium-sized businesses just as often as large corporations. According to Cybersecurity Magazine, 43% of recent data breaches affected small and medium-sized businesses. Additionally, you could be cut off from your data by power outages, hardware failure, data corruption, and natural occurrences that restrict IT workflows. So, why do you need a disaster recovery plan? A few key benefits rise to the top:

  • Your disaster recovery plan will ensure business continuity in the case of a disaster. Imagine the confidence of knowing that no matter what happens, your business is prepared and can continue operations seamlessly.
  • An effective disaster recovery plan will help you get back up and running faster and more efficiently.
  • The plan also helps to communicate to your entire team, from top to bottom, what to do in the event of an emergency.

Writing a Disaster Recovery Plan: What Should Your Disaster Recovery Plan Include?

A solid disaster recovery plan should include five main elements, which we’ll detail below:

  1. An effective strategy.
  2. Key team members who can carry out the plan.
  3. Clear objectives and priorities.
  4. Solid backups.
  5. Testing protocols.

An Effective Strategy

One of the most critical aspects of your disaster recovery plan should be your strategy. Typically, the details of a disaster recovery plan include steps for prevention, preparation, mitigation, and recovery. Think about both the big picture and fine details when putting together the pieces.

Disaster Recovery Planning Case Study: Santa Cruz Skateboards

Santa Cruz Skateboards safeguarded decades worth of data with a disaster recovery plan and backups to prevent loss from the threat of tsunamis on the California coast. Read more about how they did it.

Some tips for creating an effective strategy include:

  • Identify possible disasters. Consider the types of disasters your business may encounter and design your plan around those. Every business is susceptible to cybercrime, which should be a significant component of your plan. If your business is located in a disaster prone location, let that dictate your plan objectives.
  • Plan for “minor” disasters. A “major” disaster like an earthquake could take out the entire office and on-premises infrastructure, but “minor” disasters can also be disruptive. Good employees make mistakes and delete things, and bad employees sometimes make worse mistakes. A disaster recovery plan protects you from those “minor” disasters as well.
  • Create multiple disaster recovery plans. You may need to create different versions of your disaster recovery plan based on specific scenarios and the severity of the disaster. For example, you may need a plan that responds to a cyberattack and restores data quickly, while another plan may deal with hardware destruction and replacement rather than data restoration.
  • Plan from your recovery backward. Think about what you need to accomplish with your disaster recovery and plan your backup routine to support it. Then, after your plan is written, go back and ensure that your backup routine follows the plan initiatives and accomplishes the goals in an acceptable time frame.
  • Develop KPIs. Include critical key performance indicators (KPIs) in the plan, such as a recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO). RTO refers to how quickly you intend to restore your systems after a disaster, and RPO is the maximum amount of data loss you can safely incur.

Establish the Key Team Members and Their Roles and Hierarchy

Another crucial component of your disaster recovery plan is identifying key team members to carry out the instructions. You must clearly define roles and hierarchy for effectiveness. Consider the following when building your disaster recovery team:

  • Communicate roles and hierarchy. Ensure that each team member knows their role in the plan and understands where they land in the hierarchy. Build in redundancy if a major player is unavailable.
  • Develop a master contact list. Create a master list with updated contact information for each team member and update it regularly as things change. Be sure the list includes everyone’s cell phone and landline numbers (if applicable) and emergency contacts for each person. Don’t assume you will have working internet and consider alternative ways to reach critical team members in the middle of the night.
  • Plan on how to manage your team. Think about how you will stay organized and manage your team to function 24/7 until you resolve the disaster.

Prioritize Business Operations and Objectives

Another important aspect of your disaster recovery plan is prioritizing business operations and objectives and crafting your plan around those.

Identify the most critical aspects of the business that need to be restored first. Then, focus on those and leave the less essential things until later. Understand that it is not feasible to restore everything at once. Instead, you must prioritize the most critical business areas and get those up and running and then, other, less crucial parts of the system. Detail these priorities in your plan so that no one wastes time on nonessential operations.

Know How to Deploy Your Backups

Backups should be a routine function for your organization, and you should know them inside and out. Be sure to familiarize yourself with every aspect of the backup process, including where data is stored, how recent it is, and how to restore it at a moment’s notice.

Having a reliable backup plan could save your business. You don’t want to waste precious time figuring out where the latest backup is, where it’s stored (whether that’s locally or on the cloud), or how to access it. Off-site cloud storage is a safe, reliable way to store and retrieve your data, especially in the event of a disaster.

Practice restoring your backups regularly to test their viability. Document the process for restoring in case you are unavailable and someone else has to take over. Data restoration should be a central part of your disaster recovery plan. Remember, backups are not your entire disaster recovery plan but only a piece of the overall system.

Foolproof Your Plan With Disaster Recovery Testing

The best-laid plans don’t always work out. Therefore, it’s essential that you foolproof your disaster recovery plan by testing it regularly (once a year, or every six months, whatever works for you). You don’t have to experience a real catastrophe; you can simulate what a disaster would look like and run through the entire process to ensure everything works as expected. Some disaster recovery testing best practices include:

  • Planning for the worst-case scenario. Think about things like access to a car, how you will get to the office, and how you will access your backups if they are stored online and you don’t have internet? Prepare by having multiple alternate plans (A, B, C, etc.). Remember, disasters come in all shapes and sizes so, be prepared to think outside the box. When the COVID-19 pandemic started, businesses had to scramble to adjust. Prepare for anything, even minor disruptions or cut-offs from resources you rely on.
  • Securing resources in advance. If you need resources to make it work, such as budgetary funds, software, hardware, or services, get those approved now so you’re not stuck provisioning necessary resources in the middle of a disaster.
  • Regularly reviewing and updating your disaster recovery plan as things change. Team members come and go, so schedule routine updates every three to six months to ensure that everything is up to date and viable.
  • Distributing copies of your disaster recovery plan. All staff members, including executives, should have a copy of your plan, and you should clearly communicate how it works and what everyone’s responsibility is.
  • Conducting post mortems after training and simulations (or a real disaster) to determine what works and what doesn’t. Make changes to your plan accordingly.

Don’t wait until a disaster occurs before writing your disaster recovery plan. A disaster recovery plan is an ever-evolving process you must maintain as the business changes and grows so you can face anything that the future brings.

Disaster Recovery, Done.

Ready to check disaster recovery off your list? Check out our Instant Recovery in Any Cloud solution that you can use as part of your disaster recovery plan. You can run a single command to instantly see your servers, data, firewalls, and network storage. Get back up and running as soon as possible with minimal disruption and expense to your business.

The post Server Backup 101: Disaster Recovery Planning appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Server Backup 101: Developing a Server Backup Strategy

Post Syndicated from Kari Rivas original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/server-backup-101-developing-a-server-backup-strategy/

In business, data loss is unavoidable unless you have good server backups. Files get deleted accidentally, servers crash, computers fail, and employees make mistakes.

However, those aren’t the only dangers. You could also lose your company data in a natural disaster or cybersecurity attack. Ransomware is a serious concern for small to medium-sized businesses as well as large enterprises. Smart companies plan ahead to avoid data loss.

This post will discuss server backup basics, the different types of server backup, why it’s critical to keep your data backed up, and how to create a solid backup strategy for your company. Read on to learn everything you ever wanted to know about server backups.

Check out the other posts in our Server Backup 101 series:

First Things First: What Is a Server?

A server is a virtual or physical device that performs a function to support other computers and users. Sometimes servers are dedicated machines used for a single purpose, and sometimes they serve multiple functions. Other computers or devices that connect to the server are called “clients.” Typically, clients use special software to communicate with the server and reply to requests. This communication is referred to as the server/client model. Some common uses for this setup include:

  • Web Server: Hosts web pages and online applications.
  • Email Server: Manages email for a company.
  • Database Server: Hosts various databases and controls access.
  • Application Server: Allows users to share applications.
  • File Server: Used to host files shared on a network.
  • DNS Server: Used to decode web addresses and deliver the user to the correct address.
  • FTP Server: Used specifically for hosting files for shared use.
  • Proxy Server: Adds a layer of security between client and server.

Servers run on many operating systems (OS) such as Windows, Linux, Mac, Apache, Unix, NetWare, and FreeBSD. The OS handles access control, user connections, memory allocation, and network functions. Each OS offers varying degrees of control, security, flexibility, and scalability.

Why It’s Important to Back Up Your Server

Did you know that roughly 40% of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) will be attacked by cybercriminals within a year, and 61% of all SMBs have already been attacked? Additionally, statistics show that 93% of companies that lost data for more than 10 days were forced into bankruptcy within a year. More than half of them filed immediately, and most shut down.

Company data is vulnerable to fire, theft, natural disasters, hardware failure, and cybercrime. Backups are an essential prevention tool.

Types of Servers

Within the realm of servers, there are many different types for virtually any purpose and environment. However, the primary function of most servers is data storage and processing. Some examples of servers include:

  • Physical Servers: These are hardware devices (usually computers) that connect users, share resources, and control access.
  • Virtual Servers: Using special software (called a hypervisor), you can set up multiple virtual servers on one physical machine. Each server acts like a physical server while the hypervisor manages memory and allocates other system resources as needed.
  • Hybrid Servers: Hybrids are servers combining physical servers and virtual servers. They offer the speed and efficiency of a physical server combined with the flexibility of cloud-hosted resources.
  • NAS Devices: Network-attached storage (NAS) devices store data and are accessed directly through the network without first connecting to a computer. These hardware devices contain a storage drive, processor, and OS, and can be accessed remotely.
  • SAN Server: Although not technically a server, a storage area network (SAN) connects multiple storage devices to multiple servers expanding the network and controlling connections.
  • Cloud Servers: Cloud servers exist in a virtual online environment, and you can access them through web portals, applications, and specialized software.

Regardless of how you save your data and where, backups are essential to protecting yourself from loss.

How to Back Up a Server

You have options for backing up data, and the methods vary. First, let’s talk about terminology.

Backup vs. Archive

Backing up is copying your data, whereas an archive is a historical copy that you keep for retention purposes, often for long periods. Archives are typically used to save old, inactive data for compliance reasons.

Here are two examples that illustrate backups vs. an archives. An example of a backup is when your mobile phone backs up to the cloud, and if you factory reset the phone, you can restore all your applications, settings, and data from the backup copy. An example of an archive is a tape backup of old HR files that have long since been deleted from the server.

Backup vs. Sync

Sometimes people confuse the word backup with sync. They are not the same thing. A backup is a copy of your data you can use to restore lost files. Syncing is the automatic updating and merging of two file sources. Cloud computing often uses syncing to keep files in one location identical to files in another.

To prevent data loss, backups are the process to use. Syncing overwrites files with the latest version; a backup can restore back to a single point in time, so you don’t lose anything valuable.

Backup Destinations

When selecting a backup destination, you have many mediums to choose from. There are pros and cons for each type. Some popular backup destinations and their pros and cons are as follows:

Destination Pros Cons
External Media (USB, CD, Removable Hard Drives, Flash Drives, etc.) Quick, easy, affordable. Fragile if dropped, crushed, or exposed to magnets; very small capacity.
NAS Always available on the network, small size, and great for SMBs. Vulnerable to on-premises threats and non-scalable due to limits.
Network or SAN Storage High speed, view connected drives as local, good security, failover protection, excellent disk utilization, and high-end disaster recovery options. Can be expensive, doesn’t work with all types of servers, and is vulnerable to attacks on the network.
Tape Dependable (robust, not fragile), can be kept for years, low cost, and simple to replicate. High initial setup costs, limited scalability, potential media corruption over time, and time consuming to manage.
FTP Excellent for large files, copy multiple files at once, can resume if the connection is lost, schedule backups and recover lost data. No security, vendors vary widely, not all solutions include encryption, and vulnerable to attacks.
File-sharing Services (Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud, etc.) Quick and easy to use; inexpensive. Great for collaborating and sharing data. Most file-sharing services use file syncing rather than a true cloud backup.

Cloud backups are an altogether different type of backup; typically, you have two options available: all-in-one tools or integrated solutions.

All-in-one Tools

All-in-one tools like Carbonite Safe, Carbonite Server, Acronis, IDrive, CrashPlan, and SpiderOak combine both the backup software and the backend cloud storage in one offering. They have the ability to back up entire operating systems, files, images, videos, and sometimes even mobile device data. Depending on the tool you choose, you may be able to back up an unlimited number of devices, or you may have limits. However, most of these all-in-one solutions are expensive and can be complex to use. All those bells and whistles often come at a price—a steep learning curve.

Integrated Solutions (Backup Software Paired With Cloud Storage)

Pairing software and cloud storage is another option that combines the best of both worlds. It allows users to choose the software they want with the features they need and fast, reliable cloud storage. Cloud storage is scalable, so you will never run out of space as your business grows. Using your chosen software, it’s fast and easy to restore your files. Although it may seem counterintuitive, it’s often more affordable to use two integrated solutions versus an all-in-one tool. Another big bonus of using cloud storage is that it integrates with many popular software options. For example, Backblaze works seamlessly with:

An important factor to consider when choosing the right backup software and cloud storage is compatibility. Research which platforms your software will back up and what types of backups it offers (file, image, system, etc.). You also need to think about the restore process and your options (e.g., file, folder, bare metal/image, virtual, etc.). User-friendliness is important when deciding. Some programs like rClone require a working knowledge of command line. Choose a software program that is best for you.

Think about scalability and how much storage it can handle now and in the future as your business grows. A few other things to consider are pricing, security, and support. Your backup files are no good if they are vulnerable to attack. Compare prices and check out the support options before making your final decision.

Creating a Solid Backup Strategy

A solid backup strategy is the best way to protect your company against data loss. Again, you have options. The 3-2-1 strategy is the gold standard, but some companies are choosing options like a 3-2-1-1-0 option or even a 4-3-2 scheme. Learn more about how each plan works.

Before determining your strategy, you must consider what data you need to back up. For example, will you be backing up just servers or also workstations and dedicated servers, such as email servers or SaaS data devices?

Another concern is how you will get your data into the cloud. You need to figure out which method will work best for you. You have the option of direct transfer over internet bandwidth or using a rapid ingest device (e.g., the Backblaze Fireball rapid ingest device).

Universal Data Migration

Migrating your data can seem like an insurmountable task. We launched our Universal Data Migration service to make migrating to Backblaze just as easy as it is to use Backblaze. You can migrate from virtually any source to Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, and it’s free to new customers who have 10TB of data or more to migrate with a one-year commitment.

How Often Should You Back Up Your Data?

Should you run full backups regularly? Or rely on incremental backups? The answer is that both have their place.

To fully protect yourself, performing regular full backups and keeping them safe is essential. Full backups can be scheduled for slow times or performed overnight when no one is using the data. Remember that full backups take the longest to complete and are the costliest but the easiest to restore.

A full backup backs up the entire server. An incremental backup only backs up files that have changed or been added since the last backup, saving storage space. The cadence of full versus incremental backups might look different for each organization. Learn more about full vs. incremental, differential, and full synthetic backups.

How Long Should You Keep Your Previous Backups?

You also must consider how long you want to keep your previous backups. Will you keep them for a specific amount of time and overwrite older backups?

By overwriting the files, you can save space, but you may not have an old enough backup when you need it. Also, keep in mind that many cloud storage vendors have minimum retention policies for deleted files. While “retention” sounds like a good thing, in this case it’s not. They might be charging you for data storage for 30, 60, or even 90 days even if you deleted it after storing it for just one day. That may also factor into your decision about how long you should keep your previous backup files. Some experts recommend three months, but that may not be enough in some situations.

You need to keep full backups for as long as you might need to recover from various issues. If, for example, you are infiltrated by a cybercriminal and don’t discover it for two months, will your oldest backup be enough to restore your system back to a clean state?

Another question to think about is if you’ll keep an archive. As a refresher, an archive is a backup of historical data that you keep long-term even if the files have already been deleted from the server. Most sources say you should plan to keep archives forever unless you have no use for the data in the future, but your company might have a different appetite for retention timeframes. Forever probably seems like…well, a long time, but keep in mind that the security of having those files available may be worth it.

How Will You Monitor Your Backup?

It’s not enough to just schedule your backups and walk away. You need to monitor them to ensure they are occurring on schedule. You should also test your ability to restore and fully understand the options you have for restoring your data. A backup is only as good as its ability to restore. You must test this out periodically to ensure you have a solid disaster recovery plan in place.

Special Considerations for Backing Up

When backing up servers with different operating systems, you need to consider the constraints of that system. For example, SQL servers can handle differential backups, whereas other servers cannot. Some backup software like Veeam integrates easily with all the major operating systems and therefore supports backups of multiple servers using different platforms.

If you are backing up a single server, things are easy. You have only one OS to worry about. However, if you are backing up multiple servers with different platforms and applications running on them, things could get more complex. Be sure to research all your options and use a vendor that can easily handle groups management and SaaS-managed backup services so that you can view all your data through a single pane of glass. You want consolidation and easy delineation if you need to pinpoint a single system to restore. You can use groups to easily manage different servers with similar operating systems to keep things organized and streamline your backup strategy.

As you can see, there are many facets to server backups, and you have options. If you have questions or want to learn more about Backblaze backup solutions, contact us today. Or, click here if you’re ready to get started backing up your server.

The post Server Backup 101: Developing a Server Backup Strategy appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Level Up Your Backup Game With Backblaze and Veritas

Post Syndicated from Jennifer Newman original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/level-up-your-backup-game-with-backblaze-and-veritas/

If you’re using Veritas’ Backup Exec, you’re already ahead of the game when it comes to your data backup and recovery approach. Now, you can power up your backup strength by adding Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage as a destination for your Backup Exec data.

The joint solution offers easy, affordable, S3-compatible object storage to customers who use Backup Exec to streamline their data backup and recovery approach. Read on to learn more about this partnership and how it can benefit your business.

Backblaze and Veritas: In Person at VMware Explore 2022

Want to learn more? Stop by booth 1501 at VMware Explore 2022, August 29–September 1. You can visit with our technical experts, see demos, and learn more about how Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage seamlessly integrates with Veritas Backup Exec. Or, schedule a meeting using this link to talk about solutions tailored to your business needs.

What Is Veritas Backup Exec?

The Veritas Backup Exec service helps businesses protect almost any data on any storage device—tape, servers, or in the cloud. By unifying backup management in one panel, it creates a simple, customizable approach to managing backups and orchestrating recovery that can benefit everyone from the local bakery, to a regional school district, to large government units.

How Does Backblaze Integrate With Backup Exec?

Customers have regularly asked for Backblaze to be accepted into the Veritas Technology Partner Program. Being able to seamlessly integrate Veritas with Backblaze B2 is a big win for these customers who’ve long been looking for an easy, affordable solution that helps them manage infrastructure costs.

Beginning today, any business or institution using Backup Exec can configure their data to back up to B2 Cloud Storage. IT teams can rest easy, knowing that remote offices, Linux and Unix workloads, virtual or Microsoft workloads, and more, are protected and immediately available if they need them—all configurable in a few clicks and at one-fifth the price of traditional storage vendors, with no data retention minimums or other lock-in fees.

“The Backup Exec service empowers small and medium-sized businesses to do more with less, and to minimize their daily lift around data management and protection. This aligns perfectly with our mission to make storing and using data astonishingly easy—especially for IT teams that already have a ton on their plate.”
—Nilay Patel, VP of Sales & Partnerships, Backblaze

How Does This Partnership Benefit Joint Customers?

The partnership delivers in three key value areas:

  • Simplification: Backup Exec provides a simple, unified user interface that removes complexity from data protection. Backblaze B2 is configurable in a few easy steps.
  • Hybrid-cloud adoption: The capital and personnel expense of purchasing and managing on-prem data storage can be challenging. Veritas and Backblaze put cloud adoption within reach—for backups, workloads, infrastructure, recovery, or everything together.
  • Cost reduction: Backup Exec makes configuring backups easy, which means that businesses can fine-tune their storage bill in line with their budgets. With B2 Cloud Storage priced at one-fifth of traditional cloud vendors—the combination offers a powerful tool to businesses that want to optimize their spend.

“Our goal with Backup Exec is to provide a simple, powerful solution that frees business owners from concerns about data loss. Backblaze is a natural partner in this effort and we’re excited to work with them to bring the value of cloud backup to a larger group of businesses and institutions.”
—Jason Von Eberstein, Senior Principal Product Manager of Veritas

Bonus Points: Veritas + Carahsoft + Backblaze = Public Sector Success

Backblaze recently announced a partnership with Carahsoft to help public sector CIOs optimize their cloud spend. Carahsoft is the Master Government Aggregator™ for the IT industry. The partnership—which was enabled by our recent launch of a capacity-based pricing bundle, Backblaze B2 Reserve—solves both the budgeting and procurement challenges public sector CIOs are facing. And Carahsoft is a strategic distributor for Veritas, so public sector customers can take advantage of the joint solution as well.

About Veritas

Veritas enables organizations to harness the power of their information, with solutions designed to serve the world’s largest and most complex heterogeneous environments. Veritas’s industry-leading solutions cover all platforms with backup and recovery, business continuity, software-defined storage, and information governance.

Getting Started With Backblaze B2 and Veritas

Ready to take your backup game to the next level? Click here to get started today and check out our Knowledge Base article for detailed instructions.

The post Level Up Your Backup Game With Backblaze and Veritas appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

Server Backup 101: On-premises vs. Cloud-only vs. Hybrid Backup Strategies

Post Syndicated from Kari Rivas original https://www.backblaze.com/blog/server-backup-101-on-premises-vs-cloud-only-vs-hybrid-backup-strategies/

As an IT leader or business owner, establishing a solid, working backup strategy is one of the most important tasks on your plate. Server backups are an essential part of a good security and disaster recovery stance. One decision you’re faced with as part of setting up that strategy is where and how you’ll store server backups: on-premises, in the cloud, or in some mix of the two.

As the cloud has become more secure, affordable, and accessible, more organizations are using a hybrid cloud strategy for their cloud computing needs, and server backups are particularly well suited to this strategy. It allows you to maintain existing on-premises infrastructure while taking advantage of the scalability, affordability, and geographic separation offered by the cloud.

If you’re confused about how to set up a hybrid cloud strategy for backups, you’re not alone. There are as many ways to approach it as there are companies backing up to the cloud. Today, we’re discussing different server backup approaches to help you architect a hybrid server backup strategy that fits your business.

Server Backup Destinations

Learning about different backup destinations can help administrators craft better backup policies and procedures to ensure the safety of your data for the long term. When structuring your server backup strategy, you essentially have three choices for where to store data: on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid environment that uses both. First, though, let’s explain what a hybrid environment truly is.

Refresher: What Is Hybrid Cloud?

Hybrid cloud refers to a cloud environment made up of both private cloud resources (typically on-premises, although they don’t have to be) and public cloud resources with some kind of orchestration between them. Let’s define private and public clouds:

  • A public cloud essentially lives in a data center that’s used by many different tenants and maintained by a third-party company. Tenants share the same physical hardware, and their data is virtually separated so one tenant can’t access another tenant’s data.
  • A private cloud is dedicated to a single tenant. Private clouds are traditionally thought of as on-premises. Your company provisions and maintains the infrastructure needed to run the cloud at your office. Now, though, you can rent rackspace or even private, dedicated servers in a data center, so a private cloud can be off-premises, but it’s still dedicated only to your company.

Hybrid clouds are defined by a combined management approach, which means they have some type of orchestration between the public and private cloud that allows data to move between them as demands, needs, and costs change, giving businesses greater flexibility and more options for data deployment and use.

Here are some examples of different server backup destinations according to where your data is located:

  • Local backup destinations.
  • Cloud-only backups.
  • Hybrid cloud backups.

Local Backup Destinations

On-premises backup, also known as a local backup, is the process of backing up your system, applications, and other data to a local device. Tape and network-attached storage (NAS) are examples of common local backup solutions.

  • Tape: With tape backup, data is copied from its primary storage location to a tape cartridge using a tape drive. Tape creates a physical air gap, meaning there’s a literal gap of air between the data on the tape and the network—they are not connected in any way. This makes tape a highly secure option, but it comes at a cost. Tape requires physical storage space some businesses may not have. Tape maintenance and management can be very time consuming. And tapes can degrade, resulting in data loss.
  • NAS: NAS is a type of storage device that is connected to a network to allow data processing and storage through a secure, centralized location. With NAS, authorized users can access stored data from anywhere with a browser and a LAN connection. NAS is flexible, relatively easy to scale, and cost-effective.

Cloud-only Backups

Cloud-only backup strategies are becoming more commonplace as startups take a cloud-native approach and existing companies undergo digital transformations. A cloud-only backup strategy involves eliminating local, on-premises backups and sending files and databases to the cloud vendor for storage. It’s still a great idea to keep a local copy of your backup so you comply with a 3-2-1 backup strategy (more on that below). You could also utilize multiple cloud vendors or multiple regions with the same vendor to ensure redundancy. In the event of an outage, your data is stored safely in a separate cloud or a different cloud region and can easily be restored.

With services like Cloud Replication, companies can easily achieve a solid cloud-only server backup solution within the same cloud vendor’s infrastructure. It’s also possible to orchestrate redundancy between two different cloud vendors in a multi-cloud strategy.

Hybrid Cloud Backups

When you hear the term “hybrid” when it comes to servers, you might initially think about a combination of on-premises and cloud data. That’s typically what people think of when they imagine a hybrid cloud, but as we mentioned earlier, a hybrid cloud is a combination of a public cloud and a private cloud. Today, private clouds can live off-premises, but for our purposes, we’ll consider private clouds as being on-premises. A hybrid server backup strategy is an easy way to accomplish a 3-2-1 backup strategy, generally considered the gold standard when it comes to backups.

Refresher: What Is the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy?

The 3-2-1 backup strategy is a tried and tested way to keep your data accessible, yet safe. It includes:

  • 3: Keep three copies of any important file—one primary and two backups.
  • 2: Keep the files on two different media types to protect against different types of hazards.
  • 1: Store one copy off-site.

A hybrid server backup strategy can be helpful for fulfilling this sage backup advice as it provides two backup locations, one in the private cloud and one in the public cloud.

Choosing a Backup Strategy

Choosing a backup strategy that is right for you involves carefully evaluating your existing systems and your future goals. Can you get there with your current backup strategy? What if a ransomware or distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack affected your organization tomorrow? Decide what gaps need to be filled and take into consideration a few more crucial points:

  • Evaluate your vulnerabilities. Is your location susceptible to a local data disaster? How often do you think you might need to access your backups? How quickly would you need them?
  • Price. Various backup strategies will incur costs for hardware, service, expansions, and more. Carefully evaluate your organization’s finances to decide on a budget. And keep in mind that monthly fees and service charges may go up over time as you add more storage or use enhanced backup tools.
  • Storage capacity. How much storage capacity do you have on-site? How much data does your business generate over a given period of time? Do you have IT personnel to manage on-premises systems?
  • Access to hardware. Provisioning a private cloud on-premises involves purchasing hardware. Increasing supply chain issues can slow down factories, so be mindful of shortages and increased delivery times.
  • Scalability. As your organization grows, it’s likely that your data backup needs will grow, too. If you’re projecting growth, choose a data backup strategy that can keep up with rapidly expanding backup needs.

Backup Strategy Pros and Cons

Local Backup Strategy

  • Pros: A major benefit to using a local backup strategy is that organizations have fast access to data backups in case of emergencies. Backing up to NAS can also be faster locally depending on the size of your data set.
  • Cons: Maintaining on-premises hardware can be costly, but more important, your data is at a higher risk of loss from local disasters like floods, fires, or theft.

Cloud Backup Strategy

  • Pros: With a cloud-only backup strategy, there is no need for on-site hardware, and backup and recovery can be initiated from any location. Cloud resources are inherently scalable, so the stress of budgeting for and provisioning hardware is gone.
  • Cons: A cloud-only strategy is susceptible to outages if your data is consolidated with one vendor, however this risk can be mitigated by diversifying vendors and regions within the same vendor. Similarly, if your network goes down, then you won’t have access to your data.

Hybrid Cloud Backup Strategy

  • Pros: Hybrid cloud server backup strategies combine the best features of public and private clouds: You have fast access to your data locally while protecting your data from disaster by adding an off-site location to your backup strategy.
  • Cons: Setting up and running a private cloud server can be very costly. Businesses also need to plan their backup strategy a bit more thoughtfully because they must decide what to keep in a public cloud versus a private cloud or on local storage.

Hybrid Server Backup Considerations

Once you’ve decided a hybrid server backup strategy is right for you, there are many ways you can structure it. Here are just a few examples:

  • Keep backups of active working files on-premises and move all archives to the cloud.
  • Choose a cutover date if your business is ready to move mostly to the cloud going forward. All backups and archives prior to the cutover date could remain on-premises and everything after the cutover date gets stored in cloud storage.
  • Store all incremental backups in cloud storage and keep all full backups and archives stored locally. Or, following the Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) approach, put the father and son backups in the cloud and grandfather backups in local storage. (Or vice versa.)

As you’re structuring your server backup strategy, consider any GDPR, HIPAA, or cybersecurity requirements. Does it call for off-site, air-gapped backups? If so, you may want to move that data (like customer or patient records) to the cloud and keep other, non-regulated data local. Some industries, particularly government and heavily regulated industries, may require you to keep some data in a private cloud.

Ready to get started? Back up your server using our joint solution with MSP360 or get started with Veeam or any one of our many other integrations.

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