Ask the Experts

Ask the Experts

• How often should you back up your data? Answers vary

  Backup strategy and frequency is unique for just about every organization. You must balance backup management abilities with the amount of loss your business can tolerate.  Continue Reading

• What are best practices for backup cloud repatriation?

  To migrate backup data from the cloud back to an on-premises environment, you should follow these steps to ensure your data will be safe and smoothly moved.  Continue Reading

• What are some SAP HANA backup options available today?

  When backing up SAP HANA databases, having the right tools for the organization is critical. Data snapshots are one option, but not the only one available.  Continue Reading

• Future of tape backup built on consistent advancements

  Tape still plays a key role in backup, including offline protection from ransomware. What are some key improvements that will keep tape backup relevant in the future?  Continue Reading

• Backup retention policy best practices: A guide for IT admins

  It's critical for an organization to know what data it needs to retain and where to store it. Some data is required for retention by law, so a written policy is helpful.  Continue Reading

• What are the common Microsoft 365 backup challenges?

  Microsoft 365 is a widely used service, but its many different applications make backup complicated. Watch out for these common roadblocks.  Continue Reading

• Which backup standards guide a data protection strategy?

  A strong data protection strategy must follow applicable standards and regulations to protect data and comply with privacy laws. What are some key standards to look out for?  Continue Reading

• Build a Microsoft 365 backup policy with these 4 components

  Like other major SaaS applications, Microsoft 365 requires proper data backup. Use these four elements to develop a formal Microsoft 365 backup policy.  Continue Reading

• What does your backup and recovery audit checklist need?

  This backup and recovery audit checklist offers a comprehensive group of controls and evidence examples to get you ready for the important process of IT auditing.  Continue Reading

• Backing up Exchange: Best practices for protection

  Your organization could accomplish Microsoft Exchange backup with native protection or through third-party offerings. It all depends on what you are trying to protect.  Continue Reading

• How can I best implement an active archive environment?

  Examine the major elements of an active archiving environment, including the kinds of data that you can use in one and resources to help with platform execution.  Continue Reading

• 2 important edge data storage backup best practices

  Edge data storage backup has become a key component of data protection plans. File sync-and-share software can complement this important backup process.  Continue Reading

• Does your data backup system ensure data protection?

  With so many dangerous threats in the IT landscape, make sure you protect your data backups from the likes of corruption, unauthorized access and leakage.  Continue Reading

• Best practices for intelligent data management use

  The intelligent data management platform helps organizations get more out of their data. Explore why this trend has taken off and three best practices for use.  Continue Reading

• What are 5 backup management best practices?

  The task of managing backups can seem overwhelming. These straightforward guidelines should help, as there are procedures and technologies that can make your job easier.  Continue Reading

• What are 5 hyper-converged backup best practices?

  Compatibility, connection and cost are key considerations for hyper-converged data backup. Dive into these best practices to improve your data protection efforts.  Continue Reading

• What are 5 top Microsoft 365 backup considerations?

  SaaS application backup is increasingly prevalent, and for good reason -- it's critical for ensuring data protection. These five guidelines will help you protect Microsoft 365.  Continue Reading

• How has backup as a service evolved and improved?

  The backup-as-a-service platform is a popular use of cloud-based infrastructure. With new products and features launching, it's important to plan out your BaaS environment.  Continue Reading

• 5 important Docker container backup best practices

  With container storage a major trend, it's important to ensure data protection. These five guidelines will help you properly back up Docker containers.  Continue Reading

• How can your ransomware backup strategy improve?

  It's time to review your strategy for ransomware backup and recovery. While there are standard ways to protect your organization, newer technologies could save your business.  Continue Reading

• Why is a data archive plan important?

  A data archiving plan might not be simply important for your organization -- it could be necessary, given legal and compliance requirements. Make sure you're ahead of the game.  Continue Reading

• What are some best practices for planning database backups?

  Adhering to service-level agreements, keeping up with performance demands and planning for future workloads are just a few of the goals you should keep in mind when planning database backups.  Continue Reading

• What are 3 cloud backup security guidelines against cyberattacks?

  Cloud security is a top concern for IT. As a result, keeping cloud backups secure should be a priority. Here are three straightforward guidelines to help.  Continue Reading

• What are best practices for archiving emails?

  Archiving email is crucial to the business continuity and disaster recovery process. For example, consider how cybersecurity and cloud storage can integrate with the archiving.  Continue Reading

• PowerShell backup scripts: What are 3 essential best practices?

  There are some strong PowerShell scripts that can provide backup capabilities. It's important, though, to be mindful of PowerShell's quirks so you get the best data protection.  Continue Reading

• What are Google G Suite backup best practices?

  Is your Google data protected? Make sure you are backing up G Suite files, because Google doesn't provide the comprehensive protection you'll need to be safe.  Continue Reading

• How can I integrate cybersecurity and backup planning?

  Your organization should integrate its cybersecurity and backup processes. It's easy for a cyberattack to affect backups, unfortunately, so be proactive about it.  Continue Reading

• What are some public cloud backup options for better data protection?

  Organizations that need to protect resources in the public cloud have a number of backup possibilities, some with more hazardous negatives than others.  Continue Reading

• How can AI and data protection work together?

  There may be value in including artificial intelligence in backup software. Find out which vendors are already using AI to improve backup and data protection capabilities.  Continue Reading

• Why do you need backup for Salesforce and other SaaS apps?

  Backup for Salesforce is available from several third-party vendors. Why aren't a lot of organizations doing it? Explore some of the many reasons why you need this backup.  Continue Reading

• What are top SMB backup services and platforms?

  Many on-site and cloud-based services are available for small to medium-sized business backup. Pay particular attention to the deciding factors for cloud SMB backups.  Continue Reading

• 3-2-1: Get started with a multi-cloud backup plan

  Multi-cloud data backup is taking off as organizations seek ways to further protect their workloads. With many threats out there, it's important to have data backed up off-site.  Continue Reading

• What is a good backup test frequency?

  You should align your backup testing with the frequency of backups. This way, IT assets will not only be backed up, but also validated as ready for use in an emergency.  Continue Reading

• What are some server and data migration best practices for backup?

  Are you ready for your next data migration project? Take the Myspace migration failure as motivation to implement data source and backup best practices.  Continue Reading

• How will CCPA compliance affect your backup storage?

  The new California privacy act creates more rights for consumers and their data. As a result, organizations holding consumer data will need to modify their backup approach.  Continue Reading

• Which cloud backup type is best: Incremental or differential?

  Backup types vary in size, complexity of restoration, cost and resources consumed. Is incremental or differential the right approach for your cloud backup?  Continue Reading

• How can my backup and recovery plan be part of DR planning?

  Backup and recovery planning is not the same as disaster recovery planning. It's important that they work together, though, for better data protection.  Continue Reading

• How do I decide when to deduplicate data and where?

  On its surface, data deduplication is a positive because it deletes redundant data. Use the technology carefully, but at the right moment for the best results.  Continue Reading

• How do I know if multi-cloud backup is the right approach?

  You have a lot of cloud options these days. Using a multi-cloud data backup strategy may be good for your data protection, as long as it's good for your business first.  Continue Reading

• What are 3 best practices for compressed backups?

  Learn important details about the use of hardware and software data compression, as well as redundancy, that could help your organization improve its backup process.  Continue Reading

• What are 3 top data protection trends expected in 2019?

  Top trends in data protection include more comprehensive backup platforms. With data in many different places, including multiple clouds, products must cover a lot of ground.  Continue Reading

• GDPR right to be forgotten and backups: What are potential problems?

  Removing personal data from a database is a simple process, but eliminating that information from full backups could undermine the integrity of your data. Proceed with caution.  Continue Reading

• What 3 issues can affect your data backup procedures?

  Do you have challenges with your data backup process, such as a lack of the right security? The three directives here will help with your overall business continuity.  Continue Reading

• What's the difference between secondary and primary storage?

  Having primary storage and secondary storage is a good way to tier your workloads and ensure solid data protection. So, what should you expect from both platforms?  Continue Reading

• How do I know if cloud-based archiving is the right choice?

  If you don't need to access old data much, cloud archiving could work out well. That's just one consideration, though, for deciding which archival platform to employ.  Continue Reading

• How have disk backups changed in recent years?

  Disk-based backup provides newer features that can speed and ease recovery. IT should take advantage of instant recovery and virtual lab capabilities.  Continue Reading

• What backup security measures protect against data breaches?

  Backup security varies across different storage media. What works for tape-based backup may not work for disk backups, so plan your data protection strategy accordingly.  Continue Reading

• How do I keep my virtualized backup secure?

  A virtual backup is not effective if it's not secure. Encryption, agentless backup and testing can all help. Explore the details of how to secure your backups.  Continue Reading

• What are nine SaaS backup best practices?

  Software-as-a-service backup is an important, but sometimes overlooked, aspect of data protection. It's also complex, so planning, documentation and testing are key.  Continue Reading

• How should the virtualized backup market evolve?

  GDPR looms large over many data protection processes, and virtual backup is no different. Overall management is important as well, as data volume continues to grow.  Continue Reading

• Can integrating data protection and management work?

  While you may want to jump on the data management and protection train, consider first how combining the two in one product will affect your systems and users.  Continue Reading

• What personal data backup practices are best?

  Is your personal data secure? Backup best practices for consumers include regularly backing up data and taking advantage of different types of storage media.  Continue Reading

• Why is a cloud backup strategy necessary?

  When backing up to the cloud, it's important to take precautions against data loss. See how approaches like redundancy can bolster your backup strategy.  Continue Reading

• How can I encrypt backups for better data protection?

  Don't let backup data encryption fall through the cracks. When encrypting backups, key management and compression are just two of the best practices for optimum security.  Continue Reading

• What are some ghost image creation issues?

  A ghost image can be used to copy the contents of one server to another for backup, but the process of creating ghost images may not be as simple as it seems.  Continue Reading

• What are ghost imaging software benefits and drawbacks?

  Ghost imaging comes in many forms, and it has reached the cloud. It helps avoid much of the manual input of unit setup, but some vendors don't support ghosted units.  Continue Reading

• How do I get started with Oracle backup scripts for RMAN?

  Using Oracle Recovery Manager for database backup and restore? Explore the Oracle backup script and command process, with options for specific scripts.  Continue Reading

• How does deduplication in cloud computing work and is it beneficial?

  The deduplication process reduces the amount of data in a storage system, but dedupe in the cloud may be more valuable to the cloud provider than the customer.  Continue Reading

• Flash backups: What are the best use cases, and why?

  Flash storage arrays consume less power than traditional disks, and could be used to significantly decrease an organization's backup window and appliances.  Continue Reading

• How easy is a Veritas Backup Exec 16 upgrade from another version?

  With the right planning, transitioning to Backup Exec 16 from an earlier version can be smooth sailing, preserving data directories and retaining most settings.  Continue Reading

• What are some new data deduplication techniques?

  Copy data management is just one technology utilizing recent innovations in the backup deduplication space, combatting sprawl and managing snapshots.  Continue Reading

• How can I ensure that my tape backup technology is secure?

  With the portability of tapes and the ability to store terabytes of data on a single cartridge, appropriate security of tape backup storage is imperative.  Continue Reading

• How can I improve my SaaS backup strategy?

  Migrating to software as a service can benefit an organization, but there are some questions administrators need to ask when considering a cloud-to-cloud backup.  Continue Reading

• When does storage snapshot technology work best?

  Snapshots do not replace backup, but they can be used to enhance a data protection strategy if you use them at the right time and for the right tasks.  Continue Reading

• What is NetBackup Instant Recovery for VMware?

  Symantec's NetBackup Instant Recovery for VMware feature can provide organizations with instant recovery capabilities, but backup server power issues can be a concern.  Continue Reading

• Would you ever perform Oracle backups without RMAN?

  While RMAN is typically used for Oracle backups, it is possible and sometimes necessary to use a different backup method.  Continue Reading

• Which vendors support Oracle RMAN backup and recovery?

  It's important to carefully analyze if a given backup software platform supports Oracle RMAN backup and recovery, as the level of support varies from vendor to vendor.  Continue Reading

• What is the best archival media type?

  Many archival media types are available, including disk and cloud, but their level of reliability and storage density varies.  Continue Reading

• Why does Oracle Recovery Manager matter for backup?

  Oracle Recovery Manager not only handles underlying maintenance tasks, but increases database backup and recovery performance.  Continue Reading

• What is Oracle Flashback Technology and is it a form of backup?

  With Oracle Flashback Technology, users can return data to a past status without traditional backup or restoration. But it's not a backup replacement.  Continue Reading

• Are there tools that help users migrate from one backup product to another?

  Backup software vendors such as CommVault offer services and/or software that assist customers with migrating from a competing product.  Continue Reading

• How do you perform Docker backup?

  Few backup software providers offer Docker container backup support, but is there a way to back up Docker containers with any backup software?  Continue Reading

• Tape vs. disk: Which offers the greatest energy efficiency?

  Jon Toigo looks at the factors that determine whether disk or tape is more energy-efficient.  Continue Reading

• Dealing with Active Directory restore challenges

  What are the biggest challenges with backing up Active Directory?  Continue Reading

• What does CommVault Simpana 10 error code 19:757 mean?

  What does CommVault Simpana 10 error code 19:757 mean and how do I resolve it?  Continue Reading

• What does CommVault Simpana 10 error code 19:861 mean?

  What does CommVault Simpana 10 Error code 19:861 mean and how do I resolve it?  Continue Reading

• What is Data Domain Boost and what is it used for?

  SearchDataBackup Senior Site Editor Andrew Burton explains what EMC's Data Domain Boost software is designed for, how it works, and which products it supports in this Expert Answer.  Continue Reading

• What is Simpana OnePass and how does it work?

  Learn about this feature of CommVault's Simpana backup software platform aimed at streamlining backup and archiving processes and reducing the amount of data stored across the two.  Continue Reading

• What are the differences between file sync and share and backup?

  George Crump of Storage Switzerland discusses mobile device data protection, comparing products that perform file synchronization to products that perform an actual backup.  Continue Reading

• How can I reduce my cloud storage costs?

  What are the top five ways to save money on cloud storage costs for data protection?  Continue Reading

• How to estimate the lifespan of backup tape media

  Brien Posey offers advice on how to estimate the useful lifespan of backup tape media based on how it is used, in this Expert Answer.  Continue Reading

• Hypervisor-based replication in VMware and Hyper-V

  Independent backup expert Brien Posey discusses native hypervisor-based replication in VMware and Hyper-V, in this Expert Answer.  Continue Reading

• Resolving CommVault Simpana error code 91:29

  Independent backup expert Brien Posey details what causes CommVault Simpana error 91:29 and how to resolve it in this Expert Answer.  Continue Reading

• Why backup monitoring software is growing in popularity

  Brien Posey discusses why backup monitoring software is growing in popularity and how it can help IT admins ensure effective backups.  Continue Reading

• Misconceptions about using a single platform for backup and archive

  Brien Posey discusses how backup and archive can be accomplished using a single software platform today and common misconceptions about this approach.  Continue Reading

• Choosing the right data snapshot approach

  Independent backup expert Brien Posey compares the various methods for creating a data snapshot in this Expert Answer.  Continue Reading

• Crash-consistent vs. application-consistent backups of virtual machines

  Marc Staimer of Dragon Slayer Consulting compares crash-consistent and application-consistent backups of virtual machines in this Expert Answer.  Continue Reading

• IPhone vs. Android backup

  Eric Slack of Storage Switzerland compares iPhone and Android backup in this Expert Answer.  Continue Reading

• Disk can help with backup tape rotation strategy

  Backup expert George Crump explains how to use disk to get the most out of your backup tape rotation strategy.  Continue Reading

• As a backup target, when is VTL better than NAS?

  Eric Slack of Storage Switzerland says that, as a backup target, a VTL might be a better choice than NAS.  Continue Reading

• Should you back up Google Drive contents?

  George Crump of Storage Switzerland discusses whether it is necessary to back up Google Drive contents in this Expert Answer.  Continue Reading

• Should you back up Dropbox contents?

  George Crump of Storage Switzerland discusses whether it is necessary to back up Dropbox contents in this Expert Response.  Continue Reading

• Solving SQL VSS writer problems during backup

  Backup expert Brien Posey explains how to solve common SQL VSS writer problems users can face during SQL database backups.  Continue Reading

• Are LTO-4 tapes compatible with other versions of LTO tape technology?

  Dave Ellis explains what LTO-4 is and its compatibility with other versions of LTO in this expert response.  Continue Reading