Graeme’s Blog

Business Owners are at constant risk from theft, viruses, system crashes, stolen or misplaced backup tapes, etc.,  A recent study has shown an estimated €4 billion will be spent in 2010 on data protection and backup systems – a growth of 30% from 2005. Recent advances in internet technology have resulted in more and more hard disk based backup systems becoming available.  Instead of worrying about changing that tape, losing it in the street, or burning it up in the sunshine in your cars glove compartment, all files can now be backed up to remote locations by using high speed internet lines.  At specific timed intervals throughout the day and night, a snapshot can be taken of all changed files on a particular server, and these can be transported through a high bandwidth internet connection to an off site server.  In addition, file compression makes the whole process much faster, reduces the amount of bandwidth needed to transport the file and takes up less space on the backup server. One company that has deployed this technology is Irish based LetsHost (www.letshost.ie).  They have implemented a multi Terabyte backup server in a data centre in another location hundreds of miles away, and this takes 6 hourly snapshots of all production web servers.  Copies of the last 10 days backup snapshots are maintained, allowing an almost unbelievable combination of files that can be restored.  Even if a single file was lost, for example at 3pm, five days ago, the system will allow the restore of this file.  In addition, and probably the most remarkable of all, is the ability to recover databases using the same technology.  The system is so granular that a single table in a single database can be recovered from any of the 42 snapshots. To add to this, weekly backup snapshots are also taken, and kept for 6 weeks.  A user control panel allows the user to log on and recover any files he or she wishes, without the need for intervention by LetsHost staff.  This makes the entire process extremely cost effective and efficient.   In the event of a total server and complete server failure, LetsHost can recover the entire server in a matter of hours, bringing it back to life with a maximum data loss of only 6 hours.  Server recovery can even take place to a different server in a different location if necessary, so even in the highly unlikely event of the entire production data centre being cut off due to unforeseen circumstances, LetsHost can recover their clients data to servers in a different location within a few small hours.   The improved internet technology in terms of speed and reliability is bringing the whole area of backup to new heights and ultimately securing the future for many businesses who in the past would have been prone to serious issues in the event of server production server failure. With such new technologies coming on-stream, the total cost of managing a business critical backup may actually come down, and the accuracy and reliability of the solution will improve significantly. LetsHost5^th February 2007

LetsHost is a web hosting company based in Dublin, Ireland.  Formed in 2003, the company currently hosts in excess of 11000 domains, all of which are protected using CDP – Continuous data protection.  LetsHost welcomes any press or contact from interested parties wishing to know more about the technologies used to deploy this backup solution