Offsite backup refers to storing copies of important data or files in a location that is physically separate from the main workspace. The goal of offsite backup is to ensure access to crucial information in the event of an incident like fire, flood, or theft that damages the primary work location. Offsite backup provides an additional layer of protection by geographic separation of data from potential onsite hazards.
Why is offsite backup important?
There are several key reasons why organizations utilize offsite backup as part of their data protection strategy:
- Safeguards against physical damage – Storing backups offsite mitigates the risk of onsite disasters like fires, floods, or structural damage that could destroy locally stored data. Offsite backup ensures data is physically secure.
- Protection against theft – Keeping backup copies offsite also provides protection if equipment like servers or laptops are stolen from the main workplace. The offsite data remains accessible.
- Allows continued operations – In the event of a disaster or disruption at the primary site, offsite backup means an organization can recover data to alternate equipment and resume critical functions quickly. This minimizes downtime.
- Regulatory compliance – Some industries and regulations require offsite backup for data recovery purposes. This includes healthcare, financial services and organizations that store sensitive client data.
- Insurance purposes – Offsite backup may be required by insurance policies that cover aspects like business interruption or data loss. Maintaining offsite copies demonstrates due diligence.
In summary, offsite backup is a key part of defense-in-depth data protection and disaster recovery planning for most businesses.
What data or files should be backed up offsite?
Organizations should identify their most critical systems and data for offsite backup based on:
- Business-critical systems – Servers or infrastructure that run key applications, databases, email systems, or other vital services.
- High value data – Sensitive or hard to replace data like financial records, proprietary documents, employee files, transaction history, or medical data.
- Compliance-related – Systems or data governed by regulatory compliance standards that mandate offsite backup.
- Minimal operations data – A subset of core business data needed to resume minimal operations in a disaster scenario until main systems can be restored.
While the specific data protected offsite depends on each organization’s unique needs, some common examples include:
- Database server backups – Especially databases supporting essential applications or containing valuable business data, like ERP, CRM, HR, ecommerce.
- File server backups – File shares containing documents, spreadsheets, images, and other work files.
- Email server backups – Email mailbox stores for users.
- ERP/CRM backups – Core systems for managing operations, customers, and financials.
- Source code backups – For software companies or development teams.
- Mobile data – Laptops, tablets, and smartphone backups to protect field personnel.
How frequently should offsite backups occur?
Most experts recommend daily offsite backups for business critical data, but frequency can vary based on factors like:
- Recovery Point Objective (RPO) – The maximum acceptable amount of data loss in the event of a failure. A lower RPO requires more frequent backup cycles.
- Rate of data change – The pace at which source data is modified. Data with a high change rate often necessitates more frequent offsite backup cycles.
- Type of data – Some data is more critical than others. Highly sensitive data may need daily offsite backup whereas archived data may need less frequent offsite copies.
- Available bandwidth – Some organizations are bandwidth constrained, which can limit how often large backup sets can be transferred offsite.
- Backup method – Technologies like disk-based backup allow incremental backups to offsite, while tape-based backup often requires full backups less often.
Balancing these factors, most organizations implement daily offsite backups for crucial systems and data, with less frequent backup cycles for lower priority data. Some also supplement this with weekly full offsite backups.
Where should offsite backups be stored?
Common locations for offsite data backup include:
- A company’s separate office or branch location, if geographically distant enough from the main site.
- A commercial offsite data center facility that offers secure spaces for IT infrastructure like backup servers.
- In the cloud – Backup copies replicated to public cloud storage services.
- A trusted partner site through a reciprocal business agreement.
- Specialized backup vaulting services that pick up and store backup media offsite.
The right offsite location depends on budget, required speed of data recovery, and how much an organization wants direct control over the storage environment. Many utilize a hybrid model, with backup copies on-premises for fast restore as well as offsite for increased resilience.
What are the main methods of offsite data backup?
Key approaches to transporting data offsite for backup include:
- Physical transport of storage media – Traditional offline method using removable media like tape cartridges or external disk drives that are rotated to the offsite location. Courier services may assist with secure transport.
- Replicable storage systems – Backup is performed to a dedicated backup storage device which then handles replicating copies to a secondary device located offsite.
- Mirroring to offsite servers – Live synchronization of data to offsite servers in real-time to create a readily accessible offsite copy.
- Cloud-based backup – Backups transmitted over the internet and stored in a cloud service provider’s resilient storage infrastructure.
- Managed service provider (MSP) – Outsourcing backups to an MSP that handles the offsite storage process and location.
Physical Transport
Historically this has involved rotating tape cartridges to offsite vaults daily or weekly. Tapes are portable, relatively inexpensive, and support long retention durations. However, physical transport can be slow and cumbersome for large environments. Optical discs, external HDDs, or flash drives are other transportable media options.
Replicable Storage
Backup appliances or dedicated backup software can asynchronously replicate copies of backups to a separate device located offsite. Replication can occur over LAN/WAN or to cloud storage. Hybrid on-premises/cloud approaches provide fast local restore plus an offsite copy.
Mirroring
Mirroring creates a live copy of data at an offsite facility, constantly synchronizing changes. This ensures zero RPO but requires ample bandwidth and may have higher costs. Distance limitations and lag time may also hinder performance.
Cloud-Based Backup
Backing up directly to cloud storage leverages the cloud provider’s offsite infrastructure. Cloud backup offers advantages like scalability and pay-as-you-go economics. However, large initial data uploads can be problematic and restoring large backup sets over the internet has limited bandwidth.
Managed Service Provider
MSPs own and manage private backup infrastructure at their own sites to deliver backup-as-a-service. This simplifies offsite data protection for organizations and provides sought-after features like ransomware protection and long-term retention policies.
What are important capabilities for an offsite backup solution?
Key criteria to evaluate in an offsite backup solution include:
- Data security – Encryption safeguards data in transit and at rest. Access controls restrict activity.
- Network optimization – Accelerators like data deduplication, compression, and WAN optimization speed up backups.
- Reliable recovery – Backups are verified for integrity. Backups can be smoothly restored when required.
- Retention flexibility – Days, weeks, or years of backup versions can be retained as needed.
- Automated schedules – Backup policies enable automated, unattended offsite backup runs.
- Hybrid architectures – Blend physical, cloud, and software capabilities into a comprehensive solution.
- Seamless cloud integration – Utilize leading public cloud storage services like Amazon S3, Azure Blob, etc.
- Ransomware resilience – Isolate backups from the production network to avoid infection.
- Proactive monitoring – Alert administrators to backup failures or infrastructure issues.
- Cost efficiency – Solutions that maximize value for money as budgets are a key constraint.
The right blend of these features supports reliable, air-tight offsite backup aligned with modern business demands.
What are some best practices for offsite data backup?
Organizations should follow these recommended practices for secure and dependable offsite backup:
- Perform initial full backup then incremental – Minimizes traffic by only sending changed data.
- Manage backup data retention policies – Balance recovery needs vs cost/capacity management.
- Test restores regularly – Confirms backups are recoverable when required.
- Encrypt backups – Protect data confidentiality and integrity.
- Monitor backup logs – Get alerts for errors to address issues proactively.
- Validate backup completeness – Ensure all target data is captured reliably.
- Document backup processes – Detail steps required to recover data from offsite copies.
- Consider alternate destinations – Protect against issues at the primary offsite location.
- Control offsite media access – Ensure only authorized staff handle transport and storage.
- Evaluate service provider credentials – Review security, compliance, and viability of partners.
Adhering to best practices reduces risk, aids compliance, and enables reliable data restoration from offsite backups when needed.
What are some solutions for offsite data backup?
Leading technology options for offsite data backup include:
| Solution | Description |
|---|---|
| Cohesity | Converged backup and recovery solution with native cloud integration, web-scale architecture, and ransomware protection. |
| Rubrik | Unified data management platform with immutable backups, hybrid cloud support, and automated archival to cloud object storage. |
| Veeam | Modern backup and DR solution focused on speed and reliability, with extensive cloud integration for offsite protection. |
| Druva | SaaS platform built entirely on Amazon Web Services, with air-gapped cloud backups immutable to ransomware. |
| Acronis | Hybrid cloud backup offering combining on-premises backup with integration to the Acronis Cloud for secure offsite copies. |
| MSP Solutions | Turnkey services from managed service providers delivering backup as a service with baked-in offsite data protection. |
Key Capabilities
These solutions enable reliable offsite backup through features such as:
- Optimized replication to move backup data offsite quickly.
- Support for tape media, external drives, and cloud storage as offsite destinations.
- Global deduplication and compression to minimize bandwidth demands.
- Cloud archival with intelligent tiering to low-cost object storage.
- Immutable backups using WORM and object lock to prevent encryption.
- Orchestration for coordinating onsite, offsite, and cloud data movement.
- Ransomware detection, alerting, and quarantine capabilities.
The right solution provides a comprehensive foundation for automated, air-tight offsite data protection.
What are the costs associated with offsite data backup?
Offsite data backup requires both initial and ongoing investments which should be budgeted for. Typical costs include:
- Backup software/appliance licensing fees for production systems.
- Offsite storage hardware for backup copies or cloud storage subscription fees.
- Labor expenses for backup administration staff.
- Physical media like tape cartridges and cloud egress bandwidth fees.
- Facilities and utilities for offsite backup location maintenance.
- Business continuity planning and testing for offsite scenarios.
- Potential downtime expenses if backups are unavailable when disasters strike.
Factors that influence offsite backup TCO include:
- Amount of data to protect and required backup frequency.
- Speed of WAN links between sites to transfer backup data.
- Retention duration for offsite backup copies.
- Whether cloud storage is used for added resilience and availability.
- Level of human administration needed vs automation features.
Overall costs typically add up to a small fraction of an organization’s overall IT budget but deliver substantial risk reduction benefits.
Conclusion
Offsite backup provides the necessary geographic separation to recover from outages caused by disasters, infrastructure loss, or malicious activity at the primary site. It adds crucial protection for sensitive and critical data while supporting overall business continuity and technology resilience goals. With the right processes, secure infrastructure, and modern backup solutions in place, organizations can implement reliable offsite backup capabilities scaled to their needs and budget.