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Suggestions for managing user file data (backup, deduplication, versioning, etc.)?
I am a consultant out of Nashville looking to expand my portfolio and I am considering Nasuni.com to provide user file data management.. The questions I have are:
(Given "SMB" is rather nebulous) How many SMBs would have 3+ terabytes of data?
What are inhibitors for going to cloud technology when it comes to data?
Would a business be willing to spend $700 - $800 per month/terabyte for backup, data deduplication, compression, and 15 minute recovery?
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3 Answers
Alan,
1. From my anecdotal information I would say only 20% of SMB’s would have 3TB or more data to backup. The majority of SMB’s do not have an incredible amount of data.
2. From the technical perspective one of the largest inhibitors from going to cloud data is going to be chain of custody of the data. The complexity of some of the cloud services can be so confusing that they cannot even tell you everyone who may have access to your data. There are many providers who move the data through multiple sub-contractors and the chain of people with access to the data gets lost. This is a very scary prospect for anyone whose business is their data as this increases the exposure and potential points of compromise. To offer a cloud solution you will need to be able to identify clearly all the locations and people who may have access to the data with the controls that are put in place to preserver security.
3. $700 - $800 a month per TB sounds a bit over market price to me. Please note this is just from my own experience in my own market. I am not going to spill any secret sauce or name a price but that seems a bit high. I would also be concerned about the 15 minute recover statement. Depending of if you are offering a 15 minute RPO or RTO. I could see a 15 minute RPO for a CDP like backup agent but offering a 15 minute RTO depends on things you do not have control over. If a customer has a T1 or a 3 Mbps cable connection and they need to recover a server with 1 TB of data, there is no way this is going to be recovered in 15 minutes.
Data encryption is a must when moving it off site. Your customers will want to know that the encryption key is privately held by them and that the data is encrypted in storage and that the encryption that takes place is not just for the transport. There are many backup products that just encrypt for transport or those where the key also resides on the server side so as an admin could unlock the data. I would also do my due diligence on the single storage vendor to see if they resell the data storage or who they sub contract to. You may be surprised how long the chain of contractors can go on for.
I wouldn’t ever market at 15 minute RTO when the 15 minutes just means that the server is online and not all services or data is accessible. The term recovered would be interpreted by many people to mean fully functional. Just to set expectation correctly you may want to put some language around this to let people know that.
This is just my two cents from my experience. I am excited for you as the productizing and launch of a new service is a great time. Enjoy it and best of luck.
Steve, thanks for the insite. Here is what I am told realted to:
Issue #2 "chain of custody" which I boil down to the statement "exposure and potential points of compromise"
- the data is encrypted on customer premises so, from the time is leaves the customer's site until it returns it is protected. Oh, and they recently went from a pool of cloud storage vendors to one.
Issue #3 "1 TB of data, there is no way this is going to be recovered in 15 minutes."
- You only have to recover the data you need to work within the first 15 minutes, right? So, there is logic in their VM appliance that ensures the most recently access data comes back first (and then they have compression to cut down the volume of data by 20%). Actually talked to a customer this past week and they confirmed it.
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