No Limitations On The Type Of Data You ’ re Backing Up Many backup solutions cannot back up certain types of databases . “ We need the flexibility to back up data even though it may be unique and not wellused throughout the U . S . or globally ,” Auld said .
Capabilities For Discovering Ransomware
“ We must have a method for capturing malicious activity with ransomware , and we must have A + support from our partner vendors ,” Auld said . “ Because although we rarely need help , if we do need help , we need somebody on the other end of that phone who can help us solve the problem .”
The Ability To Test “ We need to have the ability to automatically , within the software , spin the backups up , run the applications ’ functionality , turn them on or turn them off , and then delete the test ,” Auld said .
How Often Should You Verify Backups ?
Both of our experts verify backups daily . An automated process reports successes and immediately reports failure . In addition , Auld recommends randomly running an automated process that restores files to ensure they are protected and accessible . For disaster recovery clients , Peak clients open a ticket to test their backup .
How Do You Protect Your Backups From Being Compromised By Cybercriminals ?
It ’ s key to have an alert system that looks for ransomware behavior inside the backup . All backup must be stored on systems with a completely segregated authentication and security route so a compromised account does not have any access to the backup data storage .
“ One of the problems I frequently run into in ransomware cases is that they don ’ t deploy their backup solution correctly ,” Chris Hegg said . “ Attackers get into their system , mount the backup drives to the server , then all their backups get encrypted , too . We use Unitrends because it is a stand-alone system . There are no direct network connections . There are no map drives to it . An agent runs independently through an encrypted channel back to the appliance , keeping that attack vector separate and segmented from potential cybercriminals .”
( software as a service ) management because we don ’ t know when that file is corrupted . Was it corrupted yesterday or was it corrupted 30 days ago or longer ?”
Which Backup Solutions Are Preferred By MSPs And Why ?
Both Phoenix Technology and Peak use Unitrends as their primary backup solution . Peak also uses Veeam .
“ We partnered with Unitrends 12 years ago , and they continue to be a great partner of ours ,” Auld said . “ The other solution we use is Veeam . Both check off all our requirements . In using these solutions for the last five years , we ’ ve been able to recover for our clients 100 % of the time .”
Because Hegg supports a lot of cities , he uses Unitrends Recovery Max series . “ We want that business continuity and to be able to recover immediately virtually on the appliance ,” he said . Hegg likes the scalability , the security , and the accessibility of Unitrends . “ Our data is always increasing . Unitrends allows us to continually add on as needed ,” he said . “ And not having to directly mount the drive to the network is a huge security benefit . With the ease of it , the user interface , and the cloud monitoring , I could be anywhere in the world and pull it up , which gives us the ability to recover , allowing people to return to work in no time at all .”
A key objective for backing up data that ’ s been around since the ‘ 90s is still true today . “ It ’ s the 3-2-1 backup rule ,” Auld said . “ You must have a primary backup and two copies of data , you need to save your backups to different types of media , and you need to keep at least one of the files off-site .”
As organizations live and die by their data today , backups are your saving grace . “ We have insurance on our house , our car , our life , so you must have insurance on your data ,” Hegg said . “ That ’ s where a backup solution plays that role for you . You can buy cyber insurance , but that doesn ’ t get your data back . Backups are your last safety net from a security perspective , from a hardware failure perspective , from everything . If you have that data , you can operate another day .” n
How Do You Back Up SaaS Applications ?
Hegg leverages Spanning Backup for Microsoft 365 and uses Graphus for the security side .
“ We keep seven restore points of the data locally , and we keep 90 or more days worth of retention at multiple locations in separate regions so we have lots of locations we can restore from ,” Auld said . “ That ’ s kind of a minimum restriction for SaaS
Chris Hegg , CEO — Phoenix Technology Consulting
Matt Auld , Vice President , Cloud Services — Peak UpTime , Inc .
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