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Backing UP 1.5TB+ Storage
- Thread starter AMD_RULES
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swatbat
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Cheap doesn't come to mind.
Look at the dell powervault 124 tape backups. Pretty much uses a LTO2 drive and has cartrages for multiple tapes. Start at around 3 grand with no tapes and will handle 3tb. You will just need to go through the process of switching out tapes every so often to keep extra sets.
HP has pretty much the same thing in the storageworks g2 but they charge more for it.
Look at the dell powervault 124 tape backups. Pretty much uses a LTO2 drive and has cartrages for multiple tapes. Start at around 3 grand with no tapes and will handle 3tb. You will just need to go through the process of switching out tapes every so often to keep extra sets.
HP has pretty much the same thing in the storageworks g2 but they charge more for it.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Sigh. What a pain in the rear the security part of it has been. If you're wanting to go cheap, buying two 1T external hard drives put you around $500-700 (depending what brand you buy. Don't buy Hitachi Externals...). As for tape, IMO its expensive and slow unless you're willing to pay the price ($5,000 on up)
Is this 1TB compressed data?
Do you need to do a full backup each time, or are incrementals being used?
Whats your budget?
If you're worried about someone stealing the drive and abusing the data (which you are, since HIPAA requires you to be paranoid by default) you have a few options:
1) Use backup software that encrypts the data (you'll want to do this regardless)
2) Use external enclosures that include a USB encryption key card and encrypts the data automatically *could be problematic though if you lose the encryption key!
3) Use external enclosures that provide a lockable attachment (by way of a kensington lock kit or similiar).
4) If you have free 5.25" drive bays, you can always buy mobile hard drive racks with extra cartridges for each hard drive. No AC power adapter required, just plug it into your computer case without having to reboot the computer (SATA connectivity). When the drive fills up, unlock the drive cartridge, remove and insert the next drive. They are usually lockable too.
there are other options, I'm sure. But these are budget-options. External Drives are the fastest and cheapest way to go.
i need to do a full backup each time.
Well i would like to not spend more than $2000, so i may just do the external hdd thing and bring them home each day. Everything will be locked in a small server cabinet in a locked closet. I'm probably only going to have around 900GBs of data so what I may do is use to identical 1TB external hdds, and bring one home each night with me. How does this sound? Tape seems to be too expensive.
The only thing you should seriously be looking at is tape drives. They won't be cheap, but there is no excuse not to spend the money if this is for a business. Put it to management this way "How important is this data to you? What would happen if I couldn't restore the data to any point within the last year/month? What would happen to the business?"
You'll need something that can be stored offsite, so you'll need encryption as someone else said. You may also want something that is Write Once Read Many (WORM). If that is the case, you'll be looking at LTO3 or above. You'll need to do the backups directly on the machine where the data is, hat is too much data to bring across the network.
The best performance I have seen out of an LTO3 drive is 2.2TB in 24 hours.
You'll need something that can be stored offsite, so you'll need encryption as someone else said. You may also want something that is Write Once Read Many (WORM). If that is the case, you'll be looking at LTO3 or above. You'll need to do the backups directly on the machine where the data is, hat is too much data to bring across the network.
The best performance I have seen out of an LTO3 drive is 2.2TB in 24 hours.
Though I believe tape still has its places for off-site long-term archiving, its often just too expensive for many small medical businesses. Considering the large amounts of data now being created, and the recent terabyte hard drives coming down in price its really an economical solution. Is this a Doctor's office? (GP, Dentist, Orthodontist, etc)
Here's the reason: HIPAA Security. You are required to have a backup and restore solution in place, and its required to be off site. You have the tape drive going around $2,000-7,000 each, and you can lug it around if you want after the backup. But you'll need two. Why? Because if the drive goes down in a fire, you'll need another $2,000-7,000 drive to read the $30 tape cartridge to restore the data. You could have an IT firm do the restoration for you, but thats another HIPAA liability and cost since you'll have to contract with them, make sure their HIPAA security compliant, have staff members write logs of access and transferring to the business, etc.
Again, I'm not here to say tape is outdated. It has its place for long-term archiving, and when backing up large amounts of data (100's of terabytes) it can be more economical.
If you're serious about disk to disk backup, and you're doing a backup each night I would seriously consider a rack type removable system where the hard drive is enclosed in a tray.
Becareful though on what you purchase. Some connect the hard drive's SATA connector each time you insert the hard drive tray. If that SATA connector breaks, you're SOL. Also, if you're going for an external rack mount enclsoure I would look into FIREWIRE 800 (1394b) as it offers a bit more performance over the older Firewire 400.
Here are some ideas:
http://www.cooldrives.com
http://www.supermediastore.com/external-data-storage-solutions.html
http://fwdepot.com/thestore/product_info.php/products_id/1770
Anyway, my 4 cents worth.
It's for my dental office. how about this? http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=bvcw8k1&s=bsd
Go with two 1TB drives and keep one offsite and the other onsite. Hell, for the price of drives vs tape, you should:
Buy 3 1TB drives,
Use one for your own transport as mentioned before,
Use the other as a local backup,
Send the other one off to a remote office or a secure location, back it up less frequently, but based on your needs.
This way not only do you have an immediate backup (local backup), but if your place burns down, you still got the one with you...incase the backup is incorrect or isufficient... you still got the one at the remote location with a prior backup.
Buy 3 1TB drives,
Use one for your own transport as mentioned before,
Use the other as a local backup,
Send the other one off to a remote office or a secure location, back it up less frequently, but based on your needs.
This way not only do you have an immediate backup (local backup), but if your place burns down, you still got the one with you...incase the backup is incorrect or isufficient... you still got the one at the remote location with a prior backup.