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Has anyone used Net2Vault for NetApp Cloud backup?

T

theITguy

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Oct 28, 2011
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New HF user here...seems like a great community here.

We are longtime NetApp users and really like the technology. We currently using LTO tapes to get our data offsite but would like to get rid of tape altogether for many reasons. We are looking at using Net2Vault (Net2Vault.com) which is a NetApp cloud-based backup and DR service. I was surprised how affordable it is but the service has only been around for like a year.

Has anyone else used Net2Vault? If yes, do you recommend it? They provided me with several references but wanted to ask others too.

Any feedback is appreciated and thanks!

@
 
First thing first --- I haven't heard of the company, and I've been in the online backup business for almost 10 years now.

The big question is, what exactly are the businesses requirements? That will actually dictate the type of solution provider that you are looking for.

Also, how much raw data do you have that you need to secure?

What percantage of that data changes?

What kind of connectivity do you have?

Do you want to continue to leverage the tape hardware in conjunction with your offsite backup?
 
xxan0xx,

Thanks for replying. I did not receive a notice when you replied so apologies for the slow response.

Re: never heard of them.

Yes, I learned they are relatively new players, however they have been around for over two years and have earned 'gold' partner status with NetApp (here they are on NetApp's website). They also sent over a list of reference customers and there were many companies on there and many large companies I am familiar with. This made me feel much better. According to my NetApp sales rep, Net2V is actually the only online backup/DR service dedicated solely to NetApp systems/customers...they don't backup any other kind of data...which I like more than the Iron Mountain (now autonomy I think) service which does not allow us to use the native NetApp replication and backup software (snapmirror/snapvault). We already own this software and know how to use it so that's a bonus. Net2Vault offers a dedicated VPN for each customer and I think they said they will be launching disk-level encryption soon, but I'm not sure on that. All that said, I always like to get a totally third party opinion outside of references which is why I'm posting here.

All good questions. We are backing up ~3TB total, but that number is growing steadily. The data does need to be secure, but it is not especially sensitive data such as financial information, healthcare stuff, etc. Our daily change rate is about 15GB give or take, but again, that is growing. We have a 50MB burstable pipe so bandwidth is not really an issue for us. Ideally we'd like to do away with tape alltogether...it's a hassle for our small team and offsite disk backup better meets our requirements. They send pricing and the per GB cost is really not that much different than what I've paid for Iron Mountain tape pickup/return services in past jobs...only the backups are automated this way and we don't have to touch LTO tapes anymore.

Any other thoughts/feedback/ideas would be welcome and appreciated. Thanks again for replying.

@
 
Here are the faults that I see for this backup scenario...

1. You are dependent on uptime and consistency of VPN connectivity. Since you have 50 burstable connectivity you must have a VPN appliance that allows this type of bandwidth through the VPN tunnel. Which means you MAY have to upgrade edge base network hardware.

2. You are tied into a single storage vendor and their is real support for true application level protection and recovery support outside what snapmirror and snapvault is going to give you. For example, lets say you need to recover a single e-mail from your Exchange store will you be able to do this? Also - if you want to switch storage vendors to something like compellent, IBM, or even Hitachi you have to redo your entire backup strategy

3. You are also limiting your backup strategy to solely your NetApp SAN, you should look to see where the business requirements are to recovery specific data points such as E-mail, SQL Databases, documents, etc

Go ahead and PM your contact information and I can help you model a more structured and cost effective Offsite backup solution that will work with you as you grow and not storage vendor locked in. I
 
Thanks again for the feedback/thoughts.

After reference calls with three current NetApp Net2Vault customers, one of which is a Fortune 500 company backing up 120TB+, we decided to go with Net2Vault for both backup and DR cloud services. All three customers have been really happy with the Net2Vault service in terms of ease-of-setup, that the service delivers exactly as advertised, the customer service level, and that is is very cost affordable per GB. The math just makes way more sense for us rather than buying/managing/paying maintenance another NetApp controller and it offsets a lot of the risk to N2V if there is a failure. (-:

Also, one of the customers had less bandwidth than we do and a higher daily change rate and has had no problems with the VPN throughput that Net2Vault offers. As I mentioned, we are a longtime NetApp shop with no plans to change in the foreseeable future and if for some reason the company did decide to change it's backup vendor...all that is needed is a run-of-the-mill data migration.

We decided this was the best choice for us after looking at many options. I'll keep this post updated after we have the service up and running for a couple months.

@
 
I wanted to report back to anyone else that was following this thread on Net2Vault as I said I would report back on my experience after we implemented their backup as a service cloud products.

The process for getting our initial "golden copy" as they call it to their Sungard datacenter in Scottsdale was seamless and took less than a week to trickle our 3TB across. We could have done it faster but wanted to manage bandwidth. The N2V backup target system ("V-Filer") now appears on our own internal network just like it would if we owned the system ourselves...which is nice just to be able to see it and know its there. Really it's no different than owning your own NetApp backcup or DR system and is managed as such.

We are using SnapMirror to replicate our incremental block changes (deduped and compressed to reduce bandwidth requirement) and have had no issues at all thus far...been smooth sailing. We are also using SnapVault for long term data archive/retention but like to keep mirrored copies live as well. N2V provided a free recovery test to demonstrate that the systems and process works and it worked perfectly. Customer service and follow-up was also really good and proactive. They offer a variety of stand-by DR servers to stand-up as your production in the event of a failure/disaster at your primary site but we didn't implement this option yet but plan to early next year now that the first phase went well with them.

So that's it. We are now LTO tape free baby! also nice to know that if a failure happens and we need to recover it's not just me and my team on the hook...and we can recover 10X faster!

@
 
Hey, theITguy (and all!), Chuck here from Net2Vault.

Of paramount importance to any business is the security and well-being of its data, and in that vein, I'm very happy to hear that your experience with Net2Vault so far has been a positive one.

Feel free to reach out to us if there are any additional concerns or questions regarding your services, and we look forward to working with you!

Chuck H.
Net2Vault
charles@net2vault.com
 
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