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Running a small offsite data backup server...

F

fluidimagery

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
70
This is a theoretical question...

We're a personal / small office / service / one stop shop company, servicing about 400 or so businesses ranging from 2 to 50 computers... most of our offices are running a server of some sort. For the past year or so we've been reselling Mozy online backup service subscriptions... we are backing up about 3/4 of a terabyte of data between 80 or so of our clients who we've approached about it. EMC recently bought out Mozy and we received a call today saying that EMC may be raising our reselling backup rates by oh... about 500% over what we were being charged by Mozy. We may be grandfathered in but we have no idea at this point what's going to happen.

LogMeIn has a "Backup" service which encrypts and backs up data to a given location. Would I be completely out of my mind to take on a task like offering backup space to clients who'd want keep their rates low? We're behind a decently fast business grade cable line (30000 down 5000 up) with 5 static IPs... I'd probably get a 2nd subscription run in for this exclusivly. We have a few NAS servers in a rack with about 2tb of data space on Raid5.

I'm on the fence right now...
 
Seems like you have a good server room, good equipment, and a nice internet line, so it could be a good idea.

Remember if you are hosting, mostly your download will make the difference. So since you have a ton of download bandwidth it should not be an issue :cool:
 
You have 30mb down 10mb up on cable?

I run a backuppc server for some small business clients. I find that after the initial backup, the clients only submit 10-50mb of new stuff per day. It's not nearly 400 clients though. If the numbers make sense, I'd say go for it or at least look at the alternative services you might be able to use. I know there are a few based on the S3 storage system.
 
5mb up wish it was 10.

I'm just hesitant about the security aspect... just how good is the encryption that these software packages use? I'm no hacker by any means but, god forbid the office was broken into and servers stolen... I don't exactly have the gated security and key card access that Mozy or other places have on their servers.

I have a few attorney / government clients that I'd instinctively refuse to take on the responsiblity of keeping their responsiblities safe. But a majority of my clients are mom and pop shops / real estates / landscapers / accountants / builders... you get the idea.
 
If you have that many clients and you think your coudl sell it you need to move the servers into a data center and get a much larger pipe.

Anyway this stuff is an option but you really want it run from a high security center. That is a lot of client data to have stolen even if it is encrypted.
 
Do you have any recommendations for data centers that would do what I'm looking for?

I have a few web servers with Rackspace currently but their prices are exorbitant although their excellent. I don't believe they do what I'm looking for however, nor could I afford it.
 
fluidimagery said:
Do you have any recommendations for data centers that would do what I'm looking for?

I have a few web servers with Rackspace currently but their prices are exorbitant although their excellent. I don't believe they do what I'm looking for however, nor could I afford it.
Click to expand...
Are you looking for Colocation? Search Google...

{off topic - Do you know marley1?}
 
I was doing some searching, just didn't know if you had any recommendations.

no comment about marley1... lol - he's an employee.
 
i think purchasing a lump some of GB from Mozy before and if they change hte prices is the way to go.

for one we would have to build or buy a server to collocate (~1-3grand), then either pay someone to manage it or manage it ourselves, and then also pay for i guess Logmein Backup software.

there is a place in Westbury that does it too i think.
 
If you want to keep prices low I would consider offering your own service. There are several vendors out there for something like this. Check out rbackup.com, you can host your own server, and basically set your own prices. This way you can ensure the server is safe, and secure, and that clients data wont be lost.
 
exstyle said:
If you want to keep prices low I would consider offering your own service. There are several vendors out there for something like this. Check out rbackup.com, you can host your own server, and basically set your own prices. This way you can ensure the server is safe, and secure, and that clients data wont be lost.
Click to expand...

Good idea, but the only problem with that is the bandwidth issue. They may need to upgrade their internet which could be costly depending on the bandwidth needs...
 
First thing I said when my company wanted to offer the service. However the program actually encrypts, and compresses data before sending, and the compressions is AMAZING but thats to be expected when your backing up mostly business files, they compress great. Needless to say, I've met other resellers that support upwards of 50 clients, on DSL!
 
Thanks for the response guys.

I'll give rbackup a call on Monday to see what sort of cost is involved with their service. I also noticed ibackup is another company that runs a service similiar to mozy.

The idea of buying more space with Mozy and paying for it now is good, but I don't know if it's just prolonging the inevitable and by that time it will be even more difficult to switch clients over. On average we're adding about 2 - 3 more clients a week to the service.

Currently we're running only a 24U rack that is completely maxed out with our own office stuff. We'd need to purchase a new rack... probably upgrade electric service... upgrade AC unit as it's already hot. Office is unfortunately only about 1400sqft in one big open space so noise and heat become issues. There is a doctor that is about 150yrs old who has a practice that is long overdue retirement so hopefully that space will open up and I can spread the office out a bit more. Next week I'll have to crunch some numbers and see which way makes more sense.
 
I say we cross our fingers and hope the negative response to the acquisition causes mozy to keep same plan, nothing is as cheap as Mozy is. iBackup = $1/GB along with it seems every other Pro service.

Running any of those softwares are secure from point to source but they are still residing in our office. Build a data center in the garage? lol Collocating the server anywhere is gonna cost way to much to be effective, we have what ~300GB being backed up weekly? We would have to charge, what like $3 minimum/GB to just break even for the collocation.

Hopefully the service stays the same.

Also we can look into using Amazon S3. I see some current products for backing up files to Amazon's S3 server, however doesn't seem to handle Exchange or databases. But that would be a extremely cheap solution (amazon charges i believe 10 cents a gig), maybe could get some custom software designed to do exchange and open files and stuff.
 
I meant idrive (http://www.idrive.com/) not ibackup. We'll have to look into it some more. I'm leaning towards finding another solution if Mozy jacks their rates rather than investing in serving our own. It would be fun though ;)

Jealous of Mozy though... started the business in 06 with 1.5mil of capital and they sold to EMC for 74mil less than 2 years later.
 
If your switches and nonserver equipment are in your 24U cabinet, why not mvoe it into a telco rack and then it will free up space?
 
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