Space For Rent
Network Computing reviews five online backup services for agent functionality, ease of use, system-management capabilities, cost and retention schemes.
October 27, 2004
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Managing server backups is a challenge, even when your IT staff and hardware are centralized in one data center. Hardware needs to be maintained, software updated, backup windows juggled, logs monitored, and tapes wrangled and sent off-site to a secure location. The process becomes even more interesting when you have to administer small departmental servers at remote locations, where IT support may be limited.
Online server backup services are a cost-effective alternative to conventional tape backup schemes, offering safe, off-site disk-to-disk data backups without the expense of additional hardware, software, tape media or manpower. Service providers use your existing IP bandwidth to support regular backups of your data to their secure data centers, where redundant storage, 24/7 monitoring and user support are available as needed.
Given the large number of online backup services, it was difficult to decide whom to invite for our review. Our goal was to test a representative cross section, with an emphasis on providers that have established a reputation for reliability. The process was made even more complex by the fact that many major players not only offer online storage services, but also market licensed versions of their software, both to large enterprises and to companies wishing to market online backup services of their own.
After isolating server-focused services and cross-referencing a couple of independent lists, we came up with a group of 10 providers to invite. Five agreed to participate: Connected Corp., Data Base File Tech Group, EVault, LiveVault Corp. and Pro-Softnet Corp. In an interesting juxtaposition, AmeriVault chose to refer us to its technology provider, EVault, which was already on board for this review; conversely, NovaStor Corp. asked us to instead review one of the services based on its software because it's seeking to position itself primarily as a software provider. So we did a random drawing from a list NovaStor provided, and Global Data Vault took the sixth and final position in our test group. BigVault Storage Technologies, Data Protection Services and U.S. Data Trust Corp. did not respond to our invitation.
We're Not in Kansas AnymoreThe idea of trusting important corporate data to an online backup provider can be unsettling--secure data backups have typically resided on local tapes that stayed under your physical control. And many IT pros still harbor bad memories of the collapse of a number of free online storage providers during the Great Dot-Com Implosion of 2000.
The good news is that online backup services have evolved over the past few years, and customer concerns about security and reliability are not lost on the current generation of online backup providers. Every vendor we evaluated listed data security and 24/7 availability as primary responsibilities. In addition, all the services in our review store customer data in mirrored, Class A data centers that are either privately owned or co-hosted in some of the most secure facilities in the world.
We believe these services will be especially attractive to those tasked with protecting data at remote sites. First, running tape backups for a multitude of servers is an expensive proposition. Costs for hardware, backup software and tapes will vary depending on data-set size and the amount of automation required. But to give you a rough idea, a 100-gigabyte single-drive DLT or DAT system can exceed $3,500 per installation--not including annual support, maintenance and off-site tape storage costs, or inevitable equipment upgrades.
Even if you can swing these expenses, you'll still have to find personnel at remote locations who are capable of ensuring that backups are properly handled. That's a huge challenge: The average human is ill-equipped to review a typical error log, much less tackle a jammed tape drive or server rack of flashing error messages.
This is where online data backup services can save your bacon. After initial configuration, the service monitors your servers' backup status while invisibly handling garden-variety backroom problems. Failed backups and tape-drive implosions can become a thing of the past, and you'll no longer lose sleep over hardware contingencies for data growth or spikes--that's now your service provider's problem. Even more alluring, you can usually negotiate lower rates for higher-volume storage as your data needs grow.We found substantial variations in the cost and features of online server backups, the main sticking points being storage volume and length of retention (for a side-by-side comparison of the features offered, go to www.nwc. com/go/SE1004RD1.jhtml). Most online services log each incremental backup as a restoration point, and the retention scheme (and cost) is based on the number of iterations available for restoration. For example, on a service with 10 retention levels, files marked for backup remain on the service indefinitely, but only 10 historical versions are available for restoration. A file deleted from that data set will remain available for restore until the 11th incremental backup is made.As a rule, cost is based on the amount of data being stored and the services' retention scheme. The first full backup is usually the most bandwidth-consuming part of the process; for ongoing incremental backups, most services use byte- or block-level file analysis as well as data compression to reduce the size of subsequent transmissions dramatically.
Online backups work well at a variety of speeds. Our test connection ran at about 750 Kbps, but the data- reduction capabilities of the agents we tested would result in reasonable incremental backup windows even at DSL speeds. All the agents we tested are designed to handle interrupted backup transmissions and could theoretically operate over dial-up connections, but from a practical standpoint a company using online server backups should plan on using a symmetrical broadband connection exceeding 100 Kbps.Now Turn Your Head and Cough
To begin our tests, we headed back to our NWC Real-World Labs in Green Bay, Wis. (see "How We Tested Online Backup Services," page 10, for our test-bed setup). We told the service providers up front not to give us any special treatment--as always, we would accept only services offered to ordinary customers.
Our servers' backup/restore agents ensured that our data was compressed and encrypted before it was transmitted to the service providers. This way, the data remained secure on the vendors' servers.
We can't overstate the importance of good password-management procedures to guarantee data access under all circumstances. The online vendors told us that while they can't access your data without authorization, they're prepared to work with you, to the extent their technology allows, to recover data under extreme circumstances, including disaster recovery and employee malfeasance.
The flexibility of disk-to-disk backup and restoration was a great selling point. Most of the providers allowed backups to be scheduled at practically any interval we chose, with LiveVault even offering the option of a continuous backup that transmits information throughout the day as files are modified. We could also set up different backup strategies for fast- and slow-changing data types on the same server and run them concurrently.
Opting to make backups at multiple intervals can also eliminate the need for scheduling lengthy evening backups. This will make the best use of your continuously available IP bandwidth while providing the most current information possible should a server failure occur. Disk-to-disk restorations are very convenient as well because multilevel historical backup data is always immediately accessible, and authorized users can initiate file restorations at their convenience.Ranking the services proved challenging, as each one passed all our backup-and-restore tests. However, we found differences in agent functionality, ease of use, system-management capabilities, cost and retention schemes.
The services vary most in their ability to do hot backups of open databases, messaging services and dynamic OS files. Options run the gamut, so make sure the online service you choose can support your specific database and messaging needs. Many of the services offer machine-state restoration, but the vendor reps we interviewed said most customers opt for data-only backups to avoid the cost of storing replaceable OS and application-related data.
LiveVault, the most expensive service we tested, won our Editor's Choice award for its superior remote-management capabilities, emergency user support, simplified Web-based interface, and substantial database and message-system backup. This was a difficult choice--we were impressed with all the services and would feel confident storing valuable data on any one of them.Since 1993, LiveVault has offered online backup, recovery and electronic vaulting services to large enterprises, remote offices and SMBs (small and midsize businesses). We were impressed by the provider's experience in supporting reliable backups of remote servers where access to IT staff is limited. LiveVault currently provides several levels of storage, ranging from short-term server backups to multiyear, archival accounts in data centers from IBM and Iron Mountain in the United States and BT in the United Kingdom.
The LiveVault agent was the only one for which management was totally Web-based, so we could check on our data from anywhere we had a Web connection. To set up the test server, we simply logged in to our test account on LiveVault's secure "MyLiveVault" management site and added the test server to our LiveVault account; unlike other services, we could configure LiveVault only online. After entering contact and server-specific information and configuring the backup environment, we downloaded an agent installer that was specifically preconfigured for that server and unusable on any other system. This was unique among the services tested--in general, we downloaded agents and configured them on local machines. But as we explored the world of LiveVault, the reasons for this difference became apparent.
As you may have deduced, LiveVault's system is extremely Web-oriented. Configuration changes are initiated through the Web-based user interface, passed through the vault system and returned to your unobtrusive local agent for execution. This makes remote backup-management control a breeze--all local-agent functions are available through an SSL browser session on any system. Our concerns about security were eased when we discovered that LiveVault augments its password-protected Web access with 192-bit AES encryption, electronic keys and digital certificates.Setting up a backup was relatively simple, once we resigned ourselves to the somewhat laggy nature of the Web interface, when tested at multiple broadband locations. We believe the culprit is latency introduced as changes to the configuration are sent from the browser to the online service, then to the host machine and back to the service--and updated on the browser. If you choose to do a complete server backup, the system will configure itself to back up open registry and system state configuration files; this is necessary to LiveVault's emergency system restoration capabilities, and a requirement if you want to use its database-backup capabilities. By default, the agent excluded our backup, temporary and deleted files hanging out in our recycle bin, but we could tweak inclusion/exclusion rules as needed.
We set up our backup scheduling using a simple graphical interface. As with rivals, we could define any combination of hourly, daily and weekly intervals, but only LiveVault supports continuous backups, where file changes are communicated to the off-site backup as they're saved on your local server. This may be useful for servers handling fast-moving transactional data but overkill for a typical remote office or SMB installation. After the initial backup and synchronization, incremental backups were handled using byte-level comparison, with only changes transferred.
LiveVault handles open database, e-mail and system files by means of three tools: proprietary replication technology that captures changes as they occur on the agent computer; software agents that use Microsoft's NT Filter Driver APIs to interact directly with file-system-level functions; and algorithms that run against the data stream to ensure that complete databases, including all associated files, are captured and stored in transactionally safe states. There are also accommodations made to ensure the synchronization of continually backed-up databases, but because of their complexity, these advanced features should be set up during the initial agent configuration with the assistance of a LiveVault technician. According to LiveVault, this functionality works with any relational database.
Restorations are available for files and machine state, and complete system restorations can be done on a replacement server with a base OS build and network connectivity. In an emergency, LiveVault can supply your data on CD-ROM for $25 per gigabyte, or it will ship a NAS device starting at $400 plus shipping. For files with multiple historical iterations, LiveVault guarantees availability of at least one historical save per day, giving customers the option of restoring the most current version of a file or reviewing its historical saves for a specific restoration date. As with all the services in this review, when we went back and checked random files, everything was copacetic, and our full-restores went off without a hitch.
The LiveVault online service is not marketed directly; all direct sales are handled by a network of certified vendor partners. For our tests, we were quoted a price of $199 per month per server for up to 5 Gbytes of storage, based on a 30-day retention plan with no set limit on historical levels. Longer retention plans are available, and though first-level user support is usually provided by vendor partners, direct LiveVault support is available online and through e-mail. The company also offers a free emergency 24/7 telephone support team that will walk you through the process of getting up and running.LiveVault Online Backup and Recovery Service 4. LiveVault Corp., (800) 638-5518, (508) 460-6670. www.livevault.comEVault probably offers the largest selection of online services and licensed product options for data backup and archiving in this review. For example, online users have a choice of EVault Desktop for desktops and laptops, EVault iSeries for AS/400 systems, EVault ProMail for Web-based e-mail and IM supervision and archiving, OurEVault for long-term archiving and disaster recovery, and the EVault Protect service we used for our testing. Secure hosting is at five locations in the United States and Canada, including two SunGard facilities for EVault's banking and financial customers.
Setting up the Protect agent is relatively complex. That's partly because of the provider's delta-sampling technology, but bad GUI design is also to blame. For example, the tree displayed in the main interface window is a representation of systems and processes, rather than the simplified file tree many will expect, and setting up even the most common backup task is a multilayered chore. A few wizards would ease the process for less savvy users; until then, it's worth enlisting the assistance of an EVault technician when setting up your first vault and backup tasks.
File and directory restorations required some of the same multilevel configuration, and even though we had the option of restoring files to another machine on our network, EVault doesn't offer any Web-based monitoring, restoration or backup-management options. So much for restoring files in our pajamas. System-level restorations were available from a base OS install, once we had installed and properly configured a new agent.
For sampling incremental backups, EVault offers two proprietary tools: QuickFile Sampling, which does a fast scan to look for files that have changed since the last backup; and DeltaPro, which scans the file in 4-kilobyte blocks and communicates only blocks that have changed to a historically indexed Storage Pool on the remote server.
The Protect agent supports plug-ins that enable hot-backup capabilities for Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server and Oracle. Open-file support for system files and other applications is possible using St. Bernard's Open File Manager.A Protect account for our test server cost $156 per month for up to 5 Gbytes of data, based on a 24-generation retention policy. EVault pointed out that our small test server would likely be assigned to an entry-level SMB service at $50 per month that supports only seven generations of restoration. EVault has recently announced a number of services aimed at customers with records requiring special handling for long-term archiving, life-cycle management, legal compliance and business continuity purposes.
Standard phone and e-mail support is available Monday through Friday, excluding U.S. holidays, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. After-hours support is available but may be subject to additional fees, while priority phone support is available 24/7.EVault Protect. EVault, (877) 382-8581, (925) 944-2422. www.evault.com
Hidden in yet another undisclosed location somewhere near Victoria, British Columbia, is the massive archive facility of DBFT (Data Base File Tech Group), whose InfoSure service is the only non-U.S. offering we tested. Known as "the Fort Knox of the North," the facility houses Canada's Federal Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness, as well as emergency backup for the Canadian Joint Rescue Coordination Center.
InfoSure is based on Atempo's Time Manager Software, which takes an approach to backups we found more complex than the norm, but well-suited to those requiring long-term file archiving. To set up an InfoSure account, our server's address had to be publicly routable, which we accomplished by setting up simple one-to-one address translation and forwarding the single TCP and UDP ports the system requires. This was necessary because the InfoSure system was the only one in our test group where backup-and-restore actions were initiated by the remote storage system rather than locally.
Although this dedicated connection to an off-site backup server may raise security eyebrows in some organizations, the provider contends it's not an issue because access is needed for two unique port addresses and nothing else, and those ports are bound to a single, specific and monitored application. The setup and configuration of the Atempo agent make InfoSure the most IT-intensive service of our group, but we feel it's also the most powerful when it comes to long-term archiving and information life-cycle management. Still, the complexity hurt InfoSure in our scoring.
Learning to use the InfoSure agent took a bit of an adjustment, because even though the interface looked like a basic file tree, it was really a representation of our online archive's data state relative to the time and date set in the Date Control window. Like a Wayback Machine (remember Mr. Peabody and Sherman?), we could use the date control to scroll through our backup history and select specific time-based restorations from as many as 28 levels of historical recovery. There was even a handy indicator to show whether we were in the past or present--a feature that would be helpful in the real world for some people we know.We selected files for backup by creating a backup "class," InfoSure's name for defining a group of files and folders with filtering. In defining a class, the software theoretically lets us choose from among four backup strategies. Unfortunately, there really was only one option available--that strategy was predefined by InfoSure, which reserved the right to establish our automated backup schedule based on mutual convenience. While this policy is undoubtedly effective for load-balancing InfoSure's internal usage, it will be unpopular with managers who prefer to control their own backup windows.
On the plus side, the agent offers many advanced capabilities and has native tools for managing hot backups on a number of messaging platforms, including Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint Portal Server and IBM Lotus Notes/Domino, as well as databases like Oracle, IBM DB2, Informix, Sybase, Teradata and Microsoft SQL Server. If that's not enough, InfoSure offers cluster support for data protection in high-availability environments--HP MCSG, HP OpenVMS Cluster, HP TruCluster, IBM HACMP, Microsoft Cluster Services, Sun Cluster and others--as well as support for all major Unix, Linux and Windows platforms.
Like setup and configuration, pricing is somewhat complicated. After the initial setup fee, costs are calculated based on a monthly charge per server, plus storage and data transfers. For our test server, the tab came to $55.12 per month plus a one-time setup charge of $133.80 for one computer backing up as much as 2 Gbytes of data, with 20 percent incremental change each month (all prices converted to U.S. dollars).
Restorations are billed separately at a cost of $8.60 per Gbyte of data transferred, and data retention is based on 28-day storage for incremental data, after which that data is remotely concatenated into a "synthetic full backup," which is stored for 56 days. Additional levels of retention are available, ranging from years to decades, and DBFT even offers direct computer-to-microfilm transfers for those needing records archived into the next century. Technical support is available 24/7 by phone and online. There's emergency data restoration by CD-ROM, and the company offers premium bare-metal server restoration on a case-by-case quote basis.
InfoSure. Data Base File Tech Group, (800) 661-0272. www.infosure.comThe IBackup online backup service is hosted at the mirrored facilities of the Exodus Communications Internet Data Center at El Segundo, Calif. Operating since 1999, IBackup offers online storage for individual and SOHO users, as well as secure online workgroup and server data storage for SMBs.The IBackup for Windows agent is a more secure and configurable extension of Pro-Softnet's simplified online data-storage service, which remains at the core of its storage methodology. Downloading and setting up the agent took us only a few minutes, with file selection based on a basic file-tree interface that will be familiar to Windows users. The IBackup agent didn't provide us with any tools to back up dynamic system state or database files, so we were limited to static data files. However, IBackup recently released an Exchange Server Backup Utility that lets customers create live backups of Exchange data.
After we did an initial full backup, incremental transfers used a block-level comparison algorithm that transferred only modified file contents. One neat capability was the SnapShots feature, which let us capture views of data for point-in-time file restoration.
It was easy to configure the intervals for scheduling unattended backups. For interserver communications, the agent used 128-bit SSL encryption by default. In addition it used Microsoft's CryptoAPI to encrypt files in storage, and could support 56- or 128-bit key lengths depending on the platform.
The IBackup service differed from rivals in that after our initial backup data was transmitted, the data set was treated like any other remote storage. This offered a rather frightening amount of access. For example, with proper password authentication, we could log on to our account and edit the online data set and files--cutting, copying, moving and deleting as if it were normally attached storage. We could restore to other systems, create subaccounts and publish data to public Web folders (with an upgrade to a basic account). Feel the power.
Of course, this freedom is a double-edged sword: It doesn't fit the classic model of write-only data backups, and it may make some security managers apoplectic. Heck, most services don't even let you delete stored files! But in IBackup's defense, the flip side to opening the door to human error is that the IBackup model offers the most flexibility for repurposing your data, should you choose to do so.IBackup also logged in as the least expensive service we tested, with our test server costing only $14.94 per month for up to 4 Gbytes of storage, based on a basic backup account with a 10-day retention scheme. There are other service and retention plans available, and technical support is offered via Web, e-mail and online chat, with telephone support on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific.
IBackup for Windows 7.0.4. Pro-Softnet Corp., (800) 949-3555, (818) 594-5972. www.ibackup.comA familiar name in the backup industry, Connected offers a variety of online backup service options for single computers, SMBs and servers. It also markets a fully licensed version of its DataProtector product, which provides the back-end tools necessary to support either an enterprise-level private or standalone public online backup service. For its own online services, Connected operates two pairs of mirrored data centers, one in the United States and one overseas, that are based on disk arrays of the company's own design, with each pair currently capable of storing more than 1.8 petabytes of data.
We found the DataProtector agent easy to install, and the user interface was very navigable. Download and installation took only a few minutes; as part of the information-gathering process we entered a key string for the encryption process and provided contact information for support. After installing the agent, our system automatically connected to the remote server to confirm the account and then proceeded into a configuration wizard, which walked us through the initial file-selection and scheduling process.
The default file-selection rules did a good job of choosing relevant data files and excluding swap, temp and other unimportant transient files. We could manually request backups or schedule them to run automatically on a daily basis, with the option to black out specific days or times. The DataProtector agent provided us with tools to manage backup of open files, but no support for open database backups--we would have to use application-level backup methods independently for databases or mail services and then archive those flat files online. Another limitation was its lack of support for OSs other than Windows. The service provider says it will address these issues in future versions.
Connected uses two proprietary techniques for reducing the amount of data that must be sent after the initial full backup: Its Delta Block technology examined our files and selected only those blocks of data that had changed, while the SendOnce technology logged a pool of common files across multiple agents by file name, size and date, and stored only one copy of identical files. After initially populating the pool with a full backup, all future backups use a pointer to reference the existing pool copy rather than storing a new copy--much better than paying to store multiple iterations of identical application and system files as well as duplicate data files.We could do restorations at file- or folder-level, and we were allowed to choose from as many as 10 historical levels of restoration for files modified between backups. We could also retrieve files between machines and across accounts, or restore to a remote online target using Connected's iRoam technology, an optional Web-based utility that supports remote file management. We administered our server backup accounts remotely using Connected's handy online support center; available tasks included reviewing logs, managing user access and editing configuration of agents on each of our servers.
Connected lets you write file restorations to CD-ROM, at a cost of $24.95 for three CDs, plus shipping and handling. Disk restores are not selective, so if additional CDs are required to hold your total backups, there's a charge of $20 per CD.
The cost of the Connected service for our scenario is $35 per month per server for up to 10 Gbytes, based on a 90-day retention policy with 10 levels of historical data. User support is available online and through e-mail, and free telephone support is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET. Premium after-hours configuration support is also available for $1.95 per minute, but charges do not apply for billing, account or password-related problems.
Connected DataProtector Subscription Service 7.1.5. Connected Corp., (800) 934-0956, (508) 808-7300. www.connected.com
Founded in 2000, Global Data Vault Corp. focuses on the business user. Its dataVault service is based on NovaStor's NovaNet-Web backup software system. Customer data is stored in a pair of high-security data centers, located in undisclosed locations somewhere near Denver. Apparently, had they told us where, they'd have had to kill us.
Setting up the dataVault/NovaStor agent was a breeze--initial configuration required only that we enter basic server and account data. We were then prompted to set up our desired level of encryption and password management. We could use either DES or Triple DES encryption, but the system defaults to heavy-duty 448-bit Blowfish. We were also given the option to use our account password as the key or set up a separate encryption key.Wizards guided us through most basic backup-and- restore functions. The default configurations were acceptable--even backup novices shouldn't go too far astray. The service is oriented to data-only backups, however, so we found no tools to capture machine state or open database and e-mail service files. If necessary, dataVault does support open file capture through the purchase of optional St. Bernard Open File Manager software, but basic service supports only static data backups.
Incremental backups are handled using NovaStor's FastBIT binary patching technology, which compared our files to the original full backup and extracted "patches" of binary data that represent only specific changes, reducing both transfer times and off-site storage requirements. We could schedule backups at multiple times throughout the day, or in any combination of daily or weekly increments.
File restoration was simple and wizard-driven, and we had the option of 14 iterative restoration levels. In addition, dataVault supports Web-based restoration; we could log in to our archive and restore data from any remote computer. This online feature also supports data deletion from the online archive, a relatively different--and dangerous--ability that should be treated with respect.
The cost of dataVault's online backup service was $29 per month for up to 2 Gbytes of stored data, based on a standard backup account with a 14-level historical retention scheme--equating to 14 days in a daily backup strategy. Extended retention is available, as are discounts for high-volume accounts. Technical support is available online, through e-mail or chat session; and 24/7 emergency telephone assistance is available at no charge, though after-hour callers may experience a nominal wait while the provider pages a technician for a callback.
dataVault. Global Data Vault Corp., (888) 861-3040, (970) 375-0111. www.globaldatavault.comSteven Hill owns and operates ToneCurve Technology, a digital imaging consulting company. Write to him at [email protected].Data backups are a most unglamorous part of IT, yet this task requires extreme consistency and commitment--companies that take this responsibility lightly do so at their peril. Still, even the most diligent IT manager can be tempted to cut corners when faced with maintaining backups at remote and IT-support-challenged locations. It's with this poor soul in mind that we set out to compare six top providers of online server backup services to find out what peace of mind they may offer.
The services from Connected Corp., Data Base File Tech Group, EVault, Global Data Vault, LiveVault Corp. and Pro-Softnet Corp. allayed our fears about data security and 24/7 availability--they all fulfilled every criteria for security and functionality in terms of data file backup and restoration. The only major difference is in how well their cost and features list mesh with your enterprise-specific backup and user-support requirements; in a few cases, software complexity may require some IT chops.
We picked LiveVault as our Editor's Choice. We liked how its simple Web-based interface provided powerful remote-management capabilities, and its comprehensive user and database support justified its slightly higher price.For our online server backup test, we set up a rack of six identical Dell OptiPlex GX1 600-Mhz Pentium servers, each with 256 megabytes of RAM and running Windows 2000 Advanced Server patched to the current levels. We then loaded each server with an 800-Mbyte test data folder holding a combination of basic Office documents, large PowerPoint shows, Acrobat files, digital images and a 200-Mbyte Outlook file. After contacting the vendors, we set up and configured agents for each of the services according to their specifications.
Next, we set up an initial full backup of the entire server, using the table of inclusions and exclusions as specified in each agent's default "Full Backup" methodology; scheduled the agents to run once; and set them at 12-hour intervals to avoid overlapping our bandwidth. After reviewing the logs to confirm the successful conclusion of the initial backup, we made changes to the data in the original test folder, including edits, deletions and additions. After writing the changes to each test server, we scheduled and ran an incremental backup of the same "Full Backup" data set and reviewed the logs.
We then confirmed the existence of both historical data sets, deleted the test data from our servers and, after a few days, set up and ran a complete restoration of the deleted test folder. The final step was to examine the logs and then make a bit-count comparison of the deleted and restored test data folders to determine success.
R E V I E W
Online Backup Services
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