Important Things to Know About SAN Storage

Any network storage is a very important aspect of an enterprise’s health and productivity. With a really good storage management solution, enterprises and small businesses can maximize server performance and be prepared in case of a disaster and such a solution is SAN storage as it helps greatly in achieving the goals of the enterprise.

What is SAN Storage Really?

SAN storage, in simpler terms, is a high-speed network that is dedicated and connects data storage tools with larger networks. SAN storage facilitates the communication between computer systems and networks by connecting to pools of storage via SAN switches.

SAN Storage Functions

SAN storage has many functions apart from just communicating between storage devices and computers. SAN storage exhibits several other distinctive functions as well, such as the following:

-        SAN storage conducts application traffic and as well as administrative traffic also.  

-        SAN storage operates a wide range of network technologies which range from ethernet to Fibre Channel (FC).

-        SAN storage connects diverse types of storage devices which includes robotic libraries, RAID subsystems, file servers and tape drives.

The versatility of SAN storage encourages innovation in many ways. This leads to sustained developments in processing and storage of digital information and benefits the enterprise in many ways.

SAN Storage Characteristics

-        SAN storage solutions  incorporates multipurpose servers instead of single servers or dedicated servers used by other storage networks.

-        SAN storage uses open operating systems whereas other storage networks such as NAS uses propriety operating systems.

-        SAN storage is fairly easy to upgrade as compared to other storage networks,

-        SAN uses a wide range of protocols including fiber channel, ethernet and hyperSCSI.

-        SAN storage uses block protocol, which means that SAN storage can use detached and high-speed networks to transport data in blocks to the storage arrays. Other than this, SAN storage application servers host their file systems directly which saves additional passage of data through another server.

SAN Storage Can Improve Enterprise Performance

-        Improved Disk Utilization: SAN storage offers improved disk utilization. It offers a more effective and efficient use of resources.

-        Disaster Recovery: SAN storage lets enterprises recover data from multiple appliances a lot quickly as compared to other storage networks.

-        Application Availability: SAN storage, thanks to data protection algorithms, keeps data consistent and accessible, all the time.

-        Increase Backup Speed: With SAN storage, enterprises can backup large amounts of data in fairly less amount of time.

Conclusion

SAN storage can be very beneficial for any enterprise that chooses to adopt it. Even though it can be a little costly, the payoff is quite worth it as it offers a secure, organized and more accessible network that most storage networks cannot offer.

How to Secure Your NAS Storage Solution?

It is very common to see enterprises these days use enterprise NAS storage systems which is a good thing as these storage solutions offer a lot of features and benefits. However, it is also important to address the security concerns that come along NAS storage solutions.

In this article we address some of those concerns and highlight some helpful tips for securing your NAS storage solution.

Set-up Authentication in Enterprise NAS Storage

First up is setting up some sort of authentication for your NAS storage system. A Two-step or two-factor authentication is usually recommended. It is basically a layer of protection that requires a user to not only give the login and password credentials to log-in to the system but also has to provide another device number, for example, a smartphone, or serial number to further authenticate the user. It adds an additional layer to the safety of the NAS storage system and also adds authenticity to the user trying to log-in to the system.

Use a Firewall for Enterprise NAS Storage

Along with adopting modern measures to keep the NAS storage system secure, the basic and more general precautionary measures must also not be ignored. Setting up a firewall is one of them and is always a good option to keep the data secure. It makes sure that no external user or spam tries to access the system and usually notifies when something similar happens.

Keep Enterprise NAS Storage on Local Network

Putting enterprise NAS storage off the internet is a very important thing to do for the users to reduce the risks of ransomware attacks or any other malicious attack or data breach. It makes it difficult to attack the NAS system when it is not kept on the network that is not shared publicly and just is limited to the local network of the businesses.

Conclusion

Keeping NAS storage systems safe, secure and protected from malicious activities, ransomware attacks and data breaches is easy and achievable, provided enterprises take the simple necessary steps and do not ignore and underestimate the vigilance of the attackers and cyber-criminals.

There are many vendors like StoneFly that offer enterprise NAS storage solutions that are safe, secure and reliable due to the many data services they offer like; storage encryption, snapshots, built-in ransomware protection and so much more. This makes StoneFly NAS storage solutions a good fit for enterprises that want a reliable and secure NAS storage solution.

Cloud Backup Software Can Solve DR Challenges- Here’s How

Cloud Disaster Recovery (DR) is seen as a vital part of any business that deals with mission-critical data. However, before recovery of data can be made, it is first important to figure out what exactly needs to be backed up and how to overcome the challenges associated with data backup and recovery. Businesses need a plan to follow in order to ensure efficient data recovery backup and cloud backup software can help with that.

Create a Cloud Backup Plan

Before you get started with anything, it is first important to create a cloud backup plan first. There is no way to achieve efficient backups without having any backup plan on what to exactly backup.

It is good idea to note down what exactly needs to be protected and how quick data recovery is required to be. This is done by calculating Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs).

Understanding all these factors can help greatly in formulating a cloud backup solution and cloud backup plan for ensuring efficient recovery of backup data, whenever it is needed.

Granularity & Recovery of Data

Another very important thing that needs to be done is that restoring from cloud backups should be made available on a granular level, rather than individually. It is not feasible to pull back gigabytes of Virtual Machines (VMs) for a single file or some small number of files. This will prove to be very costly and time-consuming in the long run.

The good news however, is that most cloud vendors do allow this, so it won’t be an issue when getting a cloud backup solution as a standard feature when opting for a cloud backup vendor.

Costs Reductions with Cloud Backup Software

Cloud backup can be costly in the long run and for companies on a budget, especially Smaller to Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) this can be a hurdle. A solution to this is to have a cloud backup software, rather than an appliance which can offer backup and DR in a must budget-friendly price. This will allow organizations to reduce the costs while also retaining the ability to failover in a true disaster recovery scenario.

 

In Conclusion

Data recovery is considered as a vital tool for businesses and it is very important for the business that it actually works, in fact, it is a top priority. Creating a data backup plan, maintaining granularity with cloud backups and utilizing a cloud backup software solution, rather than a dedicated backup appliance can greatly help overcome the challenges of cloud data recovery and ensure smooth recovery of mission-critical data while also staying on a budget.

Why Cloud Backup Storage Makes Sense?

Nowadays, more and more enterprises and businesses are looking to bolster their security and data protection strategies and in doing so, they need a reliable place to store their backup data, and cloud backup storage is becoming a preferred choice. This is because the cloud offers multiple benefits such as; flexibility, scalability and greater accessibility.

Why Use Cloud Backup Storage for Backups?

The short answer to this is reliability and cost-effectiveness. The long answer, however, is that using cloud backup storage to store backups offers a performance boost as it optimizes data transfer speeds through the use of compression, data deduplication, rate limits, bandwidth throttling and much more.

Furthermore, data is also very secure as cloud backup storage offers reliable data protection offers advanced data encryption which means that only the authorized personnel can access data backups.

Other than this, thanks to the use of compression, deduplication and etc., data transfer speeds are much faster. Which means that the recovery of data is also very fast, resulting in faster Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs).

Cloud Backup Storage- Easy Deployment & Scalability

Cloud backup storage is easy to deploy. There are no difficult procedures or high costs. This makes it ideal for Small to Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) as they are always on a tight budget and cloud backup storage can help them get a reliable storage for their data.

Furthermore, businesses can also avail the option of scalability. This means that they can start off small and use only the services and features that they need right now and can always upgrade to more services if needed in future. This also applies to storage. Businesses can easily scale up more storage and meet their storage needs when required.

Make Sure to Protect Cloud Backup Storage Also

Backing up data is not the final step in the data protection strategy. Users also need to make sure that they protect their cloud backup storage as well. This is because cyber-attackers are now targeting cloud backup storage as well so users need to protect their cloud backup storage before its too late. One tip is to back up the cloud backup storage in order to avoid any inconvenience.

Conclusion

Cloud storage is a great option for businesses that are looking for a reliable place to store their data while also staying on a budget. It offers many additional features like encryption, deduplication, scalability and more, and is fairly easy to deploy as well. Although, while it is secure, it is still a good idea to back up the cloud backup storage as well in order to get that extra layer of protection.

Cloud Backup & Ransomware- Is Cloud Backup Enough?

With the rapid increase in ransomware, cyber-attackers are targeting everyone from multinational enterprises to schools, malls and even Small to Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs). To protect against these attacks, enterprises and even SMBs need to back up their data and cloud backup has made this task fairly easy. However, is backing up to the cloud enough to protect against ransomware? Let’s find out.

Is Cloud Backup Reliable?

To answer this question briefly, yes cloud backup is reliable but it has its limitations. Many businesses have made the switch to cloud backup solutions and while cloud backup is a reliable off-site solution, it should not be the only off-site solution.

This, however, does not mean that cloud backups are not reliable. They are very reliable in many ways but just like any other solutions, they also have their limitations.

For instance, cloud backups can not be backed up or recovered if there is no internet. So, this must be kept in mind when adopting a cloud backup solution.

The 3-2-1 Backup Rule

The well known 3-2-1 backup rule is very famous but experts now suggest that it should be modified a bit and it should change to 3-2-1-1 backup rule. Now, this rule states that there should be at least 3 copies of data in 2 different storage media where 1 of the copy but be stored off-site and 1 should be offline.

Is Cloud Backup Effective Against Ransomware?

Ransomware typically works by encrypting files and other forms of data and hold them hostage until a ransom payment is made by the victim. This payment is usually made in Bitcoins which makes it impossible to trace the cyber-attackers and this is one the reasons why paying these cyber-attackers is not recommended.

One of the biggest benefits of cloud backups is that they are stored off-site, off the business network which gives them an added layer of security. What this means is that ransomware can’t affect the backup files as they are off the network of the company.

This, however, doesn’t necessary mean that cloud backups are immune to ransomware attacks, they too can get infected. So, a recommended approach is to use hybrid cloud backup approach in which 1 copy is also offline in case something happens to cloud backups as well.

Conclusion

Ransomware attacks are growing so rapidly that if businesses don’t act now and protect their data, it might be too late. Getting a cloud backup solution is not enough. In order to ensure reliable protection from ransomware a hybrid cloud backup approach is recommended while also following the modified 3-2-1-1 backup rule.

Server Cloud Backups for SMBs- A Great Combo

Data loss can happen to any business, especially when there are so many reasons for data loss such as natural disasters, ransomware attacks, human errors and more. All of these reasons make backup and Disaster Recovery (DR) extremely important especially for servers.

Small to Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) are no exception to data loss and they require ransomware protection and data loss protection also as their data is also valuable to them. However, certain budget limitations usually restrict them to get a full-fledged backup and DR appliance or solution in which they can back up all of their data and servers.

However, there are some server cloud backup solutions from vendors like StoneFly that offer budget friendly server cloud backups which can act as a savior for SMBs with smaller budgets.

Server Cloud Backup- Great Option for SMBs

Server cloud backup is a great online backup and DR solution for SMBs. As it is affordable, reliable and is easy to use, offering many additional features as well.

The main reason why it is recommended to SMBs is that it is the affordability nature of it. This way, SMBs won’t have to go overboard with their budget in order to get a good server cloud backup solution for their business.

Active Protection Against Data Loss with Server Cloud Backup

Data loss is bound to happen without any data loss protection as there are so many threats of data loss and for SMBs that do not want to lose their mission-critical data and servers, server cloud backup is their best bet as ransomware attacks and data loss can target servers as well so it is best to protect everything beforehand, including servers otherwise, all data would be lost.

Server cloud backup enables SMBs to effectively back up all of their data and servers, whether they are Windows servers or Linux servers, so that they can fight ransomware and recover from their backups without having to pay any hefty amount of ransom money.

Furthermore, SMBs also won’t have to worry about facing any excessive amount of downtime either as with most server cloud backup solutions, businesses are able to recover from backups and continue operations.

Additionally, in the event of a natural disaster, they can even recover their data remotely and continue operations from elsewhere even if their primary site is inaccessible. So, sever cloud backups can offer SMBs a lot more than just backing up data.

Conclusion

Server cloud backup is a great solution for SMBs that are looking to back up and protect their data from the many threats of data loss in a most affordable and reliable way. It offers complete ransomware and data loss protection and offers many features which helps SMBs stay operational even during a disaster.

How to Choose the Best Enterprise NAS Storage for Your Business

 “The cost effective nature of NAS storage makes it a preferred choice among enterprises.” Said Technavio’s lead analyst Rakesh Kumar

Storage drives and storage technology is evolving day by day, similarly the capability of enterprise Network Attached Storage (NAS) for storing data is increasing proportionally. Businesses are always searching for optimized storage solutions. Choosing the right kind of enterprise NAS storage is important for managing enterprise-grade workloads.

SMEs, SMBs, and large organizations can leverage enterprise NAS storage technology for a variety of use-cases and applications. When it comes to choosing the NAS most suited for your business, it may be a bit difficult to pick the right kind of NAS storage without proper guidance.

Consider these questions when choosing an enterprise NAS storage for your business:

Ø  How much storage capacity is needed?

It may sound simple but this question warrants a great deal of preparation and forecasting. Do it wrong and your business ends up with fat provisioned storage resources that consume space, resources, and add no immediate value. Do it right and you get exactly what your business needs; immediately adding value and using resources affectively.

 

 In terms of forecasting storage capacity, file-level storage or NAS storage is ideal because of its scalability. The ability to scale file-level infrastructure enables businesses to setup storage as per their immediate requirements and they can scale when their storage requirements grow. 

A thing to note here is that the ability to scale depends on the vendor and the NAS storage technology. For instance, StoneFly offers a NAS storage solution that can scale into petabytes and they can set it up as a redundant appliance too; giving users the ability to dually scale (performance + storage capacity) their storage infrastructure. 

How “flexible” is the enterprise NAS storage

Enterprise NAS storage can be called “flexible” if it can adapt and accommodate in accordance to businesses’ requirements. Here’s a brief list of what a good enterprise NAS storage solution should offer as a standard:

• Compatibility with mainstream servers and software.
• Built-in cloud connect and support for enterprise clouds like Azure cloud storage, AWS cloud, and others.
• Configurable as an All-Flash, Hybrid (SSD/Flash + SAS/Hard drives), and pure SAS/hard drive NAS.
• Should support High Availability (HA) configuration and multi-path connections.
• Should offer data services such as erasure coding, snapshots, replication, and encryption.
• Should have a modular, redundant, and hot-swappable architecture. 

You might be thinking, that’s a big list. Are there really any enterprise NAS storage solutions out there that provide all of these desired features? Well yes, StoneFly SSO™ NAS delivers these and more.

Conclusion

In the end, every business has their own set of requirements. That’s why what works for most may not work for your business. It is very important to first analyze and understand what your business needs when it comes to data storage. And then begin the search for the ideal enterprise NAS storage.

However, regardless of the industry and the use-case, there are some attributes that should be a part of an enterprise-level NAS storage solution. A NAS appliance has to be flexible enough so that it’s future-proof and has the ability to scale as the business data grows. It has to be reliable so that in the event of hardware failure, the business doesn’t have to endure data loss.

These two are the most important attributes of an ideal enterprise NAS storage solution and a must-have for all businesses.