Backups and Data Migration: Strategy for Success

Many companies choose to move old backup data to a new platform that provides better functionality and support or simply superior integration with their storage environment. This will result in cost savings through the retirement of the old backup software maintenance as well as data centre resources and management overheads. All the while, it provides a key opportunity to decide what data needs to be preserved and what is redundant, outdated or trivial.

During this process, therefore, adopting both the right backup data migration strategy and the most efficient software will, in turn, enable intelligent management and easy access to relevant data. In terms of tools, VMware is always a safe bet, as it is the virtualization platform most widely used – offering multiple features and extensive APIs for data protection. Now we’ve established a means to get there, what is the best approach to moving old backup data to a newer, more current format?

Game plan

What we’re talking about here is converting old file formats into new file formats. So how do you do it? In short, you don’t. Let’s use a case study as an example. A database has been running on a physical machine, and this has been backed with legacy backup software and kept for seven years, as required by the company’s data protection policy. This same physical machine is then virtualized to a data centre and then, subsequently migrated to a VMware database.

The next step is creating new backups using VMware workloads and modern back up software, but on the old data – is where it gets tricky. When you attempt to restore old data from equally old backups, you’ll discover that these will be stored in a proprietary format, which unfortunately, only legacy backup software can comprehend. So, you’ve officially hit a brick wall, or have you? Here, you have two options.

The first, you can restore seven years’ worth of backups on to a physical machine, migrate each restored database version to VMware, then back it up with modern software to create new backups. Simultaneously, you should be documenting how backups in the new format map to backups in the old format. Although, regrettably, this option tends to be somewhat unrealistic: the process is time-consuming and simply impractical.

The most efficient way – also the recommended way – would be to keep your legacy back up software along with the old backups and physical box (hidden somewhere in a corner locked away!) so if ever needed, you can easily restore it. If that ever happens, you may need to migrate restored data to VMware, depending on the reason for the restore. With this approach, after seven long years, you would have effectively rid yourself of your legacy backup software, along with the old back-ups and that hefty physical box. I’d call that a success!

A speedy recovery?

Having a backup solution is always a smart idea. However, when that backup takes between weeks and months, there’s a problem. The factors with the biggest effect on backup speeds are the amount of data being backed up, the hard drive and its workload, and the available bandwidth.

As a result, backup speeds vary widely. Typically, based on the sheer number of files being backed up, initial backups are likely to take the longest amount of time. However, this is the case for any backup of a large amount of data. Take a large bank, for example. In its environment, backup speed can reach 26 Gbit/s. At this speed, 1 TB of data is transferred in around 5 minutes. On average, SMB

customers schedule backups every day during non-working hours to capture data created or modified during the day. Therefore, backups can take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours to complete – it just depends on the size.

So, when trying to achieve a faster backup, there’s little you can do about the speed offered by an online backup service. However, there are ways you can work around this issue. For one, you can look for a service with better infrastructure if unsatisfactory systems are causing the biggest impact on the speed in your current backup service.

Data migrations and backups can be huge (and difficult) projects, and when dealing with sensitive and critical data, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’ve got a plan in place to migrate and backup your data as securely as possible. Having a successful strategy in place, to assess all the potential problems and resolutions, is the first step to managing your data effectively.

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NAKIVO is a US-based corporation dedicated to delivering the ultimate backup and site recovery solution. With 20 consecutive quarters of double-digit growth, 5-star online community reviews, 98% customer satisfaction with support, and more than 16,000 paid customers worldwide, NAKIVO provides an unprecedented level of protection for virtual, physical, cloud and SaaS environments. As one of the fastest-growing data protection software vendors in the industry, NAKIVO provides a data protection solution for major companies such as Coca-Cola, Honda, and SpaceX, in addition to working with over 5,000 channel partners in 140 countries.

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