Never Break the Chain: Ending Broken Backup Chains

By Datto Guest Blog 2

“I can still hear you sayin’ … you would never break the chain.” Ok, I’m either totally dating myself, or you’re starting to sing Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain”.  The song was on their hit album Rumours, released in 1977.  You may or may not be singing Fleetwood Mac, but have you ever sung the broken backup chain blues? As a managed service provider (MSP) or IT service provider, time is money.  No doubt you’d rather spend time securing new clients than wasting time managing broken backup chains.

For one Datto Partner, problems with broken backup chains was reason enough to switch his backup, and disaster recovery (BDR) vendor.  Don Bentz, co-founder of Preferred IT Group, experienced too many broken chains, forcing him to basically start over, reseed the local unit and pray they could off-site the new backup quickly; or have to process a round trip drive again.  In Don’s words, “It was painful, more so than going to the dentist.”

After moving to Datto SIRIS, the chain issues were solved.  The Datto SIRIS backup process eliminates the area where most problems arise in the traditional backup process: the backup chain. Datto SIRIS takes data and converts it directly into a virtual machine each time a backup occurs. The most recent backup image is always the base image and does not rely on past incrementals to restore data. Since each backup is a fully bootable virtual machine, there is no need for a conversion to occur before performing a restore. With no complicated rollup or restore processes, data is always available immediately both on-site and off-site.

Datto’s unique Continuous Protection approach to storing data in a simple, nondependent backup chain allows recovery from all data points.  This makes the process more seamless, both for MSPs and their clients.  In addition, Datto’s Inverse Chain Technology ensures a series of locked snapshots are created, holding unique data with a full backup at the top of the chain.  This allows users to take advantage of the full space of their device and store more snapshots, giving them the ability to set custom backup schedules and customize their backups.

But Don puts in best, it’s “simple, quick and not painful at all – well a little pain as I was smiling so hard!”   Read more about Preferred IT’s success with leaving the broken chains behind.

I leave you with another verse of “The Chain”.  Keep it in mind next time you’re singing the backup chain blues.

“And if you don't love me now

You will never love me again;

I can still hear you saying

We must never break the chain.”

“The Chain” lyrics found at:

http://www.elyrics.net/read/f/fleetwood-mac-lyrics/the-chain-lyrics.html

Holly Wainwright is Content Marketing Manager at Datto. Datto Inc. is an award-winning vendor of backup, data recovery (BDR) and intelligent business continuity (IBC) solutions, providing  technology and support to more than 5,000 channel Partners throughout North America and Europe. Datto’s hybrid-cloud BDR/IBC technology provides instant on- and off-site virtualization of servers and workstations, serving the needs of small to medium-sized businesses.