Given the continued growth of the firm’s data, Qbit was becoming concerned that the systems we had installed 8 years ago were aging, and the recovery time, if required, would be long and costly.
Qbit approached the in-house IT manager suggesting that we replace the backup systems with a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery system. We then created a business continuity plan for the business. The customer had a mix of virtual machines and Physical machines, both Windows and Linux, and approx. 8TB of data spread over 12 servers. It was important to the customer to keep the archiving ability of the previous system, and we explained that this was also a feature of the proposed system. In addition to traditional backup, restore, and archive functionality, the proposed new solution could also have the customer’s business critical servers up and running again in under an hour, in the case of the production hardware failing.
Qbit’s proposed solution included a Datto Siris device, and as premium partners of Datto, we were able to get them sharp pricing on the system. The customer now has their local servers backed up to this Datto device, installed in a rack in their server room. Images are then transferred to the secure Datto data centers, located within Australia in Melbourne and Sydney during office hours using controlled bandwidth to ensure no impact on business systems. This bandwidth is then increased after hours and on weekends, to create virtual standby servers. These servers can then be started in the event the local office becomes unavailable in the case of disaster, thus running the business from the cloud as needed.
Every night the Datto Siris device automatically starts the replicated standby servers and takes a screenshot of the login page and emails it to the client to prove the validity of the standby servers.
Below are a few example scenarios to consider, and methods that can be employed to recover from them:
- Problem
- Crypto Locker infects a production server. Datto prevents the replica image from being encrypted.
- Solution
- Shut the infected server down and start the replicated server from the time just before the encryption occurred. The replica will run on the Datto Siris device while continuing to back up and transfer files to the Datto data centers. During a quiet time, the server can then be migrated back to the production hardware, including any real-time changes made to data.
Recovery Point Objective: 15 minutes before the disaster occurred
Recovery Time Objective: 30 minutes after disaster reported to Qbit
- Problem
- Production hardware fails, and all servers shut down
- Solution
- Start the replicas on the local Datto Siris device, and continue backing up on the Datto Siris device and transferring files to the Datto Data Centres. During a quiet time migrate the servers back to the production hardware.
Recovery Point Objective: 15 minutes before the disaster occurred
Recovery Time Objective: 45 minutes after it is determined that production hardware cannot be utilised
- Problem
- The production server room catches fire at 4 am and all IT equipment is destroyed.
- Solution
- Can start the servers in the Datto Cloud. This can be connected via VPN to a terminal server in the Qbit Data Centre. Most staff can now work from home, or anywhere they can get an internet connection, while repairs are made to the server room.
Recovery Point Objective: Last completed off-site backup at 10 pm the previous night
Recovery Time Objective: 90 minutes to start servers in the cloud and arrange VPN access
- Problem
- The old client returned but you deleted all the files when they left two years ago
- Solution
- Your Datto was installed 3 years ago, and the company chose infinite retention.
Recovery Point Objective: 2 years ago
Recovery Time Objective: 4 hours after Qbit notified of which files need to be recovered from the Datto cloud.
The client’s name and a reference can be provided upon request.
