ChelseaGirl
Technical User
Does anyone use this product, and how have you found it ?
Good, Bad, happy to hear of any sort of Experiance
Good, Bad, happy to hear of any sort of Experiance
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VBAK - Does anyone use it ? 3
- Thread starter ChelseaGirl
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2
- #2
I did a lot of evaluation work on VBAK recently as part of a procurement exercise for a new backup solution.
It's pretty good. The fact that it completely automates the backup process eliminating tapes along the way is good. What's even better is that it makes retrieval of data a doddle.
Watch out for high start up costs and ongoing charges as they charge for what they store, not what you've got on your system (fine though if you are only backing up once a day). If you are outside London network costs can get expensive although they do claim to offer backup over the Internet now. The only weakness that I can see is the need for a dedicated hardware gateway (a.k.a. VSG) on site. If this fails, your backup fails.
If you are interested in the idea of online backup and want to carry out some comparisons, I'd also suggest checking out the other two major players:
* SunGard - These guys have two server backup services, TeleVault and VytalVault and have been doing this stuff since 1997.
* ImperaData - A relatively new entrant to the UK market but uniquely offering a real time replication and backup service based on LiveVault.
We ended up going with SunGard as I personally think that they have the edge technically. If I hadn't already made my choice I would have liked to have given the LiveVault solution a closer look as it seems ideal for Exchange and Database servers as it continuously backs up 24 x 7.
I hope that this helps.
Fantismo
It's pretty good. The fact that it completely automates the backup process eliminating tapes along the way is good. What's even better is that it makes retrieval of data a doddle.
Watch out for high start up costs and ongoing charges as they charge for what they store, not what you've got on your system (fine though if you are only backing up once a day). If you are outside London network costs can get expensive although they do claim to offer backup over the Internet now. The only weakness that I can see is the need for a dedicated hardware gateway (a.k.a. VSG) on site. If this fails, your backup fails.
If you are interested in the idea of online backup and want to carry out some comparisons, I'd also suggest checking out the other two major players:
* SunGard - These guys have two server backup services, TeleVault and VytalVault and have been doing this stuff since 1997.
* ImperaData - A relatively new entrant to the UK market but uniquely offering a real time replication and backup service based on LiveVault.
We ended up going with SunGard as I personally think that they have the edge technically. If I hadn't already made my choice I would have liked to have given the LiveVault solution a closer look as it seems ideal for Exchange and Database servers as it continuously backs up 24 x 7.
I hope that this helps.
Fantismo
- Thread starter
- #3
ChelseaGirl
Technical User
Thanks for that, really useful.
- Thread starter
- #4
ChelseaGirl
Technical User
Just a thought - how much data were you/are you backing up ?
cubsupport
Technical User
There's quite a few companies selling similar services now. We bought from a company called Thinking Safe Ltd. They ended up being cheaper and have also racked up one of their servers in our comms room to enable fast server recovery.
We mainly use laptops but have around 55Gb of server based file / DB data.
Hope this is useful.
We mainly use laptops but have around 55Gb of server based file / DB data.
Hope this is useful.
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1
- #6
Hi ChelseaGirl
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I didn't get an email update to inform me that you had replied to my response.
In answer to your question, we have around 150Gb of data, of which approx. 25Gb is on an Exchange server and 15Gb on an SQL box. The rest is normal file & print.
Since my last posting, I really wish that I'd gone with the LiveVault solution as I now realise that all I've done is to replace a tape based regime with an emulation that leaves me with 23 hours of exposure everyday.
So, if you are still in the market, my advice would be as follows:
- Seriously think about what you are trying to achieve from the solution. Most online backup solutions will never match the cost of tape, unless your company really has a handle on the value of intangibles, i.e, the time and hassle factors of managing backups.
- Most online backup solutions, offsite and no tape aside, simply emulate tape, i.e. Once a day backup and 23 hours of exposure thereafter. If you are going to be spending the extra on an online backup solution check out the features and potential benefits.
- Make sure that the company you choose really understand backup and storage. There are many pretenders out there.
- Make sure the company don't just do backup and can really help you with restores when need it, i.e. on-site support and knowledge & procedures that you feel confident in. After all, you are paying extra money, so get the service levels you would expect for the premium.
- With respect to the last point, make sure they understand bare metal restore inside out and if applicable Exchange restores too.
- Beware of hidden costs. Most players charge for what they store. This means that if you decide, 3 months into the contract, that you want to do a twice daily backup, your storage charges will increase. Most solutions interpret directory or file name changes as new data and will back you up again. I've heard a few horror stories where people have been billed for twice what they expected. Lastly on cost, beware of solutions that involve onsite hardware. They often carry high startup costs, represent a single point of failure and can cost an arm and a leg if you have multiple sites to back up.
Ok, in closing, I would stress that these are purely my opinions, based upon my experience and would positively encourage others input.
And don't forget, I use online backup services, so I am an advocate. We use SunGard's service currently, but I'm thinking of chancing my arm and going with the LiveVault solution next time we deploy a new server.
Having waffled on enough, has anyone here had any experience of using LiveVault either directly or via their UK partner, ImperaData?
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I didn't get an email update to inform me that you had replied to my response.
In answer to your question, we have around 150Gb of data, of which approx. 25Gb is on an Exchange server and 15Gb on an SQL box. The rest is normal file & print.
Since my last posting, I really wish that I'd gone with the LiveVault solution as I now realise that all I've done is to replace a tape based regime with an emulation that leaves me with 23 hours of exposure everyday.
So, if you are still in the market, my advice would be as follows:
- Seriously think about what you are trying to achieve from the solution. Most online backup solutions will never match the cost of tape, unless your company really has a handle on the value of intangibles, i.e, the time and hassle factors of managing backups.
- Most online backup solutions, offsite and no tape aside, simply emulate tape, i.e. Once a day backup and 23 hours of exposure thereafter. If you are going to be spending the extra on an online backup solution check out the features and potential benefits.
- Make sure that the company you choose really understand backup and storage. There are many pretenders out there.
- Make sure the company don't just do backup and can really help you with restores when need it, i.e. on-site support and knowledge & procedures that you feel confident in. After all, you are paying extra money, so get the service levels you would expect for the premium.
- With respect to the last point, make sure they understand bare metal restore inside out and if applicable Exchange restores too.
- Beware of hidden costs. Most players charge for what they store. This means that if you decide, 3 months into the contract, that you want to do a twice daily backup, your storage charges will increase. Most solutions interpret directory or file name changes as new data and will back you up again. I've heard a few horror stories where people have been billed for twice what they expected. Lastly on cost, beware of solutions that involve onsite hardware. They often carry high startup costs, represent a single point of failure and can cost an arm and a leg if you have multiple sites to back up.
Ok, in closing, I would stress that these are purely my opinions, based upon my experience and would positively encourage others input.
And don't forget, I use online backup services, so I am an advocate. We use SunGard's service currently, but I'm thinking of chancing my arm and going with the LiveVault solution next time we deploy a new server.
Having waffled on enough, has anyone here had any experience of using LiveVault either directly or via their UK partner, ImperaData?
- Thread starter
- #7
ChelseaGirl
Technical User
Thanks, for your input JimBT - I'm still looking around, so if anyone wants to add any more please do.
- Thread starter
- #9
ChelseaGirl
Technical User
No...mores the pity :¬(
Netbackup - Veritas made us an offer someone couldn't refuse. With a couple of libraries with LTO2 drives. Ho hum
Netbackup - Veritas made us an offer someone couldn't refuse. With a couple of libraries with LTO2 drives. Ho hum
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