{"id":33569,"date":"2023-02-14T19:14:09","date_gmt":"2023-02-14T15:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/?p=33569"},"modified":"2024-01-23T19:27:58","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T15:27:58","slug":"local-storage-as-backup-destination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/local-storage-as-backup-destination\/","title":{"rendered":"MSP&#8217;s Guide to Local Storage as a Backup Destination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even in today\u2019s cloud-centric age, local storage still has an important role to play in data backup and recovery. In this article, we explain why local storage should be part of your backup strategy, discuss local storage options that you can use for backup and identify best practices for local storage backup.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why Use Local Storage for Data Backup?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, local storage can feel old-fashioned. As more and more applications and workloads have migrated to the cloud over the past decade, you might think that the cloud is the only storage location you need for data backup, too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But that\u2019s not necessarily true. There are solid reasons to use local storage backup, including:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Cost<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Under certain circumstances, local storage can be less expensive, especially from the total cost of ownership (TCO) perspective. In the cloud, you pay on an ongoing basis for data storage, whereas with local storage, the majority of your costs are upfront capital expenses. Once you set up local storage, you can use it for a long time while paying only minimal maintenance costs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Access<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Data that is backed up to local storage can often be recovered more quickly than data backed up to the cloud. That is because you don\u2019t need to rely on the public Internet (where, if you are lucky, you\u2019ll see bandwidth rates of only around one gigabyte per second) to download the data. Instead, you can transfer it over your local network, or (even better) directly from storage media to your device. In this respect, local storage is especially useful if you have a demanding <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/recovery-time-objective-rto-explained\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RTO<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> requirement to meet.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Security<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Although, as we explain below in the \u201cbest practices\u201d section, there are important security considerations to take into account for local storage, local storage is more secure in some respects than cloud storage. Local storage does not require you to move data into someone else\u2019s infrastructure and expose it to the public Internet.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>3-2-1 backup<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: It\u2019s a best practice to follow a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/following-3-2-1-backup-strategy\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3-2-1 backup strategy<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which entails having three independent copies of your data, at least two of which exist on independent media. Local storage helps you meet this requirement by serving as one of those locations.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">None of the above is to say that local storage is <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">always<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> better than offsite, cloud-based storage for backups. In most cases, you\u2019ll want to use local storage and cloud storage at the same time, in order to achieve the greatest level of data availability. So, don\u2019t think of local vs. cloud storage as an either\/or proposition.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<div class=\"call-to-action__left\">\n<div class=\"call-to-action__tag\">FREE WHITEPAPER<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action__title\">Full System Backup and Recovery<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action__text\">Check out our comprehensive guide covering system state, system image and application-aware backup and recovery, as well as bare-metal recovery:<\/div>\n<!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><span class=\"hs-cta-wrapper hs-cta-deferred\" id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-64dcb3ac-a304-4fdc-a704-c1242185e7c4\" data-portal=\"5442029\" data-id=\"64dcb3ac-a304-4fdc-a704-c1242185e7c4\"><span class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-64dcb3ac-a304-4fdc-a704-c1242185e7c4\" id=\"hs-cta-64dcb3ac-a304-4fdc-a704-c1242185e7c4\"><!--[if lte IE 8]><div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div><![endif]--><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/5442029\/64dcb3ac-a304-4fdc-a704-c1242185e7c4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hs-cta-img\" id=\"hs-cta-img-64dcb3ac-a304-4fdc-a704-c1242185e7c4\" style=\"border-width:0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/5442029\/64dcb3ac-a304-4fdc-a704-c1242185e7c4.png\" alt=\"CTA\"><\/a><\/span><\/span><!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code -->\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action__right\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"max-width: 200px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Full-System-Backup-WP-icon.png\" alt=\"WP icon\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Implementing Local Storage Infrastructure<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are several options for building a local storage backup infrastructure. In this section, we present an overview of the main approaches, followed by a chart that compares their strengths and weaknesses.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">External Drives<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-31238\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/External-Hard-Drive.png\" alt=\"External-Hard-Drive\" width=\"527\" height=\"234\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/External-Hard-Drive.png 527w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/External-Hard-Drive-300x133.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 527px) 100vw, 527px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p id=\"last\">When you are working with relatively small amounts of data, external hard drives are the easiest and least expensive way to build a local storage infrastructure. For around $100, you can buy an external hard disk that will store 4 or 5 terabytes of data, which means each gigabyte of storage will cost you around $0.025. That\u2019s about the same as what you\u2019d pay per-gigabyte in just a single month for <a href=\"https:\/\/aws.amazon.com\/s3\/pricing\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">S3 Standard storage on AWS<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, not counting data retrieval fees. And it only takes a few minutes to set up an external disk.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"further-reading \">Further reading<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/amazon-s3-storage-classes-guide\/\">Amazon S3 Storage Classes Explained<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"further-reading \">Further reading<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/hamr-vs-mamr-new-hdd-technology\/\">Hard Drive Technology Clash: HAMR vs MAMR<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"slidebox\"><a class=\"close\">\u00a0<\/a><!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><span class=\"hs-cta-wrapper hs-cta-deferred\" id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-aa07fdb8-7776-46a5-9fa0-ec6e93f0f0a6\" data-portal=\"5442029\" data-id=\"aa07fdb8-7776-46a5-9fa0-ec6e93f0f0a6\"><span class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-aa07fdb8-7776-46a5-9fa0-ec6e93f0f0a6\" id=\"hs-cta-aa07fdb8-7776-46a5-9fa0-ec6e93f0f0a6\"><!--[if lte IE 8]><div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div><![endif]--><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/5442029\/aa07fdb8-7776-46a5-9fa0-ec6e93f0f0a6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hs-cta-img\" id=\"hs-cta-img-aa07fdb8-7776-46a5-9fa0-ec6e93f0f0a6\" style=\"border-width:0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/5442029\/aa07fdb8-7776-46a5-9fa0-ec6e93f0f0a6.png\" alt=\"CTA\"><\/a><\/span><\/span><!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The downside of using external hard disks for data backup is that they lack <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/is-raid-a-backup\/\">RAID<\/a> or other data redundancy features, so they do not provide any built-in data redundancy. They are also only reliable for <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">about four years<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> before they need to be replaced.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, if you need to back up many terabytes of data, external hard disks are not an ideal solution, because you\u2019d need dozens of them (and many individual computers to support each one). Maintaining all of those disks would quickly become difficult.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NAS Device<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-31237\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/NAS-Device.png\" alt=\"NAS-Device\" width=\"527\" height=\"234\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/NAS-Device.png 527w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/NAS-Device-300x133.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 527px) 100vw, 527px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NAS devices<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> offer a more sophisticated way to build local backup infrastructure. With a NAS, you can configure many terabytes of storage in a single device that is connected to your local infrastructure via the network. It\u2019s also easy to configure different types of RAID arrays in order to achieve data redundancy on a NAS. Finally, although setting up a NAS requires some time and expertise, it is easier than setting up a complete file server.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"further-reading \">Further reading<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/nas-backup-strategies-local-cloud\/\">NAS Backup Strategy: Local, Cloud and Hybrid Backup<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the other hand, a NAS device can be costly, even more costly than a file server that you configure yourself. NAS devices can also limit your storage flexibility in some ways because if you want to expand your NAS, you can typically choose only from among the options that the NAS vendor supports. Lastly, NAS is typically run under some proprietary OS and has its own hardware. Some managed providers found that hardware weak and OS bulky.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span class=\"further-reading \">Further reading<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/choosing-a-nas-backup-solution-for-msps-and-smbs\/\">Choosing a NAS Checklist<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Backup Server<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-31236\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Backup-Server.png\" alt=\"Backup Server\" width=\"527\" height=\"234\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Backup-Server.png 527w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Backup-Server-300x133.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 527px) 100vw, 527px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A third option is to build a server that is dedicated file backup.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Such a server could take one of two forms. First, it could be a replication server that contains ready-to-run copies of all production data and can enable an \u201cautomated failover\u201d strategy by instantly replacing your production devices, should they fail. This type of server is expensive and complicated to set up because it will require you to keep not just backup data in place, but also all of the application configurations required to maintain full continuity in the event of a failure of your main server.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The second type of server is simply a file server that stores backup data. The data would need to undergo a recovery process before it can be placed into production following a disaster, but this type of server is easier and less expensive to set up because its main requirements are just an operating system and storage infrastructure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Building a dedicated backup server will provide you with the greatest amount of flexibility in setting up local storage infrastructure. But depending on the type of server you create, it may require significant effort and maintenance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The cost of a dedicated backup server will also vary; if you simply repurpose an old PC and some commodity hard disks to build a file server, the cost will be low. If you want a top-of-the-line server and RAID arrays to achieve data replication, the results will be quite expensive.<\/span><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><b>External drives<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>NAS<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Backup server<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Cost<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Low<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Medium<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Varies<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Difficulty to set up<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Low<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Medium<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Medium to high<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Reliability<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Low<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">High (when using RAID)<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Varies<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Local Backup Infrastructure Best Practices<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Below, we offer tips on getting the most out of your local backup infrastructure.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Test Recovery Routines Regularly<\/span><\/h3>\n<div class=\"perfect-pullquote vcard pullquote-align-full pullquote-border-placement-left\"><blockquote><p>\"<strong>The backup condition of any backup is unknown until a restore is attempted<\/strong>\" Schrodinger's Backup<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As with any type of backup infrastructure, it\u2019s important to test your local storage periodically to ensure that it will enable your required RTO and RPO recovery needs if disaster strikes. As best practices, we recommend:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At least once a month, pick a file or directory from your local backups and do a trial restore of it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do a trial complete restore from the local infrastructure of one whole system once every quarter.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perform a failover of the whole data center once every six months. If your disaster recovery plan includes recovering to virtual machines in the cloud, make sure to test that as well.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During these trial recoveries, make sure that you are able to restore data within your RTO timeframe, and that you have recent enough backups to meet your RPO requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monitor Data Connections<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Depending on how your local infrastructure is configured, it might use network connections, disk connections or both to connect to production systems. It\u2019s important to monitor these connections. You don\u2019t want a backup to fail due to a local network problem. Even worse, you don\u2019t want to be unable to recover data following a disaster due to networking problems that you weren\u2019t aware of previously.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Plan for Infrastructure Replacement<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s also wise to keep records of when you set up your local infrastructure so that you\u2019ll know when disks, NAS devices or backup servers are approaching their end-of-life period and need to be replaced. If possible, configure an automated alert (or even just a calendar notification) when you set up a local storage backup device to notify you when its expected end-of-life is approaching, even if it is several years in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Local Storage Backup Security<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are several things you can do to help maximize the security of local storage:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Encrypt all storage data, no matter which type of storage infrastructure you use.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create an \u201cair gap\u201d between your backup infrastructure and your production infrastructure by removing permanent network connections between them. If you need to use the network to perform a backup, shut the connection down once the backup is complete.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t let users access backup infrastructure directly.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back up to the cloud as well, so that you have multiple copies of backup data.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3-2-1 Backup and MSP360 Managed Backup<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/managed-backup\/\">MSP360 Managed Backup<\/a> works with virtually any type of local storage backup device, as well as with cloud infrastructure so that you can configure one backup routine that automatically backs up all of your data to the storage locations of your choice -- including to local and cloud storage at once. MSP360 also gives you the flexibility to switch between backup infrastructures as needed, so you\u2019re never locked in. And it lets you test file recovery easily to ensure that your backup data will do what it needs when disaster strikes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To see for yourself, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/managed-backup\/signup\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sign up free for MSP360 Managed Backup<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even in today\u2019s cloud-centric age, local storage still has an important role to play in data backup and recovery. In this article, we explain why local storage should be part of your backup strategy, discuss local storage options that you can use for backup and identify best practices for local storage backup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":44405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[886,878,887],"tags":[924],"class_list":["post-33569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-backup-and-dr-guides","category-msp-university","category-storage-guides","tag-local-storage-as-backup-destination"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33569"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57202,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33569\/revisions\/57202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}