Supercharged, Tow day
Anyone in IT that has been burned by hardware failure, viruses or plain old user stupidity knows how important data back ups are. My back up strategy at work has become very disjointed and manic over the years. For awhile we invested heavily in traditional tape back up systems with three robotic libraries teamed up with Symantec Backup Exec. Tape back up has some major disadvantages, even with the the advances in hardware over the years. The two biggest problems are speed and reliability.
A tape is a linear device, so if the data you are looking for just happens to be towards the end of the tape you need to spin through the entire spool to get there. This process is rather slow, especially when compared to hard drive access. Tapes and tape drives wear out. More than once I have had a tape that had data I needed be bad, causing all sorts of headaches.
I also have a real issue with Symantec, I basically can not stand their business model. They nickel and dime the fck out of you, charging you all sorts of add on pricing to be able to back up a typical network with applications like SQL, Exchange, and Sharepoint on it. When a new Windows operating system comes out, you can already assume that Symantec would not give you a small patch file for free to be able to back it up. No, their solution is for you to pay for a complete software upgrade if you want to back up anything newer. It’s very, very aggravating.
Well my present day back up solution for the network was a hydra, with two Backup Exec servers, three tape libraries, and multiple NAS devices which are both direct and network connected. It has been sort of a mess for quite awhile.
Well yesterday I brought a new Unitrends back up appliance online, something suggested to me by our trusted sales rep. It is a 1U rack appliance that uses amazing software, high end hardware and data de-duplication to make network back ups significantly faster, more reliable and hands off. The company is entirely US based and their customer support philosophy is simply awesome. Basically whatever you need from them is what they will deliver. In addition, if you pay for your 3 yearly maintenance cost up front, at the end of those three years you get a FREE upgrade to the latest and greatest appliance hardware.
Last night we backed up everything, a job that used to be split in between 4 different back up solutions. The Unitrends appliance tore through the data, in three hours everything except one server was finished. To do the same thing with our old set up would take 12-14 hours. It’s early but so far I am very impressed with Unitrends.
The party van should be pulled out of my driveway sometime today. Everytime I have looked at it the past couple days it has been with sadness and reflection of the good times it has been part of. I almost feel like I am shooting a horse with a broken leg. As I got in the Tacoma this morning I looked upon the van for what is likely the last time in my life and said “goodbye” out loud. Yes I suppose it is odd to feel emotional about the van leaving but I never claimed to be normal.
Luckily last night the dogs slept soundly, allowing Cindy and I to sleep straight through. They will go back to Ali’s place tomorrow. Cindy and I are wondering how they will react when all of the flooring in the house is changed.
This weekend I have a lot of stuff I would like to get done, what else is new?