W. Curtis Preston
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Opinions expressed by ICN authors are their own.
W. Curtis Preston – known as Mr. Backup – is an expert in backup, storage and recovery, having worked in the space since 1993. He has been an end-user, consultant and analyst.
Most recently he has joined the team at Druva, a cloud-based data protection company. He’s written three books on the subject, Backup & Recovery, Using SANs and NAS and Unix Backup & Recovery.
The opinions expressed in this blog are those of W. Curtis Preston and do not necessarily represent those of IDG Communications, Inc., its parent, subsidiary or affiliated companies.
5 reasons restores can take longer than backups
Backing up data can be fairly quick, but because the steps needed to access the backup and restore it to the live network, restores can be surprisingly slow.
Best backup for 7 major databases
There are many backup options for databases, but here are recommendations for Cassandra, DB2, DynamoDB, MongoDB, MySQL, Oracle, and PostgreSQL.
Backup for databases: Get familiar with the type you use
The design of a database determines what method is best suited for backing it up, and those methods vary quite a bit.
Backing up a database depends on how it’s delivered
On premises servers, PaaS, and serverless delivery of databases each has its own backup best practices.
The latest tape storage is faster and holds more, but is it better?
The LTO-9 open standard boosts the transfer speed of magnetic tape, which seems like an improvement, but that might not make tape a more attractive option for backup.
Why aren’t optical disks the top choice for archive storage?
Optical storage can last a century, give faster access to data, and is backward compatible with earlier optical technology, yet disk drives and tape rule in long-term storage.
Tape backup as a defense vs. ransomware
Tape isn’t close to being the perfect backup, but it is pretty impervious to ransomware.
Ransomware recovery: Cloud is the way to go
Cloud-based DR offers incredible recovery speed as well as the ability to pre-restore data.
Ransomware recovery: Plan for it now
Make a disaster-recovery plan to address ransomware attacks, and start with stopping its spread, IDing the variant and getting ready to get restore your files.
Make sure your laptop backups can handle ransomware
There’s more than one way to backup laptop data, but not all of them can defeat the tricks attackers have designed into ransomware.
Backup lessons from a cloud-storage disaster
Organizations that failed to make sure their cloud data was backed up properly learned the consequences the hard way when an OVHcloud data center burned last month.
Ransomware: How to make sure backups are ready
Avoid paying off ransomware attackers by following these steps to ensure backups can restore infected systems.
How to protect backups from ransomware
Backups can be defended against ransomware attacks by moving them offsite from primary systems, removing file-system access to the backups, and avoiding using Windows as a backup platform.
Disaster recovery lessons from an island struck by a hurricane
Prepping for disaster recovery needs a plan, testing, and thinking about non-technical necessities like food and shelter for the recovery team.
Facts about backup security that should scare you to death
How to tighten up security for backup systems and avoid malicious activities carried out by lone wolves.
Backing up databases is critical and complex
Proper database backup is essential because of the importance of the data they contain, so understanding how the work is also a must.
Should you upgrade tape drives to the latest standard?
A recently released standard for linear tape-open—LTO-9—sets the scene for faster drives with more capacity, but are they a must-have?
How to make sure data that should be backed up gets backed up
Using selective exclusion to determine what data gets backed up may result in storing some useless data, but it avoids having no backup for the important stuff.
Item-level vs. image-level backup: Why it’s best to use a combo
Two types of backup – item level and image level – have different strengths, and it’s possible to tap the best of both.