Best Backup Source

[robrich22]

I had a question on a test the other day.. It was worded

"If a user in an enterprise environment, has to back up several gigs of data on a regular basis, which of the following would be best".

A. External Hard Drive
B. Dual Layer DVD
C. Tape Drive
D. Floppy Disk Drive


Alright obviously, its not the floppy. But personally I'd think the other 3 options are all viable options.. However tape is usually used to backup the server, so if the user saved his files to the server.. They should be backed up as part of the daily/weekly backup anyways.

External HD is probably not a bad option... Assuming the user in an enterprise environment has permission to access local hardware resources on his PC (usb ports, external sata, etc).

DVD .. Just seems like a waste to me.. I personally never backup anything to DVD's.. I always backup to offsite, or external HD's.. or even internal HD's (internals installed for the sole purpose of backing up).

Anyways, what do you guys think is the correct answer?

 

[mford66215]

External hard drive as in 'disk to disk' backup is excellent. Backup server to NAS or SAN or (best) through iscsi to some offsite facility (be sure to use deduplication to keep traffic down. Can be really fast, adds to fault tolerance, and disk space is cheap.

Tapes are also pretty good, particularly when used in systems that can utilize multiple tapes on a job - tape raid is VERY fast if configured correctly. Considering that a full up tape system can cost as much as a full up NAS? Don't know which is better for price - but I give the edge to iscsi nas because of the 'offsite' potential.

Nothing like having your data being stored in a secured site with multiple replicas throughout the world to make you feel better about your disaster recovery plans.

DVD? We use them to burn images of systems after somebody gets terminated so that we have a chain of custody valid snapshot - but that's all - to slow, to easy to break (scratch), and not enough capacity (guess we could try hdvd, but why?).

 

[evongugg]

NAS or external hard drive with eSATA/USB interface.
You can automate it with certain software.
If you drop the external hard drive, the drive may go bad and the data may be lost.

 

[evongugg]

If you have an old computer, you can use it as a NAS with FreeNAS.
No cost.