ESSENTIAL

BENEFITS OF

HYBRID CLOUD5White Paper

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Datto uniquely empowers businesses to meet their growing need for robust, yet economical backup, disaster recovery and business continuity. Datto’s Total Data Protection Platform uses a hybrid cloud architecture because it offers the best value for SMBs. This white paper offers five reasons every SMB should embrace a hybrid cloud model in today’s IT environment.

What is Hybrid Cloud?

“Hybrid cloud,” in the context of this white paper, refers to

a data protection architecture that combines on-prem and

off-prem disaster recovery as-a-service deployment models.

The on-prem component of a hybrid cloud deployment may

or may not utilise virtualisation. It may also be managed

remotely by an MSP (Managed Service Provider), rather than

by the SMB’s own IT staff.

In the case of Datto’s Total Data Protection Platform, the

on-prem component of the architecture involves backing up

data locally to a backup/disaster recovery appliance—while

also performing deduplication, compression, file conversion

and other operations as part of the backup process. These

operations reduce consumption of on- and off-site storage

resources, minimise bandwidth requirements and compress

both backup and restore times.

The off-prem component of a hybrid cloud is typically

provided on an as-a-service basis to the SMB, which means

that the SMB does not have to bear the responsibility of

managing it—and can pay for it on a subscription basis.

The use of Datto’s cloud also eliminates many operational

responsibilities and provides powerful economies of scale.

Also, the Datto cloud replicates data to multiple locations to

ensure recoverability even in the event of the most extreme

local disaster.

The result is a data backup, disaster recovery and

business continuity solution that is second to none

in terms of reliability, cost-efficiency and RPO/RTO

capabilities.

WHITE PAPER

ESSENTIAL BENEFITS OF HYBRID CLOUD BACKUP

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2 W H I T E P A P E R

1. Superior Business Continuity

For SMBs, data protection is no longer merely a “nice-to-

have.” It is a must. There are two reasons for this. First, SMBs

are more dependent on technology than ever. If they can’t

access their customer, operational or supply-chain data, they

can’t do business. So every minute of downtime costs them

money. And if they permanently lose any data, the cost is

undeniably even higher.

Second, in a market environment where customers can easily

take their business elsewhere at the drop of a hat, even

a relatively brief IT outage can cost an SMB relationships

that may have taken years to develop. An extended period

of downtime can actually put an SMB out of business. The

ability to keep critical IT systems up and running, regardless

of a hardware failure, an extreme weather event, or other

contingency, is thus essential.

A hybrid cloud solution like Datto’s Total Data Protection

Platform safeguards business continuity for SMBs in two

important ways:

1. It ensures that all data, applications and server images

are safely stored off-site. Local backups aren’t much good

in the event of a building fire or extreme local weather.

With a hybrid solution, those contingencies won’t threaten

an SMB—because everything of business value is safely

ensconced in multiple locations: on-prem and in remote

cloud datacentres.

2. It allows data, applications and server images to be

accessed from any failover location. Business continuity

isn’t just about storing backups. It’s about spinning up

failover systems as quickly as possible. With some hybrid

cloud backups, those failover systems can start running

instantly on on-prem hardware if the problem is just a

device failure. But what sets the best business continuity

solutions apart is when a real disaster strikes. A complete

hybrid cloud solution allows an SMB to run its critical

applications off virtual machines in the cloud—which users

can access from branch offices, home PCs, laptops or any

other authorised systems—until such time as normal IT

operations can be restored. Not all solutions do this (some

simply offer cloud backup), and in fact, some may charge

extra for cloud failover. For the fastest failover time, you’ll

want a solution like Datto, which saves each backup in a

ready-to-restore VMDK file format that requires no time-

consuming conversions at the time of restore.

Bottom line: Hybrid cloud backup is ideal for SMBs

that want to fully safeguard their business data.

2. The Need for Speed

How and where business data is backed up will have a direct

impact on how fast its data can be restored. For businesses

that need access quickly – in seconds or minutes - the

need for speed become very clear.

A hybrid cloud-based backup strategy has the potential for

Hybrid Cloud Backup Overview

RECOVERY

Database

Applications

File Systems

Email

TRANSFER viaSSL VPN

Datto Appliance(Physical

or Virtual)

ScreenshotBackupVerification

Datto Cloud

Example of Datto Hybrid Cloud Backup

3 W H I T E P A P E R

both faster backups and lightning fast restores.

• Speed of backup. How quickly a solution performs a

backup can have a big impact on a business’ entire

network. An off-site-only solution (direct to cloud) can

result in lengthy backups that slows down your network.

It can also put a business’s servers at risk during the

process. On the other hand, the option to leverage an

on-prem appliance will result in a faster local backup

process. By taking backups on a local device, and then

replicating that data offsite during a specified backup

window (usually after office hours), you save time on

backups and don’t bog down network bandwidth. Hybrid

cloud backups add speed, reliability and security.

• Speed of restore. Restoring files and systems from a local

appliance is much faster than pulling from the cloud.

With Datto, it’s even faster--we’re talking 6 seconds to

restore from our SIRIS 2 on-prem appliance. What’s more,

because each image-based backup is already saved as a

virtual file (VMDK), even cloud restores are super fast with

Datto. Most other solutions start the process of saving

backups as virtual files after the request to restore has

been made. That extra step means more downtime you

can’t afford.

Bottom line: Hybrid cloud backup has clear

advantages when it comes to speed of both backups

and restores.

3. Adaptable Capacity

SMB backup capacity requirements are notoriously difficult

to predict. After all, in a large enterprise, a new application or

data source only has minimal impact on overall backup volume

requirements. In an SMB environment, on the other hand, even

a single new IT system or resource can dramatically affect

backup volume if it’s used intensively enough.

That unpredictability—combined with the fact that business

data as a whole is growing at a rate of 60% or more annually—

presents a quandary for business owners. Underestimate

volume requirements, and you’ll have to scramble to

increase infrastructure capacity and ratchet up your costs.

Overestimate volume requirements, and you’ll overspend and

reduce your ROI.

A hybrid cloud model enables SMBs to cope with this

unpredictability in several ways. On-prem, it’s important to

look for backup hardware that can grow with a business’ data

needs. Preferred devices come equipped with hot-swappable

drive bays enabling easy field upgrades. Off-prem, it gives

SMBs access to as much capacity as they need—while also

not locking them into excess capacity if they don’t need it.

If you’re concerned about exceeding, and in turn paying for

data overages, look for a vendor like Datto that offers a time-

based cloud retention model versus a capacity-based model.

Time-based retention guarantees predictable cloud billing for

businesses

Bottom line: Hybrid cloud can adaptively accommodate unpredictable fluctuations in the volume of business data SMBs must protect.

AMOUNT OF DATA

VALU

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RISK O

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LOSING

DAT

ASMBs

4. More Confident Compliance

Many SMBs are subject to regulatory mandates that require

them to:

• Protect specific data from loss or corruption

• Retain specific records for a mandated period of time

• Document successful testing of data recovery mechanisms

Hybrid cloud—especially as delivered by Datto—offers SMBs

the best means of fulfilling these regulatory requirements. To

remediate data corruption, for example, an SMB needs to roll

back to the most recent possible uncorrupted version of the

data. However, data corruption events often escape immediate

detection. That means that an SMB depending exclusively on

4 W H I T E P A P E R

local backup would have to maintain numerous incremental

versions of every file under such regulatory mandates. This

would obviously add to the cost of data protection. An off-

prem cloud solution coupled with a local backup is much

more practical for this type of multi-increment protection.

Datto’s Total Data Protection Platform goes a step further

by automatically checking backup integrity.and offering

screenshot verification Should a backup not be valid, the

screenshot reports the failure and acts as an alert for the

MSP. This provides three important benefits. First, it allows

MSPs to take immediate action. These actions can include

both restoration of the most recent uncorrupted data and

investigation of the root cause of that corruption in order to

keep it from happening again.

Second, this automatic alerting protects both the SMB and the

MSP from the data corruption that can occur in the backup

process itself. This is a non-trivial risk that can be especially

problematic when it involves data covered by regulatory

mandates.

Third, it provides a means of tangibly demonstrating to

regulatory auditors that appropriate mechanisms have been

put in place to fulfill the requirements of those mandates.

Bottom line: Hybrid cloud empowers SMBs to more

confidently comply with regulatory mandates relating to

data protection and data recoverability.

7. Better Bandwidth Management Offload (server

work and bandwidth)

The backup solution you choose can have a direct impact on

the efficient use of your network bandwidth. A cloud-based

option has the potential to better distribute the flow of data,

enabling a business to run more efficiently. Keep in mind,

however, that not all clouds are created equal. Look for a

vendor that manages its own purpose-built cloud, designed

specifically for efficient backup and data transfer.

• Optimal Server Function. With cloud-only backup

solutions, business servers are burdened with agents

that waste valuable resources to dedupe, compress

and encrypt each backup utilising the business server’s

own valuable resources. Having a dedicated local

backup device offloads work from the server to prevent

these workloads from interfering with a server’s main

production.

• Improved Use of Bandwidth. A hybrid cloud solution

results in a better use of a network’s precious bandwidth.

Because the initial backup occurs on a local appliance

through a local area network, the backup happens fast.

After the backup to the local appliance, the cloud backup

can be managed so that it happens once a day after

business hours. You’re not eating up valuable network

bandwidth during operating hours. By using a hybrid

cloud solution, bandwidth use can be optimised with

some solutions allowing for aggressive local RPOs and

bandwidth-friendly cloud RPOs at the same time.

Bottom line: Hybrid cloud means your business will

have more control over server function and managing

valuable bandwidth.

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Datto’s Total Data Protection Platform

Not all hybrid cloud based backup solutions are the same.

While many possess the inherent benefits of having both

a local and off-site backup strategy, not all deliver a

comprehensive solution that also provides fast recovery and

always-on business continuity.

Datto delivers business continuity that approaches high

availability … at the price of a simple backup.

By saving backup images directly to VMDK format, Datto

solutions ensure that SMBs can boot up their backup VMs

from a local appliance or the Datto cloud in mere seconds—

instead of minutes or hours. The result is a competitively

differentiated recovery time objective (RTO) that better

safeguards SMB business data and gives MSPs a powerful

sales advantage.

Datto also ensures the security of customer data with AES 256

encryption both in transit and at rest in our SSAE 16-certified

data centres. Datto also safeguards customers’ data integrity

with Screenshot Backup Verification™—a proprietary

technology that delivers tangible proof of backup success.

Our business is to keep businesses running – no matter

what.

For more information about Datto’s Total Data Protection

Platform, please visit www.datto.co.uk

Regional OfficesNorwalk, CT +01 (0) 888 294 6312Boston, MA +01 (0) 800 571 4984 Toronto, CAN +01 (0) 877 811 0577 Reading, UK +44 (0) 118 402 9606

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