Unitrends is the premier supplier of Multi-OS Rapid Recovery appliances designed for small and medium organizations as well as FORTUNE 500® departments.
We hope our answers to the following questions will help you better understand how our products and services might be appropriate for your needs. If you don't see your question answered here, please call us or complete the inquiry form on this page.
What is Business Continuity?
Business Continuity is the ability of an organization to continue to function even after a disastrous event. A large part of business continuity is accomplished through the deployment of a solid backup and recovery strategy.
Unitrends, a leader in the development of data recovery solutions, provides the only complete solution for business continuity, available to small and large businesses alike. Unitrends introduced the industry's first business continuity product that enables end-users to fully recover from a system crash in less than half an hour.
Today, as then, Unitrends' integrated business continuity appliance, the Data Protection Unit (DPU), allows an organization to quickly and fully restore not only data, but more than 20 different operating systems, complete with passwords, preferences and permissions.
The Unitrends' DPU provides totally automatic, lights-out protection for complete business continuity and allows users to recover systems and data in a fraction of the time required under traditional recovery methods.
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What is Disk-to-Disk Backup (D2D)?
Disk-to-disk backup is a backup type in which data is copied from a hard disk onto another hard disk. In comparison with disk-to-tape backups, D2D backup files can be accessed directly just like any disk system.
Tapes, conversely, have to be searched linearly and are not as expedient at retrieving data. Unitrends uses disk-to-disk technology to provide rapid backup and recovery of both files and full systems.
Unitrends was the first to offer true disk-to-disk data backup and restoration protection as the standard method for drastically reducing the time to capture data images. Disk-to-disk improves backup and recovery time by as much as 5 times over a tape system, and raises the effective utilization of existing server resources.
Unlike other disk systems that rely on tape simulation, true disk-to-disk allows simultaneous data backup and recovery, reducing the backup window even more.
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What is Online Backup?
Online Backup, sometimes referred to as Remote Backup, is a service that provides users with an online system for backing up and storing computer files.
Online/remote backup typically consists of a software program that will run on a client's computer and once a day (typically) will compress, encrypt and then send data to a server for storage.
Unitrends' suite of rapid system restoration systems includes a full set of standard file protection and remote data vaulting products for complete business data protection.
The Unitrends advanced backup and rapid recovery appliance, the Data Protection Unit (DPU), allows an organization's Systems Administrator to conveniently set up schedules to create non-disruptive and stable point-in-time backups for rapid restoration.
Unitrends also provides an online/remote backup solution for non-disruptive data protection of your Windows™, and UnixWare™-based servers.
Remote Backup, sometimes referred to as Online Backup, is a service that provides users with an online system for backing up and storing computer files.
Remote/online backup typically consists of a software program that will run on a client's computer and once a day (typically) will compress, encrypt and then send data to a server for storage.
Unitrends' suite of rapid system restoration systems includes a full set of standard file protection and remote data vaulting products for complete business data protection.
The Unitrends advanced backup and rapid recovery appliance, the Data Protection Unit (DPU), allows an organization's Systems Administrator to conveniently set up schedules to create non-disruptive and stable point-in-time backups for rapid restoration.
Unitrends also provides a remote/online backup solution for non-disruptive data protection o f your Windows™, and UnixWare™-based servers.
Tape backup is a process of copying electronic data from a computer's hard drive to a magnetic tape cartridge device. This backup method ensures that the data is not lost in the event of an equipment failure or disaster. Tape backup can be achieved manually or programmed to occur automatically with a variety of software packages.
Tape backup is an old technology. It requires many mechanical parts to remain reliable in unison to ensure successful reads and writes. Tape backup is rather unreliable as well. Magnetic tape media is sensitive to scratches, magnetic interferences and can easily tear or stretch. Tape backup is slow and the information it carries is not instantly accessible as it is with hard drives.
In many cases tape backups fail to restore to the target computer, rendering them useless. Disk-to-disk technology completely removes these reliability issues by providing a high-speed, redundant, and secure data transfer solution.
DVD backup is a process of copying electronic data from a computer's hard drive to a high capacity optical disc with 4.7GB or 8.5GB capacity. DVD backup is gaining in popularity due to the very low cost per gigabyte (about one penny) and the large number of inexpensive software applications that are compatible with them.
The shelf life of a DVD can push upwards of 100 years and reliability is very good if the media is enclosed in a sleeve or jewel case. DVD backup is effective for single user computers and is most widely used with home computers.
At a small or medium-sized business, the lower cost is outweighed by the management and human intervention required to perform an effective data protection strategy.
DVD media has to be changed by hand and archived daily. When the media capacity fills, it needs to be replaced with blank media, and backups will not span across multiple DVDs.
Disk-to-disk technology provides the lights-out management schedule required to provide a consistent, auditable and reliable data protection and rapid recovery strategy.
CDR backup is a process of copying electronic data from a computer's hard drive to a high capacity optical disc with 650-700MB of capacity. CDR backup has been around for more than a decade and was popular due to the very low cost per megabyte (about a tenth of a cent). Since the advent of DVD burning, CDR backup has been deemed obsolete.
CDR backup is effective for single user computers and is most widely used with home computers. At a small or medium-sized business, the lower cost is outweighed by the management and human intervention required to perform an effective data protection strategy.
CD media has to be changed by hand and archived daily. When the media capacity fills it needs to be replaced with blank media, and backups will not span across multiple CDs. Disk-to-disk technology provides the lights out management schedule required to provide a consistent, auditable and reliable data protection and rapid recovery strategy.
A Server backup is a copy of information from a server to a backup medium such as a disk drive or tape. These backup types can be bare metal or file-based.
Bare metal backups copy the boot and sys volumes of the bootable partition into a single file. If the OS crashed on that server, it would be able to be completely recovered by writing a bare metal image on the replacement drive or volume. Bare metal is based on block level transfers and will back up the MBR, Partition Table, File Systems, Operating Systems, Applications, Security, and File Attributes.
File-based backups allow you to select all or a portion of the server's data at a file level. This allows you to perform Master and Incremental backups on a regularly scheduled basis. Restoration of file-based backups also allows you to select all or a portion of the backup to restore. This is useful when only a single file or small group of files are required for restore.
Secure Data Sync is a licensed Unitrends software feature that synchronizes backup data from the Data Protection Unit (DPU) to a remote Data Protection Vault (DPV). The synchronization is encrypted and secure, and only sends the changes between backups to efficiently utilize slow connections such as T1 and DSL. The data is then synthesized into what is called a "Current Running Master."
Data can be synchronized during specified times throughout the day and bandwidth can be throttled. The advantage of Secure Data Sync is that if the DPU becomes unavailable, backup data can be retrieved from the remote DPV.
What's the difference between Cold Bare Metal and Hot Bare Metal backup?
Cold Bare Metal backup is a process where a CD is utilized to boot a computer, allowing the DPU to create a block-level backup of the boot and other volumes. This requires that the server is taken offline.
Hot Bare Metal backup does not require a CD to boot the computer. For Windows, Solaris and Unixware, Hot Bare Metal allows the server to remain in production while the block-level backup of the boot and other volumes takes place.
What's the difference between full backup, differential backup, incremental backup and mirror backup? Which does Unitrends support? Why?
A full backup is also known as a master backup, and includes all data on a computer, minus any data that has been excluded.
Differential backups (known as Incremental with Unitrends) are backups of the changed or added data since the last master backup, and each consecutive backup compounds the changes from the previous differentials, allowing the last differential to contain all of the changes since the last master. This allows for rapid data recovery without having to restore multiple "incremental" backups.
Incremental backups are backups of daily changes. Each day, an incremental backup is different and doesn't contain the changes from previous incrementals since the last master backup.
Mirror backups are backups that have been synchronized to a second set of hard drives that are removable for off-site protection.
Unitrends supports Master, Incremental (like differential), Selective, Baremetal, Secure Data Sync, and Mirror backups because they are the best combination of methods that provide redundancy, ease of rapid recovery, and high performance.
Disk-to-Disk-to Tape (D2D2T) refers to backing up data on disks first and tape (or optical disk) second. Backing up onto tape is performed at less frequent intervals than from disk-to-disk.
The Unitrends Data Protection Unit (DPU) provides extensive flexibility by allowing internal DPU disk-to-tape transfers to archive backup images protected by the DPU.
The DPU's standard disk-to-disk high speed data transfers for data protection and rapid recovery are augmented with standard features allowing users to easily move data from the DPU to a tape for long term archive requirements.
