Partly cloudy: reduce the cost of backups

Hybrid clouds have become one of the key solutions for optimizing modern business in small and medium-sized companies. Compared with the installation and maintenance of their own servers, they are easier to scale, which allows you to optimize the cost of IT infrastructure. At the same time, there is a greater availability of applications and data in hybrid clouds compared to their placement in a public cloud. At the same time, the transition to hybrid platforms has created new challenges for cloud solution providers and their customers. Previous backup and disaster recovery schemes were ineffective due to the specifics of new systems. In this article we will look at the recently introduced Acronis solution for the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.

Acronis Backup Cloud is a highly scalable hybrid backup service. It serves to effectively manage data protection within a unified security policy. This service is compatible with any technological environment, since it works regardless of where the data source is located and where the containers with backups are located.

You can use this service using the Acronis Backup Cloud Extension for Azure extensions. The version of extensions for Azure Stack will appear shortly after its release by Microsoft.

Acronis Backup Cloud Extension is focused on cloud service providers and their customers. This software product solves the following key tasks:
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- performs backup of any objects of the distributed file system;
- performs guaranteed disaster recovery of data and applications;
- provides secure file sharing in a hybrid cloud;
- makes it safe to migrate to Azure virtual machines (transfer a local server based on Windows or Linux to the Azure cloud);
- used to transfer data and applications from other clouds (for example, Amazon WebServices) to Azure virtual machines;
- provides backup of existing and new virtual machines (Linux or Windows) in the Azure environment.

Acronis Backup Cloud Extension provides the ability to use a hybrid backup scheme for cloud service providers on the Microsoft Azure and Azure Stack platforms. With it, the administrator does not have to calculate for a long time from which device, which data and which physical media will be recorded. The backup plan is configured once and presented at a higher level of abstraction (in the hybrid cloud). This approach reduces the influence of the human factor, allows you to forget about the problem of lack of space and focus on the main tasks.

The proposed hybrid backup scheme is universal in its logic. It improves data security by working equally well in physical and virtual environments of any scale, with stationary and mobile devices. A special role today belongs to the protection of a mobile IT environment. Almost all modern companies are actively using mobile devices in business-critical operations.


Microsoft Azure is not just another cloud, but a whole platform of interconnected branded products. Due to their integration, it is rapidly developing into a proprietary ecosystem, which has its own hidden specifics. Today, Microsoft Azure is used in business intelligence, for resource-intensive computing and various big data solutions. As a Microsoft partner, Acronis develops data protection methods for all of its components — such as Active Directory, Exchange, Hyper-V, Office 365, SQL Server, SharePoint, and others.

Acronis Backup Cloud Extension implements the principles of centralized management of backup operations using a single console. Cloud providers can set up subscriptions and deploy a common backup service through the Azure Stack portal. You can also install backup agents using the Azure PowerShell API and manage backups from a single Acronis Backup console.

Since the hybrid cloud for storage uses a custom subscription, the storage capacity of backups is extremely easy to manage. If there is not enough free space, you do not upgrade your storage system, but simply add the required volume from the cloud in a couple of clicks. Additionally, Acronis Storage Gateway for Microsoft Azure will allow you to back up data directly to Microsoft Azure containers.
A few minutes is enough for the cloud service provider on the Microsoft Azure platform to connect Acronis backup solutions and offer them to its customers.

Findings:

1. Hybrid cloud allows you to reduce the cost of IT infrastructure, including by optimizing the creation and storage of backup copies.
2. Modern cloud platforms are sets of closely interrelated services, which makes their protection a very specific task.
3. To create effective backup solutions for proprietary hybrid clouds can only partner companies, which reveal the necessary technical details.
4. The backup service can be connected by cloud providers in just a few minutes.
5. The hybrid backup scheme is universal and allows you to manage all operations from a single console.

Useful links:

» Webinars on backup and data protection
» Comparing Acronis and Veeam

We hope that our material was useful,
Do not be lazy, friends, make backups on time!