Hey everyone,
I've just joined a new company and I'm diving into the major project of setting up a backup and disaster recovery solution, particularly in a field where data loss is simply not an option—it's sensitive data, and we have strict retention and restoration requirements.
Currently, we're relying on a service provider for backups, but I want to bring this in-house for cost reasons.
Here's a quick overview:
* Approximately 50 users
* About 30 servers (mostly VMware and a few physical Windows servers)
* Hybrid infrastructure:
* some on-prem
* some hosted with OVH
* Current data volume:
* Roughly 12-15 TB of useful data (but likely only 8 TB in use at the moment)
* with moderate growth expected
* Needs:
* Reliable backups
* Real restoration capability
* Disaster recovery tests at least once a year on an external site
# What I'm considering
* Veeam Backup & Replication
* Backups with OVH
* Encryption managed by Veeam
* Keys retained by our company
* No real-time replication (due to cost/complexity), but:
* regular backups
* restoration tests
* annual disaster recovery plan with temporary infrastructure at OVH
# Questions I have:
1. What type of storage should I choose with OVH? Should I also keep a backup copy elsewhere?
2. For around 15 TB of useful data, with a typical retention strategy (30 days + some monthly and one or two yearly), how much total storage would you estimate?
* I'm guessing around 20-40 TB total.
3. Cost-wise:
* What would the monthly storage fees with OVH be?
* How much do Veeam licenses typically cost?
4. If you were in my position, what would you suggest to your management in a scenario like mine?
I'm mainly looking for concrete feedback:
* What setups you've implemented
* What you would do differently
* What you would absolutely avoid
3 Answers
If you're working with traditional on-prem infrastructure, most organizations tend to use Veeam. I suggest reaching out to your account manager at OVH and Veeam to confirm pricing and integration options. Generally, as your spending increases, you might get better discounts. In my company in Canada, we don't use OVH; we prefer Equinox instead.
I’ve been using Datto with a Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) setup for backups. We first store everything on a local server, and then it transfers to Kaseya's Azure Cloud. This allows me to spin up critical servers in about 30 minutes either in their cloud or at my on-premises data center. For retention, we keep 30 days on-prem and 90 days in the cloud.
If I were in your shoes, I would definitely push for an internal solution. But remember, backups aren’t just about storage—they’re about how quickly you can get your systems back online. I’d say include a plan for regular testing and ensure you have off-site backups in place. Insurance for your data can also be a good backup strategy.
Thanks for the reminder! I'll definitely incorporate regular testing into our plan.
That sounds solid! Just make sure to regularly test those backups to ensure everything works when you need it.