File and Folder Backups – Data Protection

File and Folder Backups – Data Protection

In this section, you will see how you can back up files and folders using Azure Backup. This solution can be used to back up both cloud and on-premises data. Let’s start with Azure Backup.

Azure Backup

Azure Backup is a cloud-based backup solution that replaces existing on-premises backup solutions because of its reliability, security, and competitive cost. This service can be used to back up or protect and restore data in the Microsoft cloud.

A traditional backup solution requires infrastructure to be deployed to host backup services; however, with the help of a lightweight agent, you will be able to back up your servers securely to the cloud. Regardless of whether the server is in Azure, on-premises, or in any other cloud provider, you can back up and save the data in Azure Recovery Services Vault. The following are the benefits offered by Azure Backup:

Replaces On-Premises Backup Solution  It replaces traditional backup solutions with a simple interface and configuration. The backup can be audited, tracked, and monitored from the Azure portal.

Disaster Recovery  Since the backup is stored in the cloud, Azure Backup provides reliability in the case of an on-premises datacenter failure.

Unlimited Data Transfer  There is no restriction on the amount of inbound or outbound data transfer. This is ideal if you want to back up servers storing terabytes of data.

Secure Storage  You can encrypt the backup before transferring it to the cloud. The passphrase for decryption can be retained on-premises, which makes it more secure.

App-Consistent Recovery Points  Application consistent backup can back up both in memory as well as in pending operations. With the help of these restore points, you can quickly return to the running state of the application during the restore process.

Long-Term and Short-Term Retention  Azure Backup supports long-term and short-term retention. You can keep the backups as long as you want, and Azure Backup has a limit of 9,999 recovery points per instance.

Automatic Storage Management  For backups, storage is provisioned and allocated automatically based on the backup size. This way, you don’t have pre-provision storage or pay for large disks; you need to pay only for the data you store. Heterogenous storage is required in most hybrid scenarios, as in some parts on-premises and some in the cloud. For these scenarios, as the on-premises storage is owned by you, there is no additional cost for that.

Multiple Redundancy Options  Azure Backup supports LRS, ZRS, and GRS redundancy. It’s recommended to have different vaults for backing up your production and testing machines. Production machines are supposed to use GRS for higher durability, while development and testing machines can use LRS.