Backup and DR Service on GCP — Quick Bites
We’re soon going to enter a period where zero tolerance and zero unplanned downtime will become the standard, given how quickly the world is being transformed by digital technology(Epiphany Alert! Don’t tell me I didn’t tell you!).
Given our low to no tolerance capabilities as humans, this makes outages scandalously costly for organisations, not just money-wise but also credibility-wise, and the latter … hurts bad!
GCP’s new “Backup & Disaster Recovery” service sets its foot in — as the “Batman & Robin” saviour duo for Business Continuity.
If you are wondering what made me draw that analogy … Hold that thought!
Backup, our first warrior of this “Batman & Robin” pair — is a solution; Disaster Recovery, the other defender — is more of a strategy.
Backup is an act of copying or archiving files to a remote server, that can be utilised to recover data later. Disaster recovery (DR), on the other hand, encompasses the full plan of action for responding to a catastrophic event, concentrating on accessing those data backup via effective policies. Of course, if we don’t back up our data and/or files, there won’t be much to recover!
GCP’s Backup & DR service is where these two superheroes team up to save organisations from a variety of challenges, such as natural catastrophes and the most recent cyberattacks, by combining their strengths and counteracting their weaknesses. Together, they assist organisations achieve their goals for business continuity by lowering the risk of data loss and improving operations.
Before we move ahead, if you are still holding that thought☝ … you can now “Let it Go!”, coz …
In case you are wondering which thought, my message for you is … 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
We’ll now discuss the superpowers of our superhero duo, along with their props and how they carry out their heroic deeds.
Let’s start with the salient features of Google Cloud Backup and DR service:
- Software as a Service with a centralised GCP control plane.
- Has a consumption based pricing model for storage and usage components(monthly).
- Supports application and crash-consistent backups for multiple workloads.
- Stores backup data in its original, application-readable format.
- Data encryption in-transit and at-rest.
- Employs space-efficient “incremental forever” storage technology.
- Centralised management of backups for Google Cloud and hybrid workloads.
- Cross-region backups and cross project recoveries.
- Multi-region disaster recovery.
- Supports instant mount from Google Cloud Storage.
- Protection for broad spectrum of workloads — Compute Engine VMs, VMware VMs, file systems, databases including IBM Db2, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB, MySQL, Oracle, SAP ASE, SAP HANA, SAP IQ, SAP MaxDB, and PostgreSQL.
… and that covers the “superpowers” we were talking about 👻.
Up next, here are the key components of the Google Cloud Backup and DR service’s architecture at a glance👇 👇
You guessed it! The items listed above are the “props” that give our dynamic duo its foundation. That is definitely deserving of a self-high-five 😎.
Last but not least, here is how the Google Cloud Backup & DR service operates(their plan in “action”):
- Identify which applications need backup(VMs, SAP HANA, Oracle…).
- Apply backup plans — the data-handling policies, to the applications to manage them.
— Backup Templates: This defines the frequency and retention of data backups.
— Resource Profiles: This specifies the physical location of the storage(snapshot pool or remote appliance) for the data backups. - Once a managed application has a backup image created, it can be restored to production anytime and the data can then be easily accessed.
Now that we are familiar with our GCP Backup & DR star duo, time for …
The actual problem, which is widespread, is the unanticipated downtime. Operations may be substantially disrupted by the process of moving from a company’s primary location to a backup facility and then switching back after an incident, which also has an effect on the budget.
Given its minimal Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO), GCP’s Backup & DR service provides a one-stop solution for decreasing this downtime gap. It can help an enterprise reach a successful point in its transformational journey in terms of digital maturity.
Most significantly, Google Cloud Backup & DR service provides enterprises with the flexibility and peace of mind they need, together with lightning-fast application recovery — whenever they need it!
In case you ever considered ignoring backup and disaster recovery 🤔,
You ought to give that another thought … Happy Exploring!
