What is Azure backup?
Consider it Azure fail safe in the cloud. It’s a cloud-based Azure Backup Solutions, part of a broad package presented to clients through the Azure Recovery Services vault. Though cloud-native, it is also possible to use Azure Backup on-premises as well as in the cloud. Azure Backup is simple to configure and use, offering consistent copies with security features and management controls via the Azure portal.
While VMs and the workloads hosted in those VMs are backed up using a backup extension, on-premises workloads can be protected using Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent, Azure backup server (MABS) or through integration with system center Data protection manager (DPM). Through these integrations, Azure backup takes point-in-time backups of your data from different sources: Azure VMs, SQL machines in Azure, SAP HANA databases in Azure, Files , folders, system state, SQL databases from on-premises, VMware VMs, Hyper-V VMs, and much more.
Are Azure Servers Backed Up?
So, Azure backup backs up your data, but are Azure servers backed up? The answer to that question is yes, they can be. Servers that are hosted in Azure in IaaS can be protected using Azure backup. It is simple to enable this backup directly from the Azure portal with minimal configuration overhead. The service can be enabled for both Windows and Linux VMs in Azure. For Windows VMs, the service integrates with VSS service for app-consistent backup and for Linux VMs file consistent backup is taken. Architecture of Azure VM backup is shown below:
Where Are Azure Backups Stored?
So, now that it’s clear servers on Azure are secure, you might be asking where are Azure backups stored? Azure Backups are stored in Azure storage, which is automatically created by the backup service. As Azure storage is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis, this serves as a very inexpensive backup solution for your data estate in the cloud. Azure storage is resilient by design and there will be a minimum of three copies of your data available in the cloud in Azure storage when using locally-redundant storage (LRS) replication. Additional resiliency for the storage is available through geo-redundant storage (GRS) and zone-redundant storage (ZRS) replication options.
Using Azure Backup
1. Assess Your Requirements
Figuring out your company’s requirements when it comes to backup is the first step. All the following steps on this list will be based on what you need in the first place from your backups.
But that can be easier said than done: Most companies are confused when it comes to their recovery plans. They may not have plans that align well with recovery goals or know what to expect in a recovery situation. Some companies are bound by laws and regulations or market trends to ensure the high availability and disaster recovery of their service. They need to be ready to recover data and applications in an orchestrated manner if a critical outage takes place at a primary location.
For many companies who adopt Microsoft Office 365 Migration need an Azure disaster recovery solution, Azure Site Recovery offers an easy-to-use service for replicating physical, VMWare, or Hyper-V environments to Azure Virtual Machines. Azure Site Recovery adds orchestration and different failover options in case of disaster. On the other hand, if you need to keep copies of your data or virtual machines, either on-premises or in Azure, you should consider Azure Backup. This data can be restored to the original location or to an alternate location from the backup copies directly from the Azure portal or using MARS /MABS /DPM interface.
As the backup data is stored in Azure cloud storage, it is safe from any incidents that could impact your local data centers. Backup on Azure can serve as your primary backup location or as an extension to a different backup solution in which you have already invested.
To know more about Office 365 Backup visit O365CloudExperts.