ioSafe https://iosafe.com Fireproof and Waterproof Hard Drive Storage Tue, 06 Feb 2024 00:34:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.7.11 https://iosafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/cropped-ioSafe512x512-32x32.png ioSafe https://iosafe.com 32 32 Tragedy in Ice and Fire https://iosafe.com/blog/tragedy-in-ice-and-fire/ Tue, 06 Feb 2024 00:34:32 +0000 https://iosafe.com/?p=2844169 The post Tragedy in Ice and Fire appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>

Tragedy in Ice and Fire

During one bitterly cold and blustery night on January 16, 2024, four separate fire departments scrambled to the farm and equipment showroom of a Mennonite businessman in rural Ohio. 

With the wind chill around -11F, the water from the fire trucks froze almost as soon as it exited their hoses. Not only did the water fail to put out the fire, but it turned the ground into a hazardous field of ice. The crews from the fourteen assembled trucks also battled frozen hydrants and low supply ponds from which they drew their water. Complicating matters, the wind itself made the fire even more dangerous and unpredictable. 

Though no one was injured, little could ultimately be done to save the property. 

In the aftermath, one ioSafe fireproof and waterproof data storage device was pulled from the rubble. It had withstood several hours engulfed in flames as well as the blow of a concrete wall that had collapsed on top of it. Norman Reed, the business’s IT servicer, recounts what happened when he opened the ioSafe device, “To my surprise, upon removing the screw holding the cover, I heard a distinct whoosh sound, akin to opening a soda can. Remarkably, the drives inside are in excellent condition, successfully preserving our crucial company files amidst the destructive fire.”

This lamentable event shows how our fireproof and waterproof products can keep an unforeseen disaster from killing your business. If you lose critical data like financial or customer records to broken plumbing, flood, or fire, your business is very unlikely to recover. Protect your data—and your home or business—with fireproof and waterproof data storage. Because Norman equipped this business with an ioSafe device, it will survive, even though its showroom didn’t. 

Related Blog Posts

The post Tragedy in Ice and Fire appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>
Wildfire Prep: 7 Essentials to Pack in Your Emergency Go Bag https://iosafe.com/blog/wildfire-prep-7-essentials-to-pack-in-your-emergency-go-bag/ Sun, 28 Aug 2022 20:00:00 +0000 https://iosafe.com/?p=2747 The post Wildfire Prep: 7 Essentials to Pack in Your Emergency Go Bag appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>

Wildfire Prep: 7 Essentials to Pack in Your Emergency Go Bag

An emergency go bag should be at the top of everyone’s disaster planning checklist. Wildfires, hurricanes, earthquakeswhichever natural or manmade disaster strikes, they hit fast, and you need a one-stop grab-and-go for all the essentials.

To start thinking about what’s truly crucial in your emergency go bag, here are 7 things you should consider adding:

Note: These are estimates based on affordable options that are functional for the average household 

1. Portable/pocket radio

Cost: $20 – $40
Weight: .2 – .3 lbs (3.2 – 4.8oz)

Chances are, when a wildfire breaks out, the power goes out along with it. PG&E preemptively shuts off power with a PSPS during dry, windy weather, low humidity, dry vegetation, and other potential catalysts for wildfires. That means no electricity, no cell phones, and there goes one of your most useful tools—if not THE most useful—in your arsenal for emergency prep. 

With your connection to the outside world severed, your next best option is to stay tuned in with a radio. Explore local news channels and write down their station numbers in a small notebook (which you should also add to your kit). That way, you won’t need to fiddle with the radio later on, when you’re already scrambling for time.

2. First aid kit

Cost: $15 – $25
Weight: .1 – 1.5 lbs (1.6 – 24oz)

These kits come in all form factors, stocked with the standards like bandages and gauze to hammers and glow sticks. 

Personally, I’d go for a middle-of-the-road version, but it’s not to say the extra bits aren’t neat additions. It’s good to know you not only have the ability to bandage a wound, but also smash a car window or slice a seatbelt. Because you never know, right?

3. Flashlight

Cost: $8 – $99+
Weight: .3 – .7lbs (4.8 – 11.2oz)

Here’s another thing lost if you face a dead battery in the once-mighty cell phone. I’d love to say this is a straightforward thing to purchase, but there are *SO* many options (ones with super-bright LEDs, zoomable, tactical, waterproof, etc.). And it’s honestly overwhelming. 

For something all-purpose (without all the extra doo-dads), I’d go for a 1000+ lumen headlamp that’s water-resistant and rechargeable. There’s nothing wrong with a standard handheld flashlight, but I like the freedom of hands-free headlamps.

4. Portable cell phone battery pack

Cost: $15 – $30
Weight: .75 – 1.5 lbs (12 – 24oz)

Speaking of phones, if you do have the luxury of recharging it, you’re in luck. But with the likelihood of local power outages in the event of a wildfire, it’s great to have a battery pack (or “power bank”) handy.

Keep in mind these lose their charge over time via self-discharge, which causes a battery pack to lose around 5% of its charge over a 24 hour period, and all the way up to 50-55% gone after 6 months. 

So, if you get your emergency go bag all buttoned up and stashed away, you may want to set a calendar reminder to recharge your battery pack every 6 months, just to be safe.

5. Refillable water bottle

Cost: $10 – $100
Weight: .3 – 1.8 lbs (4.8 – 28.8oz)

As you’ve probably heard, humans can’t survive without water for more than the span of a few days, and this means a refillable water bottle should absolutely be in your go bag. Pre-filled bottles are a viable option, and adding one or two is a good idea, but keep in mind it’ll weigh down your bag.

While I’m a fan of the stainless steel variety (because I like my water super cold), it might make more sense to pack a BPA-free plastic reusable bottle. Especially considering extremely cold or extremely hot temperatures aren’t an extra factor in hydration. In fact, the University of Connecticut found that stabilizing your water at 50-68 (10-21º), or around room temperature, is “optimal for palatability and fluid ingestion”. Plus, plastic will lighten your load.

6. Water purification tablets/LifeStraw

Cost: $7 – $20
Weight: .05 – .12 lbs (.8 – 2 oz)

If your emergency/disaster lasts more than a few days, and resources are slim, keeping water purification tablets or a LifeStraw on hand will make your water supply abundant. Abundant as in, you can use the straw to drink directly from streams and lakes. According to their website, LifeStraw uses a hollow fiber membrane to filter bacteria and parasites (99.9999 percent of bacteria, 99.99 percent of viruses, and 99.9 percent of protozoan parasites). How awesome is that?

7. Multi-tool

Cost: $10 – $90
Weight: .12 – 1 lb (2 – 16 oz)

While functional pieces of these might come in first aid kits, it’s worth looking into an all-in-one multi-tool. Some come with scissors, most with knives, but keep an eye out for ones with a fire-starting rod and an emergency whistle. They’re not too much more expensive, and I mean… you can start a fire. I’m sold.

Total Cost: $85 – $400

Total Weight: ~2 – 7 lbs (32 – 112 oz)

Other honorable mentions include:

  • 2-4 extra batteries (most radios require 2 AA)
  • An external hard drive with backups of important files/photos
  • A set of keys for your house/car
  • Spare glasses/contact lenses
  • Lighters/matches
  • Cash (small bills) 
  • A copy of your ID
  • A list of emergency contacts
  • Meal replacement bars
  • One or two changes of clothes

Pre-packed emergency go bags

While the build-your-own approach can make your go bag as custom as you’d like, a ton of pre-made emergency kits exist on the market. 

Usually, these emergency kits say they’ll give you preparation for multiple natural disasters, but if you’re looking for a go bag tailored for wildfires, here’s one by First Aid Survival.

If you’re along the Cascadia Subduction Zone in the Pacific Northwest, check out these Earthquake Kits by Cascadia Quake Kits.

Otherwise, you can go for multi-disaster emergency go bags and kits, which will run you $50 – $400, depending on your family size and other unique needs (like pets, senior care, etc.).

Originally published October 2019, updated September 2022

Nichole Kucher

Nichole Kucher

Digital Marketing Manager

Making ioSafe's fireproof and waterproof data protection known to the world. Writer, dog mom, pro tea-drinker, and avid video game enthusiast. On my off days, you can find me sweating it out in a yoga class, cuddling with my dog, or experimenting with healthy recipes in the kitchen.

Related Blog Posts

The post Wildfire Prep: 7 Essentials to Pack in Your Emergency Go Bag appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>
Protecting Data as a Digital Nomad (Part 3) https://iosafe.com/blog/digital-nomad-part-3/ Fri, 17 Dec 2021 16:27:28 +0000 https://iosafe.com/?p=2242788 The post Protecting Data as a Digital Nomad (Part 3) appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>

Protecting Data as a Digital Nomad (Part 3)

Photo: Annie Wynn

In this three-part series, we’re taking a look at why backups matter, especially for digital nomads, and how to create and execute a backup strategy that fully protects your digital life.

Whether you’re full-timing in an Airstream trailer or hunkered down in a country cabin, you need a well-designed backup strategy and the equipment to execute that strategy. As we covered in part two of this series, we recommend the Full-Coverage 3-2-1 backup strategy: three copies of each file, two local copies (one on your working drive and one on a different drive or backup device), and one copy offsite.

 

Let’s Get Local

Let’s face it, the key to a solid backup strategy is really having a local backup that is secure and can stand up to disastrous things like fire or water. That rules out the whole “copy things to a flash drive and throw it in the bottom drawer” approach.  

What makes a safe, secure local backup? The short answer is automated software and secure, resilient hardware.

The software you use for backing up your data needs to be automatic.  It shouldn’t depend on you remembering to choose a menu item or flip a switch. Whether you use something like the Windows 10 Backup (in Settings), Time Machine in macOS, other commercial backup software or write your own, it also needs to be reliable. And bonus points if it can warn you the nightly backup hasn’t been done, so you know to fix whatever broke.

The hardware you select for backing up your data might be the one thing people think about the least. They buy an external hard drive, hook it up, set up the software, and mostly forget about it. I know because that’s what I did as a digital nomad. It was only when a friend’s RV caught on fire that I realized my backup strategy needed some serious improvement, starting with the hardware.

 

Dodging Disasters

Every digital nomad on the road has met the concept of a “go bag” whether it’s due to tornado watches in the Southeast or wildfires in the West. Usually, a go bag is what you can pack in under ten minutes and you grab only what you cannot live without or replace easily: IDs, credit cards, phone (and charger), laptop (and charger), hard copies of specific papers, etc. and maybe a few special items close to your heart. Most people in the controlled panic that involves packing a go bag and moving to a safe place don’t think about their backup disks.

I know I didn’t the first three times I got caught in tornado warnings. I had visions of my trailer acting like Dorothy’s house in the Wizard of Oz. I had my laptop with me, but it had been at least a week since I’d done a cloud backup and my local backup disk was in a cupboard in my trailer. I was juggling a handful of client projects with impending deadlines so I couldn’t afford to lose a single file. Cue the better backup strategy, starting with better local hardware.

After the tornado warning was over, I got online and did my cloud backup and then I started researching better local backup solutions.

What exactly makes for a rock-solid, reliable local backup? It’s actually pretty simple. Ask yourself these five questions:

  • Is it easy to use? If you don’t use your backup system because it’s a pain, it really isn’t doing you any good at all.
  • Is it reliable? The manufacturer should stand behind their product with a solid warranty.
  • Does it protect as well as store your data? My “solution” stored my data, but it didn’t protect me at all against fire or water damage.
  • Does it include data recovery? If the drive fails, or it gets damaged by fire or water, there should be a way to recover the data. ioSafe, for example, offers its Data Recovery Service for disks it sells, covering all sorts of data loss.
  • How old is the hardware? Even with the best device, you should be thinking about replacing it after five years of steady usage. Even though we think digital data floats through the ether, the devices it lands on are physical objects subject to a lifespan.

For digital nomads, especially ones with smaller rigs like mine (a 17-foot travel trailer) or a van, finding space and power for a local backup solution like ioSafe’s Solo G3 may seem like a lot of work but once it’s set up, you’re good to go. It’s easy, reliable, and protects your data from all kinds of potential disaster scenarios. From work files to photos and digital memories, it’s a great feeling to know all your digital assets are well-protected.

Annie Wynn

Guest Blogger

Annie Wynn, our guest blogger for this series, has been a digital nomad for over five years, traveling the US and Canada in her Alto trailer. You can follow her adventures at www.wynnworlds.com.

Related Blog Posts

The post Protecting Data as a Digital Nomad (Part 3) appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>
Protecting Data as a Digital Nomad (Part 2) https://iosafe.com/blog/digital-nomad-part-2/ Fri, 17 Dec 2021 16:17:21 +0000 https://iosafe.com/?p=2242714 The post Protecting Data as a Digital Nomad (Part 2) appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>

Protecting Data as a Digital Nomad (Part 2)

Photo: Annie Wynn

In this three-part series, we’re taking a look at why backups matter, especially for digital nomads, and how to create and execute a backup strategy that fully protects your digital life.

As a digital nomad, so much of your professional life and personal life is on your computer. You don’t have file drawers or boxes full of paper documents or printouts. Everything lives on your hard drives, whether you’re using a laptop or a desktop computer. How well are you protecting all those files? Let’s dive into what makes up a full-coverage backup strategy.

 

What Needs Backup?

The obvious answer is everything! Not just files like documents and photos, but also your programs, apps, and configuration files. As anyone knows who has had to start over with a clean computer, it can take hours and hours of non-billable time to download and configure the applications you use for work and for play. files.

If you’re a Mac user, for example, you probably already use Time Machine to back up your computer. This program creates a reference image of files and applications on an external drive and then incrementally updates it on a regular basis. But what exactly does “a regular basis” mean?

If you’re working full-time, you need to back your files up every night. If you’re a part-timer worker, you might get away with every few days, but why take that chance? Nightly backups should be an automatic part of your digital nomad life.

 

The Full-Coverage 3-2-1 Backup Strategy

Let’s face it, backups aren’t something that any sane person wants to think about for any length of time. It’s way more fun to be playing fantasy sports or an MMPG than figuring out your backup strategy. We get that. We all want an easy and dependable backup strategy, but what does that really mean? We think it means an automated solution that is not only powerful and reliable but is also waterproof and fireproof. A backup strategy should cover all the bases. And it also shouldn’t depend on you remembering to hook up that external drive when you get back from vacation or a business trip.

The golden rule of full-coverage backups is to have three copies of everything: your working disk, a local backup, and an offsite backup. That way, you’re covered against any of those disasters, big and small, that we looked at in part 1 of this series.

 

Local Backups

Local backups provide 100% availability. Think about when you’ve lost a file or accidentally deleted a key spreadsheet. You want to be able to dive into your backup and retrieve that item ASAP. You don’t want to have to depend on access to the cloud, especially if you’re a digital nomad and your connectivity is currently offline.

When setting up your local backups, you want a solution that is fast, automatic, and secure. And, since it’s going to be inside your RV or trailer, you want it to be waterproof and fireproof, so it can survive the worst possible scenarios. After being a full-time digital nomad for the last few years, I’ve learned that anything bad that can happen will probably eventually happen. Best to be prepared for it, that’s my motto.

 

Cloud Backups

Backing up to the cloud gives you a second backup location and it also moves your files offsite so that they are physically outside your rig. The challenge, though, is that you may not always be able to get to the cloud. Yes, that campsite outside Zion National Park is gorgeous, but the internet is pretty iffy. If you must drive your rig 30 miles to get a good enough signal for backing up to the cloud, chances are you’re not doing that on a regular basis. It’s way more fun to be hiking up to Angel’s Landing or waiting for just the right light to hit the eastern mountain tops than face the prospect of a half-day spent doing an offsite backup run.

The other complication for digital nomads is the cost of backing up to the cloud. With wireless plans, a digital nomad like me pays for every scrap of data I upload or download to or from the cloud. If you’re backing up a local RAID array, regular cloud backups can quickly eat up your monthly data allowance. Most full-timers have least two data plans for better coverage and more data, but even with that kind of access, you run the risk of being throttled if you exceed your quota. And we’re not even talking about overcrowded cell towers in popular locations, making fast signal and data uploads nearly impossible. When thousands of digital nomads descend on Quartzsite, Arizona in January every year, looking for warmer weather and social gatherings, getting a solid connection to the cloud can be a constant challenge.

In the final part of this series, we’ll look at how to plan for the unpredictable future and make sure your data stays safe and secure.

Annie Wynn

Guest Blogger

Annie Wynn, our guest blogger for this series, has been a digital nomad for over five years, traveling the US and Canada in her Alto trailer. You can follow her adventures at www.wynnworlds.com.

Related Blog Posts

The post Protecting Data as a Digital Nomad (Part 2) appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>
Protecting Data as a Digital Nomad (Part 1) https://iosafe.com/blog/digital-nomad-part-1/ Fri, 17 Dec 2021 16:09:20 +0000 https://iosafe.com/?p=2239811 The post Protecting Data as a Digital Nomad (Part 1) appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>

Protecting Data as a Digital Nomad (Part 1)

Photo: Annie Wynn

In this three-part series, we’re taking a look at why backups matter, especially for digital nomads, and how to create and execute a backup strategy that fully protects your digital life.

In the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, one thing has become clear for those of us who used to work in offices all day every day: we no longer need a dedicated physical building to do our jobs. Yes, we all used to be sitting at desks in cube farms or open space offices from 8-5, Monday through Friday. Now? Many of us have become digital nomads, traveling for a month or two in RVs or jumping to full-time vagabonds as we work from anywhere we can locate a solid cell signal. Some of us have retreated to country cabins or second homes, far from the always-on cable subscriptions we’ve been used to for so many years.

Most digital nomads who work full-time jobs have serious tech closets in their RVs. Whether you’re living the #vanlife or enjoying a tricked-out Class A motorhome with four televisions, you’ve made sure you have all the tools you need to stay connected and protect your digital assets. Or do you?

Let’s take a quick look inside a typical tech closet. Most digital nomads subscribe to at least two cell providers (Verizon and ATT are the most popular by far). While a lot of digital nomads get by with dedicated hotspot devices, serious digital nomads use a combination of routers and SIM cards to seamlessly switch providers and aggregate signal bands that produce the best possible signal.

However, as any die-hard road warrior will admit it, sometimes there’s just no signal to be had. A cell tower goes offline, or a network gets overloaded can throw you offline without any notice at all. And that’s when you realize that using the cloud is great for document creation and storage, but only when you’re connected to it. What happens when you can’t get to the cloud, either to back up your files or to finish up that big project due Monday?

Another glance into the typical tech closet might show a Time Machine backup for a Mac or an external hard drive setup for PC or Linux storage and backups. But are your files, your hard work really protected? How you back up your data and how often you back it up needs to be a key part of your tech strategy as a digital nomad.

Those files, by the way, aren’t just work documents or invoices to clients. Your computers also store a lifetime of memories. All those great photos from your travels that you swore you were going to upload to a photo site. Personal documents that would be irreplaceable if they were lost: tax returns and legal papers for example. And let’s not forget the music you listen to while you work and play, and the movies that keep you entertained on cold, rainy nights.

So, let’s have a crash course (sorry, bad pun there…) on why backups matter.

  • Backups ensure your files are safe. A dropped laptop or a spilled coffee can happen to the best of us. Accidents shouldn’t mean you lose everything you’ve stored on your computer.
  • Malware, viruses, and phishing: the big three trying to get at your data and ruin your day, not to mention all your files. One click on the wrong email or a surprise on that “safe” website can ruin your day, not to mention your files.
  • Accidentally trashing a critical file has happened to all of us at one time or another. I still remember hearing the howl of pain from a coworker who just overrode their own safety checks and deleted an entire database. They spent days rebuilding it.
  • Theft can happen to anyone, anywhere. Leaving your laptop charging on the table at Starbucks while you run up to get your order seemed like a good idea until you turned around and saw an empty spot where the center of your digital universe used to be.
  • Disasters, whether flood or fire or hurricane, can destroy everything in minutes. You can run but can you carry your computer, your backup disk, and your pets?

The reality is you don’t have to be at the mercy of spilled coffee, hackers, or natural disasters. You can protect yourself and your valuable files with a full-coverage backup strategy. And that’s exactly what we’ll be exploring in part two of this series.

Annie Wynn

Guest Blogger

Annie Wynn, our guest blogger for this series, has been a digital nomad for over five years, traveling the US and Canada in her Alto trailer. You can follow her adventures at www.wynnworlds.com.

Related Blog Posts

The post Protecting Data as a Digital Nomad (Part 1) appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>
High Availability: Why It’s Your Backup Strategy Game-changer https://iosafe.com/blog/high-availability-what-is-it-and-why-its-your-backup-strategy-game-changer/ Thu, 14 Jan 2021 22:50:41 +0000 https://iosafe.com/?p=883973 The post High Availability: Why It’s Your Backup Strategy Game-changer appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>

High Availability: Why It’s Your Backup Strategy Game-changer

Black Friday Sale On Now

Save 20% on Every Item in our Store

In today’s world of data dependency, we’re constantly looking for ways to increase the uptime (accessibility) of our resources. We want to eliminate the possibility of system failures and make our data consistently available with little to no downtime. More often than we’d like, our access to essential resources is limited, creating a barrier between us and accomplishing our tasks.

This process is sometimes complicated and expensive, but when compared to the impacts caused by data loss or the inability to service our clients, we work through the possibilities to enjoy the security and dependability of a High Availability environment.

What is High Availability?

High Availability (HA) is connecting two NAS servers into one high-availability cluster (or HA cluster). One server acts as the active server, while the other becomes a passive server. As the active server controls the data requests and services, the data is continually — and nearly instantaneously — copied to the passive server. This provides a complete hardware and data redundancy solution for unforeseen accidents, disasters, and hard drive failure, among other possible disruptions.

When you integrate an HA cluster into your network infrastructure, it becomes the backbone for accessing data within any backup strategy. With an HA cluster, you increase your uptime exponentially and alleviate inaccessibility concerns of resources that your employees need to stay active and productive.

How we’ve used High Availability in our environment

I remember when we first set up our HA cluster back in 2015 and began replicating data from one system to the next. I worked with our former IT Administrator to address the resources and applications needed from those systems. In less than a day, we had one up and running.

During our testing phase, while accessing the HA cluster, we purposely caused disk failures. It worked seamlessly, with little to no noticeable time loss to required shares by the staff. Often HDDs and SSDs fail, but HA is a game-changer. In the classic use of a NAS system, you’re accessing data from only one source or replacing the resource in an active environment to recover and restore your backups from the destination. The time lost when replacing hardware can negatively impact your productivity, ability to continue critical backup functions, and maintain your business’s critical infrastructure and resources.

Over the last few years, we’ve seen disk failure occasionally in our active environment. During these events, we maintained steady (and near-instantaneous) access to required data in our network.

Since my office is right down the hall from our server room, I frequently visit with our IT group as they conduct any necessary network maintenance. And that meant I saw disk replacements happen first-hand. Never in these instances has my productivity been affected and, as far as I knew, all my resources were always available.

For this reason, I’ll typically host my personal and work product on the cluster and never experienced a time that my data wasn’t available due to any of the failures we’ve experienced. The same process works from my remote home office. While working on this article via a VPN connection that can also be configured from the HA cluster, I’ve saved all iterations to my private cloud, knowing that a copy is with me locally, and also resides on the cluster with backup targets of that cluster.

By accomplishing all of this, I go a step above the 3-2-1 backup that we all hear about. I call it the 4-4-1-3-3 (4 copies, 4 systems, 1 onsite, 3 offsite, and 3 on our ioSafe disaster-proof hardware):

  • 1 copy on my home system (local)
  • 1 copy on the active server (private cloud)
  • 1 copy on the passive server (private cloud)
  • 1 copy on the BU target (local cloud BU)

While some might consider this more than what’s required, it might end up fitting your personal or professional backup strategy. To find out what works best for you, ask yourself:

  • What is your data worth?
  • What is your time worth?
  • What impact will data loss have on you and your organization?

Once the system is configured, it’s second nature. There’s no wasted time to get the copies and redundancy in place.

Through consistent, solid backup practices — and by hosting my personal and team shares on the cluster — I’m always confident my data is recoverable, regardless of what catastrophe might occur. When predictable failures are addressed with an HA cluster by incorporating the disaster-resistant hardware, we address the unforeseen and possibly complete loss of our physical building. Data can be recovered quickly, made available with minimal to no impact on our ability to continue working, and always maintain our business continuity.

A little more about HA and how you might use it  

As mentioned earlier, an HA cluster is two systems: one is an active system and the other is a passive system. These systems communicate via what’s called a heartbeat. When an active server experiences an issue, the passive server takes over to ensure all resources are available. This fast and consistent transition maximizes your uptime to ensure your resources are accessible.

Because of this, forming the cluster creates a robust and stable environment to address critical resources including (but not limited to):

  • Storage
  • Virtual machines
  • File services
  • Web services
  • Private cloud infrastructure
  • All packages available through Synology’s package center and configured on the HA cluster
Thank you for spending some time to familiarize yourself with High Availability. Realizing that we all have unique struggles and needs within our network environments, our ultimate goal is to help in any way possible.
Leif Watkins

Leif Watkins

Sales Director, ioSafe Global Sales

In June 2012, Leif joined ioSafe, and during his time he's played an essential role in development and support of the ioSafe vision and growth strategy, serving several critical roles including Customer Service Manager, Technical Support Manager, Sales Manager and now his current position as the ioSafe Global Sales Director. Leif is responsible for implementing programs and sales strategies that support CDSG Channel strategy.

Related Blog Posts

The post High Availability: Why It’s Your Backup Strategy Game-changer appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>
Active Full Backup vs. Synthetic Full Backup for Virtual Machines https://iosafe.com/blog/active-full-backup-vs-synthetic-full-backup-for-virtual-machines/ Wed, 16 Dec 2020 22:40:23 +0000 https://iosafe.com/?p=771055 The post Active Full Backup vs. Synthetic Full Backup for Virtual Machines appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>

Active Full Backup vs. Synthetic Full Backup for Virtual Machines

If you’re relatively new to the IT field or you’re a small business owner interested in making sure your business will survive a data disaster event like a flood or fire, the different considerations you’ll have to look at when creating a backup strategy for virtual machines can seem overwhelming at first blush.

While there are more methods for virtual machine backup than these, I’ll focus on two of them and the pros and cons for each: active full backups and synthetic full backups. And then I’ll give a brief overview of a third method. But first, a quick breakdown of the bigger picture.

Virtual Machines Explained (Basically, it’s like this…)

Virtual machines are what they say on the tin: a virtualized computer that acts just like a normal computer and emulates physical hardware like CPUs, memory, hard drives, and so on. It is, essentially, a computer within a computer. And it’s sandboxed from its host computer such that its files and programs can’t interact with the host machine’s main operating system (OS), files, other programs, or other virtual machines that it hosts.

It’s also worth noting that when there are multiple virtual machine servers hosted on the same physical computer an additional piece of software called a hypervisor is used to manage them. The hypervisor ensures that the host computer’s resources are utilized and distributed effectively across the multiple guest virtual machines it manages. They help reduce the space, energy, and maintenance that each virtual machine requires.

Virtual machines are used to test alpha or beta software, run non-native software on other OS’s, and host multiple websites in a cost-effective way, among other things. And like all software, they need to be backed up.

Before we get to the two specific backup methodologies, there are other things you’ll have to look at as well, such as your company’s requirements for retaining data, recovery time objective (RTO), recovery point objective (RPO), and backup level. You can back up the entire host system at the physical level, back up virtual machines at the hypervisor level, or back up from within each virtual machine itself. Whichever strategy you choose, you’ll have to also choose a backup method.

Two such methods loom large in consideration: active full backup and synthetic full backup.

Active Full Backup

An active full backup produces a full backup of a virtual machine. It copies every piece of data that’s part of the virtual machine from the source server to the backup repository. This method helps if your backup repository is in heavy use or it’s generally slow. You likely won’t be straining its resources since most of the strain will be in reading data from the source.

Producing an active backup can be slow and take a long time if your host is one that hosts a lot of other virtual machines and consequently sees a lot of server utilization. Active backups can also slow down and take much longer if your network traffic is heavy.

For this reason, many people pair active backups with incremental backups. Incremental backups back up only that data that has changed since the last full backup was created, reducing the resource usage and time it takes to do the backup to a mere fraction of what an active backup’s usage would be.

Most people pair them together in a way that’s similar to this: A full active backup is made each weekend, with incremental backups made on Monday through Friday. Then, the following weekend, these are discarded with the next active full backup.

So, suppose you need to restore your source after it failed on a Wednesday, then you’ll need the full backup from the weekend plus the incremental backups from Monday and Tuesday to restore your data back to where it was on Wednesday morning.

Ultimately though, whether you use active backup exclusively or active backup with incremental backup, the potential negative implications of active backup’s heavy resource usage depends greatly upon the unique characteristics of your company’s IT infrastructure and the way it’s used within the company. If your company makes use of a data deduplication appliance, you might prefer active backups.

A deduplication appliance is hardware that ensures extra copies of data don’t exist in a backup location. It increases backup efficiency by eliminating the need to recopy identical data during a backup and maximizes the storage capacity available for backups. However, they’re typically optimized for writing data and consequently slow at reading data, which means processes like synthetic backups that utilize reading data from the backup repository can take longer than backup methods like active backup that don’t read data from the backup repository. Let’s go more into more detail on synthetic backups.

Synthetic Full Backup

To create a synthetic full backup, you’ll need to start with an active full backup. Afterward, no active full backups are made. Instead, incremental backups are produced from that point onwards.

As mentioned previously, incremental backups back up only that data that has changed since the last full backup was created, reducing the resource usage and time it takes to do the backup to a mere fraction of what an active backup’s usage would be.

Unlike an active full backup with incremental backups, data is not pulled from the source to create a new full backup. Instead, after a set interval, all the incremental backups are combined with the previous full backup into a new full backup on the backup repository. Since the full backup is generated exclusively existing backups on the backup repository instead of from the source, like in an active backup, it’s called a synthetic full backup instead.

So, if we assume the same weekly backup schedule as we used in the example above, a full active backup would be made on the first weekend, with incremental backups made on Monday through Friday. Then, on the next weekend, the active backup is combined with the incremental backups to form a complete synthetic backup that is identical to the source data on the server as of Friday even though a full active backup is never taken from the source again.

The active full backup and previous incremental backups are then discarded. Then incremental backups are taken the next Monday through Friday. On the next weekend, these are combined with the previous synthetic backup to form a new up-to-date synthetic full backup. The old synthetic backup and the incremental backups are then discarded. This continues repeating.

So, supposing again that you need to restore your source after it failed on a Wednesday, you’ll also need the synthetic backup from the previous weekend plus the incremental backups from Monday and Tuesday to restore your data back to where it was on Wednesday morning.

The main difference a synthetic full backup has from an active full backup with incremental backups is that the bulk of the processing takes place on the backup repository instead of on your source. This frees up resource usage on your host/source and bypasses having to copy a large amount of data over the network that happens when you pull an active full backup. The only time network and resource usage occurs is during incremental backups which are much smaller than full backups. If your backup repository is quick or isn’t used heavily, this will have the positive effect of speeding up the time it takes to create backups.

The other difference is that after the first full active backup, you’ll never have to make another full backup from the source. This improves your recovery time because you can make the interval between full synthetic backups shorter than you could do with only creating active full backups since the majority of resource usage will be placed on the backup repository and won’t affect your source. The shorter time between full synthetic backups means you will need fewer incremental backups on average to restore your source.

In this theoretical example, let’s assume Tom is creating active full backups every Saturday and creates incremental backups on Monday through Friday. And let’s say Harry is creating synthetic full backups every Saturday. Also, because Harry doesn’t have to use resources from the source to create new backups, he also decides to create synthetic full backups on Wednesdays as well, with incremental backups being taken on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

If both Tom and Harry suffer a data disaster on Friday, then to recover his data Tom has to spend time assembling a full backup from his previous active full backup the previous Saturday as well as his incremental backups that were made on Monday through Thursday. But Harry only has to use his synthetic full backup from Wednesday and his incremental backup from Thursday. Harry will be able to recover his data faster because he has less data to reassemble in order to recover it.

Of course, synthetic full backups do have the potential downside of placing most of the resource usage on the backup repository, so it’s not a good method to use if your backup repository is in frequent use or it’s slow, since either will cause backups and restoring data to take more time.

This also applies if you’re using a data deduplication appliance as your backup repository since such appliances are typically optimized to write data instead of reading data. And synthetic backups require reading the data from your previous synthetic full backup and incremental backups to create an updated synthetic full backup.

But if you live in a world where your virtual machine is hosted on a source that commonly sees a high percentage of resource usage from other virtual machines it hosts, they’re worth your time to set up and see if they work for you.

Forever Incremental Backup

One final method also worth considering is the forever-incremental backup. This method is something of a cross between an active full backup and a synthetic backup. Like both of them, an active full backup is required to begin, and then just like with a synthetic full backup, only incremental backups are taken afterward. But unlike a synthetic full backup, a full synthetic backup of the incremental backups is never assembled.

Instead, after each incremental backup is run, the data from that backup is divided into individual blocks, deduplicated, and given a unique reference number that’s kept track of via a recovery point. A recovery point is like a catalogue that keeps track of where each piece of data lives on your backup repository so that a complete backup of your source can be reassembled when you need it.

So, for a third time, let’s suppose you need to restore from your source after it failed on a Wednesday. Your backup repository will reference the recovery point you are restoring from, and then go to each individual block of data in the backup repository that’s referenced by the recovery point to reassemble your virtual machine.

Like synthetic backups, this has the benefit of not straining your source host or network traffic, but like active backups, it also has the benefit of not straining your backup repository at all until you absolutely need to restore your data. It also saves a lot more space than active and synthetic full backups since it never keeps data in incremental or synthetic backup files, but rather as deduplicated individual blocks.

Not every backup repository or software will offer this method, but for those that do, it might be the best of both worlds, depending on your needs.

There’s no one perfect solution for virtual machine backup. Like everything in life, there’s a value tradeoff to make and that means the way your IT infrastructure is used each day and your organization’s policies will largely determine which one is the best fit for you. This choice is up to you, but now you’re better equipped to make that choice.

Originally published Dec 16 2020, updated Dec 16 2020

Annie Wynn

Guest Blogger

Annie Wynn, our guest blogger for this series, has been a digital nomad for over five years, traveling the US and Canada in her Alto trailer. You can follow her adventures at www.wynnworlds.com.

Related Blog Posts

The post Active Full Backup vs. Synthetic Full Backup for Virtual Machines appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>
Do I Need a NAS at Home? https://iosafe.com/blog/do-i-need-a-nas-at-home/ Thu, 19 Nov 2020 21:58:31 +0000 https://iosafe.com/?p=661894 The post Do I Need a NAS at Home? appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>

Do I Need a NAS at Home?

After working from home for the past seven months, many of us have started reevaluating what data storage needs we have at home — including NAS devices. However, there are so many different types of data storage that it becomes difficult to sift through the noise and select a device that meets your needs. Often times, people just go to the local electronics store and purchase the cheapest USB device.

But, if your entire family is now at home and utilizing data storage, there are better ways to store and protect your data. Today, we will explore the question of whether a NAS device is necessary at home.

What is a NAS device and how’s it different from an external hard drive?

First off, a network-attached storage (NAS) device operates on its own with its own operating system. These devices essentially have a small computer in them that makes storage smarter. These mini-computers add more functionality to your device.

Your typical external hard drive only has a USB plug to attach to one computer aka direct-attached storage (DAS). For instance, if I were to use a DAS device to my own computer via USB, my family would not be able to access that data. Nor would my family be able to utilize that storage device’s full potential because it is attached to one computer only. To that end, I think about media storage and use cases such as a Plex server for hosting Movies/TV shows and photos, which more or less require a NAS device.

A NAS device would allow multiple people to access that storage data at the same time because the device’s functionality is greater than that of an external hard drive. The benefits of this would be syncing your data regardless of location so everyone is able to access the data simultaneously.

So, Susie can watch her downloaded TV shows while Timmy does photo editing while you are saving work documents to the NAS device and your significant other is attaching photos from the last family vacation.

Is a NAS device at home necessary?

In most cases, yes! It really depends on the type of uses, the number of people, if there are external people that want access to that data as well, and your risk tolerance for data destruction.

If you are only using one device per person, I think an external hard drive is okay. However, in today’s multi-device per person environment, a NAS device is ABSOLUTELY A MUST! It protects your data and syncs your data from your devices so you have a copy.

NAS devices often have redundancy and allows for a second copy of your data to be made in case a hard disk fails – something that does not happen with single drive external hard drives.

A disaster-proof NAS is even better. With fires and floods becoming more disastrous and frequent, a device that can withstand disasters when you aren’t home is vital. 

 

Originally published Nov 19 2020, updated Nov 19 2020

Benny Kuo

Benny Kuo

Product Marketing Manager

Among wearing many hats in the ioSafe Marketing team, Benny often engages in tradeshows, customer interviews, and competitive analysis. In his spare time, he enjoys repairing computers  saving them from the e-waste stream.

Related Blog Posts

The post Do I Need a NAS at Home? appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>
How Big Should My Hard Drive Be? https://iosafe.com/blog/how-big-should-my-hard-drive-be/ Fri, 30 Oct 2020 19:12:56 +0000 https://iosafe.com/?p=587486 The post How Big Should My Hard Drive Be? appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>

How Big Should My Hard Drive Be?

Throughout my life, I’ve been using and building my own computers. I’ve used them for various reasons: School work, video and image storage, playing games, browsing, etc. During this time, I’ve upgraded the size of my hard drive multiple times to accommodate for the way I was using and storing data. That being said, I’d like to share my experience of hard drive storage usage based off the kind of data that might be stored on it.

At one point or another, I’ve been a student, gamer, office worker, (personal) video editor, and picture-taker. Every “profession” had one thing in common: I stored data on a hard drive. No matter which one I chose, maintaining all that data on one system required enough space. In my case, I’m currently using 2 terabytes of maximum capacity. Granted, I don’t use EVERY bit of possible space on my drive, but it covers all of my bases.

First Ask Yourself: What Will My Hard Drive Store?

You might not be like me. Maybe you just need a simple way to figure out your hard drive size for your home office as you continue working from home. Or you need a hard drive for more professional use, like photography, video editing, creating music, or any other kind of artistic, data-heavy use.

Maybe you need to store the highest quality or quantity of images and videos. Or, if you are like me, you unpredictably pick up new hobbies and store all sorts of miscellaneous data on top of all your anticipated data. No matter what, there’s a decision to be made: The size of your hard drive.

I frequently have conversations with photographers that store a lot of the same data – in this case, images – on their external hard drives. They have conventional sizes of drives, but they archive these drives every year or so. Depending on your situation, the question changes from: “How big should my hard drive be?” to “How OFTEN do I want to archive a drive dedicated to specific types of data?” But that’s a discussion for another time.

For working from home and basic home office use, saving only files like Word docs, PowerPoints, spreadsheets, MP3s, images, etc. means you can go as low as 500GB. You might be able to go lower, but I wouldn’t go below this in order to leave some cushion for any unprecedented files or programs that may take up additional space. You also don’t want to push filling up the cap of your hard drive, as it will put more stress on your drive.

Note that this not applicable to solid-state drives (SSDs) since they do not have the same mechanical nature that causes hard drives to be stressed with increased data.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s break down exactly how much storage you might need on a hard drive.

Hard Drive Size by Usage

Light Usage (500GB – 1TB)

Typically for:

  • Home office

Types of files:

  • Documents
  • Small images (3-5MB)
  • Non-professional audio (5MB)

Moderate Usage (1TB – 4TB)

Typically for:

  • Photographers
  • Videographers
  • Video editors
  • Music producers
  • Game designers
  • Or anybody looking to make more use than a simple, uncommonly used home office

Types of files:

  • Photography (5MB)
  • Professional/high-quality audio (15 – 20MB)
  • SD videos (~1.5GB per 2 hours)
  • Small games (300MB – 4GB) 

Heavy Usage (4TB+)

Typically for:

  • Content creators
  • Large collections of files
  • Combinations of any above-mentioned usage

Files:

  • HD movies (6-8GB)
  • Large games (10+ GB)

Picking a drive size depends not just on what type of data you want to store, but also how much. Maybe you want to delete it off your internal drive and store it on an external drive. For a general backup of your entire PC, I’d recommend getting a tier higher than what’s recommended above (i.e, if you have light usage, get a medium usage-ranged drive for external local backup).

Note that 500GB is about half of 1TB, so to figure out how many files will fit on 500GB, halve the number of files that will fit on 1TB of storage.

Where to Start

If you want a hard drive for general use, your safest bet is getting a 500GB – 1TB hard drive for storing files. That should be enough to cover most standard file storage needs. The price difference between a 500GB and 1TB is typically negligible, so I personally recommend going for a 1TB drive. This will cover the bases in case things start escalating and you’re using more space than you originally anticipated (like I did).

If you expect pretty intense and highly dedicated usage, you can explore larger drives, starting with 2TB.

Also, remember – no matter how large your hard drive is – to back up your data in case of hard drive failure. Whether you’re getting an internal replacement, an external solution, or an entirely new system, I hope this helps get you on the right path to picking the perfect hard drive for you.

Scot Gulley

Scot Gulley

Customer Support Technician

Helping CDSG customers across the globe. Recent IT grad, pancake lover, and basketball enthusiast.

Related Blog Posts

The post How Big Should My Hard Drive Be? appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>
Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2020: Data Privacy, Security, and You https://iosafe.com/blog/cybersecurity-awareness-month-2020-data-privacy-security-and-you/ Thu, 22 Oct 2020 16:50:41 +0000 https://iosafe.com/?p=564680 The post Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2020: Data Privacy, Security, and You appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>

Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2020: Data Privacy, Security, and You

It’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2020 here in the United States and we’re doing our part to help elevate the importance of protecting your information and data.

The NPR Life Kit podcast recently had a discussion of what data privacy is, how it differs from data security, cybersecurity, and some steps you can take to shore up the [walls] around your personal information. (Most of the information below comes from that podcast.)

Most of us already do the basics to protect our information, belongings, and financial information: we lock our doors and cars when we’re not home or in the vehicle, we don’t share our passwords (well, streaming services excepted, or so I hear), and we’re quite practiced about credit card numbers and so on.

Cybersecurity vs. data privacy

Even though we tend to use the words “security” and “privacy” somewhat interchangeably, they really address different portions of the confidentiality spectrum. Security is about keeping someone from gaining access to your belongings or information such as bank accounts, doing our best to fight against the growing risk of ransomware. Privacy is generally about shielding your movements or activities from the eyes of others.

When implementing basic cybersecurity practices, we know (do we?) that we need to choose strong passwords for our accounts and not write them down on a sticky note attached to your computer screen. (Given that many are working from home these days, this may not be quite as important, but still…) Create unique passwords or passphrases and use a password manager. Period.

Enable two-factor authentication in which a secondary code is sent to you via text message, email, or an app such as Authy.

Be aware of phishing attempts aimed at you via email or phone calls. You may choose to never answer calls if you don’t recognize the number. These attempts to get personal information from you are becoming more sophisticated.

Data privacy isn’t only about managing cookies

That leads us to privacy—the more that someone (or something in the case of AI) can learn about you, the easier it is to breach your cybersecurity efforts. You may not care if someone knows what brand of running shoes you buy, but everything you do online is being tracked. Take a look at the cookies implanted in your browser sometime. Chocolate chip they ain’t. All of those names you’ve never heard of are there to feed your browsing activity back to data aggregators who in turn sell your information to marketers—or worse.

All those apps on your phone? Yup. They’re tracking your movements and activity whether you’re using them or not. Go turn off the location services for the ones that truly don’t need it, or better yet, delete the apps you don’t use.

Ads are shown to you based on your activity and perceived interests. Prices change. Try this sometime: go to your favorite Seattle-based mega online retailer and search for a product. Ask a friend to do the same. Chances are you’re going to see different prices for the same product. If you keep shopping without buying, you’ll see the price change, too.

Okay, it’s not that big a deal if you end up paying a few cents more for those dog treats than your friend, but activity-based information can be more insidious than that. Think about disinformation campaigns and how easily those are started and propagated. If I want you to think a certain way about someone or something, it’d be helpful if I could tailor my message in a way that you’d be more inclined to pay attention to. And that’s easier if I understand more about you.

Our privacy laws in the United States don’t have much in the way of safeguards when it comes to your personal information. While California has implemented legislation similar to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it’s a small step toward protections that would benefit us all.

Practicing good cybersecurity hygiene

The podcast concludes with these takeaways:

  • Takeaway one:
    • Practice good cybersecurity hygiene. Use strong passphrases and two-factor authentication on your accounts. 
  • Takeaway two:
    • Beware of phishing. Big companies are not going to call you and ask for your account information. And look out for weird URLs before you go clicking on them.
  • Takeaway three:
    • Delete the apps you don’t need from your phone. Apps can collect a lot of information on you, so use a browser instead if you can. And for the apps you keep, limit what they can access.
  • Takeaway four:
    • Be thoughtful about what you back up to the cloud. Those encrypted chats you have aren’t going to stay encrypted when they’re moved to iCloud or Google Drive.
  • Takeaway five:
    • The United States doesn’t have strong online privacy laws. So while you can take steps to protect your privacy, it’s going to be tough to keep yourself from being tracked online.

And finally, you can start small and take these steps one by one. Focus on protecting what matters most to you.

Chris Kruell

Chris Kruell

Director of Marketing

As the Director of Marketing, Chris leads the sphere of marketing activities at CDSG (ioSafe's parent company), including corporate branding, corporate and marketing communications, product marketing, marketing programs, and marketing strategy. In his spare time, Chris is an alpine climbing instructor and has served as president and board member of the Mazamas, a Portland-based non-profit organization that fosters a love of the mountains. 

Related Blog Posts

The post Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2020: Data Privacy, Security, and You appeared first on ioSafe.

]]>