Data Backup in Virtualized Environments: Top Factors for Success

The emergence of virtual machines paved the way for a better way of backing up data. However, succeeding in this virtual world depends on various factors you need to know and implement. Here we share the leading considerations for successful data backup in a virtual environment. Let’s discover how VMware backup software can help you to succeed. Eventually, you will be better placed to enjoy the various benefits of virtualizing your data.

Sync Your Apps 

Synchronize applications in your virtual environment because your data resides in various storage layers, such as a hypervisor, apps, and the OS. Syncing all these layers improves the efficiency of your backup efforts.

Regular Machine Tracking 

It would help if you also tracked your machines regularly to advance your virtual data backup. The virtual ecosystem your data lives in makes it easy to forget which virtual machine you used to back up the data.

Check Your Virtual Backups by Testing Them Regularly

Checking your virtual backups by testing them regularly is another criterion of success. This way, you will have the peace of mind that your backups are usable. Test different virtual machine configurations to see if anything is amiss.

Don’t Treat Virtual Machines Like Physical Ones

It’s also important to treat your virtual machines differently from how you treat your physical ones. Transferring information from your disks to virtual machines is more challenging than doing it from physical computers; a given data set could need extra virtual capacity. Moreover, getting a license in the virtual world can be harder compared to the physical one.

Granular Restores Are Hectic

Keep this fact in mind when dealing with backup in virtualized environments. First, it is easier and faster to back up a whole virtual machine’s disk. However, it’s also one of its most significant shortcomings. Their backup software can’t see through the virtual disk because it looks like another large file. Therefore, it can only restore the entire machine to a given point per time. Hence, have this fact in mind when using this backup alternative.

Compression and Deduplication

It’s recommended that you consider deduplication and compression when backing up your information in a virtual environment. This factor is critical because virtual server backups focus on sources, while deduplication focuses on your targets. If you back up your virtual machine’s data to a given remote SAN using WAN, you can optimize bandwidth if you compressed the data at its source.

Conversely, deduplicating data has to focus on the destination because the data here can either be categorized as original or copied. Hence, it needs to be deduplicated only after comparing it to another backed-up copy.

Effective Snapshot Management 

Your data backup success depends on how well you manage snapshots efficiently. This way, you will be better placed to remove previous snapshots on time after creating another backup.

Recovery

Recovery is another factor to consider if you want to succeed in your virtual backup because successful recovery is the goal of all backup processes. Take this factor seriously since failing to recover your data on time or overall could waste your efforts. Remember, research shows that virtualization-powered recovery can restore your data within minutes. Moreover, it doesn’t need any extra software or hardware to do it.

Time

Lastly, factor in time as an invaluable resource in your virtual environment backups. It is beneficial to consider the amount of time a backup requires. You also have to think about the time it would take to recover the same backups. You have to do this because if you lack time to complete a given backup process or do so often, then you would compromise your chances of recovering it entirely after a disaster.

As you can see, many factors affect the success of your VMware backup software  in virtual environments. With these tips, you can supercharge your backup efforts. Good luck!