Task at Hand
An AV Integrator based out of Bangalore approached AspireNxt to provide a cost effective and highly available storage solution that could store large amounts of backup data. The client wanted the setup to be incremental and encrypted. We were handed 2200 GB of confidential data stored across 44 local Windows desktops. This data was a mix of account and finance, project, company, and client information and required a secure cloud storage solution.
Our Solution
We used an open source software called Duplicati on each system. Duplicate took the data from those systems and stored it on cloud storage as backup. We used Amazon’s S3 as a destination for the backup.
Why Duplicati?
Duplicati securely stores excrypted, incremental, compressed backups on local storage, cloud storage, and remote file servers. With Duplicati, backup plans can be scheduled according to your convenience with complete visibility to the backup files. No, it is not a file synchronization program. Here, files are split up in small chunks of data which are optionally encrypted and compressed before they are sent to the backup location. No, it is not a hard disk image backup software either. It needs to be installed on the host where source files for the backup are located. It can be installed on a variety of operating systems – most common amongst them being Windows, Linux and OSX.
Why Amazon S3?
S3 provides an ease of integration with third-party applications and scalability on demand. 99.99% availability is backed by an actual SLA. It provides multiple storage classes, is durable and a low cost solution for storing data. S3 also provides an archival option with Glacier.
Once S3 was used as the backup storage destination, lifecycle was implemented on S3 to move data after 30 days. The software was configured in such a way that it uses on bucked on S3 and in that bucket directories with username of the laptop user will be accessible. We also encrypted using AES 256 to put encrypted data on S3.
Value Delivered
Today, the client is using a password based user interface to backup data using Duplicati to Amazon S3 in a highly secured and efficient manner. He does all this while maintaining low costs even at the bandwidth usage level by uploading data in chunks.
Technologies Used
