When I would regularly speak on data protection and DR topics, I had a saying that I would frequently share: “Backup is science, but Restore is an art.” A decade or more ago, those tasked with backing up server-resident data often took a “set it and forget it” approach to data backups. I’ve included a series of screenshots (below) that walk through the backup setup process. It took no more than five minutes to establish a recurring backup against a tenant of mine. Of all of the apps I’ve registered in Azure, Synology’s process and approach has been the best – hands-down. From the moment you press the “Create” button and indicate that you want to establish a new backup of Microsoft 365 data, you’re provided with solid guidance and hand-holding throughout the entire setup and app registration process. Most of the products I’ve worked with that need to be setup in this capacity involve a fair amount manual legwork: certificate preparation, finding and granting permissions within a created app registration, etc. The reason for my initial hesitancy was due to the fact that applications and products that work with Microsoft 365 need to be registered as trusted applications within the M365 tenant they’re targeting. I am therefore very happy to say that the Synology backup application was a breeze to get setup – something I initially felt might not be the case. For the brief period of time when I was a product manager, I knew that a bad first experience could shape someone’s entire view of a product. And as someone who has talked about DR and BCP for many years now, redundancy of data protection is never a bad thing.įirst impressions and initial experiences mean a lot to me. These tools are designed to afford customers a degree of control over their data protection. You can’t throw a stick on the internet and not hit a seemingly endless supply of vendors offering to fill the hole that exists with Microsoft 365 data protection. I suspect part of the reason for this is that actual protection windows and numbers are always evolving, but I just don’t know. The problem with this approach is that it’s filled with assumptions and not a lot of objective data. If I had to recover some data, I’m relatively (but not entirely) confident I could open a service ticket, make the request, and eventually get the data back in some form. I know that Microsoft takes steps to protect 365 data, but good luck finding a complete description or metrics around the measures they take. On the specific topic of Microsoft 365 data protection, I tend to sit solidly in the middle of the two extremes I just described. It may also be that the customer simply doesn’t want to put all of their DR eggs in one basket and wants options they control. Perhaps the provider has a solid DR approach, but the RTO and RPO values quoted by the provider don’t line up with the customer’s specific requirements. Maybe they simply don’t trust their provider. There are numerous reasons why someone may choose to augment a cloud service provider’s DR approach with something supplemental. Those who don’t trust the cloud for DR.Whatever the reason(s), folks in this group are attached at the hip to whatever their cloud service provider has for DR and BCP – for better or for worse. Oftentimes, though, the choice is simply made by default, without solid information, or simply because building one’s own DR plan and implementing it is not an inexpensive endeavor. Sometimes folks in this group wholeheartedly believe, right or wrong, that their cloud service’s DR protection and support are robust. As a generalization, there are plenty of folks that rely upon their cloud service provider for DR and data protection. Those who rely upon their cloud service provider for DR.What little experience I do have generally leads me to categorize people into two different camps: What I don’t have a ton of experience with is the way that companies are handling their DR and BCP (business continuity planning) for cloud-centric services themselves. With all the available applications, I had a hard time staying focused on the primary package I wanted to evaluate: Active Backup for Microsoft 365.īackup and restore, as well as Disaster Recovery (DR) in general, are concepts I have some history and experience with. The first time I perused the contents of the Package Center, I kind of felt like a kid in a candy store. Much like the application marketplaces that have become commonplace for mobile phones, or the Microsoft Store which is available by default to Windows 10 installations, the Package Center makes it drop-dead-simple to add applications and capabilities to a Synology NAS appliance.
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