IT SMB Success Summit 2016 - Datto Virtual Backup

So I am always looking for news ways to do things better, faster and more efficient. And since I'm keen on becoming one with the software/hardware that I deem necessary in today's networking world, there are, on occasions, opportunities that present themselves without my specific searching for them. I found a great product that I have had the benefit of using for about a year now made by a company called Datto.

Now Datto has been in existence since 2007 and currently is one of the DR (Disaster Recovery) modules that I have on a couple of vm's on my network to preserve the business continuity of the network. In other words, this solution has saved my ass numerous times, whenever the network I have it implemented into suddenly has a hiccup and a server goes down.

Instead of running around in a panic to get the specific server back up and running, I simply log into the network, access the Datto box, in this case, the Datto Alto device, and switch it to be able to give user access to the server that it has been storing images on. Depending upon the frequency of the incremental image back up, it will pretty much continue the users where they left off.

If you are wondering how this works, first off, here are the specs of the Datto Alto2

• 1 TB 2.5” 7200 RPM Hard Drive
• Dual Network Adapters
• Two 3.0 Ports on Front USB
• Up to 4 Simultaneous Virtual Machines
• AMD 1.5 GHz Quad Core Processor
• 8GB DDR3 RAM
• 2-4 Agent Licenses
• 3 Year Hardware Warranty

The Datto AltoXL specs:

• 1TB-24TB Local Storage Capacity (Per Unit)
• Hot-Swappable Drive Bays for Easy Field Upgrades
• Available Intel Atom 2.4 Ghz 8-Core Processor
• Unlimited Server, Workstation and Desktop Licensing
• Solid-State OS Drives on All Models
• End-to-End Encryption
• Up to 32GB RAM Standard

The Datto Alto has a simple web-based GUI that allows you, in a few simple clicks,  to go from server down to back in business in no time flat. As we know, most companies are running hardware that's at least 5-8 years old. In the healthcare industry, providers have to keep their systems up and running due to the EMR's that they use tend to demand high resource capabilities. When a specific server goes down, that usually spells disaster for the MSP handling the managed services of that network.

When implementing a device such as this into a network it would be safe to say that having a device that closely matches the specs currently being used by the server its backing up should shore up fairly close, if not exceeding it. Datto does not disappoint there, giving that a current user utilizing this has the same specs as the Alto2, it was a no-brainer. 

In a few short minutes the Datto Alto2 was up and running and backing up the current server at bare metal capacity. The system can be setup to collect an image every 15min, hour or day. Since this user does not have too many server failures, I configured it to sync images at 7am, 12pm and 7pm, this way if something should happen, they would only lose up to 4 hours of work in the mornings and 5 hours in the afternoons. Some may say that it should back up more frequently but you do have to take into consideration that it only has a 1Tb capacity and this user has 750gb of EMR database files that have to be retained for up to five years per HIPAA compliance regulations

Datto recommends a 2 to 1 ratio on space used (for instance a 500Gb server would need 1Tb of available space on the Datto to ensure all incremental backup will not interfere with business continuity.

Overall, I am impressed with the Datto Alto2 and their other products arent bad either. If you have a desired interest in this product give me a call as they do not sell directly to the public.