With the System Center 2012 SP1 release, the Data Protection Manager (DPM) component enables cloud-based backup of datacenter server data to Windows Azure storage. System Center 2012 SP1 administrators use the downloadable Windows Azure Online Backup agent to leverage their existing protection, recovery and monitoring workflows to seamlessly integrate cloud-based backups alongside their disk/tape based backups. DPM’s short term, local backup continues to offer quicker disk–based point recoveries when business demands it, while the Windows Azure backup provides the peace of mind & reduction in TCO that comes with offsite backups. In addition to files and folders, DPM also enables Virtual Machine backups to be stored in the cloud.
Below are some of the key features we’re delivering in Windows Azure Online Backup:
- Simple configuration and management.
- Simple, familiar user interface to configure and monitor backups from Windows Server and System Center SP1.
- Integrated recovery experience to transparently recover files, folders and VMs from the cloud.
- Windows PowerShell command-line interface scripting capability.
- Block level incremental backups.
- Automatic incremental backups track file and block level changes, only transferring the changed blocks, hence reducing the storage and bandwidth utilization.
- Different point-in-time versions of the backups use storage efficiently by only storing the changed blocks between these versions.
- Data compression, encryption and throttling.
- Data is compressed and encrypted on the server before being sent to Windows Azure over the network. As a result, Windows Azure Online Backup only places encrypted data in the cloud storage.
- The encryption passphrase is not available in Windows Azure, and as a result data is never decrypted in the service.
- Users can setup throttling and configure how Windows Azure Online Backup utilizes the network bandwidth when backing up or restoring information.
- Data integrity verified in the cloud.
- Backed up data is also automatically checked for integrity once the backup is complete. As a result, any corruptions due to data transfer are automatically identified and repair is attempted in the next backup.
- Configurable retention policies.
- Retention policies Configure and implement retention policies to help meet business policies and manage backup costs.
Getting started
Getting started with Windows Azure Online Backup is a simple two-step process:
- Get a free preview Windows Azure Online Backup account (with 300 GB of cloud storage) here.
- Login to the Windows Azure Online Backup portal and download and install the Windows Azure Online Backup agent for Windows Server 2012 or System Center 2012 SP1 Data Protection Manager. For Windows Server 2012 Essentials, download and install the Windows Azure Online Backup integration module.