M365 Backup to Disk to Tape Strategy Considerations

[RedVision81]

Hey Folks,
currently we are preparing for M365 Cloud Migration and now of course the right backup strategy needs to be set.
We would like to use a Backup to Disk to Tape strategy, as we are already using for our classic Veeam VM Backup scenario.

Our Consideration so far:
Because we already have a big Qnap System we thought about using QuObjects as an onPrem S3 Compatible Storage.
We also want to be able backing up the data to tape as well, hence we thought about using Buckets on a yearly base - one bucket for every year.
e. g. When the year ended, we would like to backup the complete 2023-Bucket to tape, delete it from onPrem Storage creating a new 2024-Bucket and start again.

To use the Backup to Tape functionality for S3 Storage in Veeam we have to extend our current Veeam socket licenses with additional VULs. Because the amount of VULs is depending on the storage capacity we would like to keep it as small as possible due to the costs.

Do you think this would make sense, or is it completely out of range and we should think about a more professional solution like Scality Artesca, or just using the Qnap System for M365 Backup adding maybe a second Qnap appliance for mirroring/redundancy and going without tape in future?

Thank you very much in advance.

Regards

Peter

[TitaniumCoder477]

After reading this, I would recommend you take a step back and consider the importance of simplicity in design. As engineers, we have the tenancy to over-architect solutions which might functionally work but create maintenance nightmares for ourselves (or the next guy) down the road. I have done this enough times to finally learn the lesson! So if you take a step back and ask yourself, "How can I design this to be simple," some of the answers will just come to you automatically. But in addition to this immutable word about the importance of simplicity in design, I will leave a word of my opinion--I personally believe the complexity of a tape solution is rarely justified against the cost of many S3 targets nowadays. If you absolutely must avoid a public cloud and/or monthly cost, then I would recommend a S3 gateway to your own physical hardware over a tape solution any day, all day.

[RedVision81]

Thank you very much for your honest words, i really appreciate this. As an onPrem-Guy for years of course there are some things set in stone (mind) which work great in an onPrem world, but aren't any more useful or should been set up different in the cloud world. This, i guess, is the learning process when things/technology changes, were the engineers (we) have to rethink. You are right we have the tenancy to over-architect solutions, and maybe so did i in the current situation, because it was good in the past Hence i always appreciate a good conversation/tech talk with other people who already have gained some more experiences.

Nevertheless, because we almost have everything (big qnap for S3 Comp. Storage and a Tape Library) i thought this would be a good mix of cost saving, easy implementation combined with the onPrem advantages. We only would need some VULs and could start "immediately."
Storing Terabytes of Data in Azure Blob or AWS Storage Environments is a very easy and maintenance friendly way, but it could get very expensive over years. And what if i want to switch to Wasabi, a different provider or going back onPrem? You will need to migrate tons of TBs, pay double the storage price while migrating, and you need a special strategy/tool set, because veeam backup isnt able to handle this at the moment.

Hence i think there should be another suitable way for backing up m365 data onprem.

[TitaniumCoder477]

Yes, cloud storage is expensive compared to older hardware, like ex-production hardware repurposed for backup use. I don't know that it's any cheaper than NEW hardware nowadays; cloud has come down in cost over the years. I would still agree that tape is cheaper than cloud storage, but one would need to factor in the maintenance overhead for a true apples-to-apples comparison.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like the main factor is needing to use what you have which is completely understandable. Not sure if you're aware, but you can extend a VBM365 backup repo with object storage and then target that with a copy job. If the object storage were at another physical location, then you could achieve 3-2-1 without the use of tape. You could also look at setting up immutability on the S3 compatible storage which might eliminate the need for "offline backups" which tend to be a driving force behind tapes. Obviously, if true "offline" backups are required, then immutability doesn't really satisfy this requirement.

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbo36 ... positories
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbo36 ... tml?ver=70
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbo36 ... ility.html