Preface
This is the book I’ve wanted to write for over 10 years. The commercial data protection space is a complicated one, and I know of no other book that covers it at this scale. I tried very hard to cover all the things you need to back up, archive, restore and retrieve; all the methods, software, and services you could use to do so; and all the hardware you’ll use to store those backups and archives.
The fact that the coverage is so broad does mean that I can’t cover each topic that deeply. It would have been easy to write a separate book on each of these chapters. In fact, when the folks at O’Reilly first saw my outline, their first comment was that this looked like a 2000-page book!
Even so, I guarantee that there are topics covered in this book that are found nowhere else. I also settle a lot of arguments that come up in this space: like the real place for tape, the difference between backup and archive, and whether or not you need to back up software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings like Microsoft 365 and Salesforce. The book covers important foundational concepts that you can use to make your own decisions. A perfect example is how the 3-2-1 rule can be used to determine whether something is being properly protected or not. (If you’re not familiar with this rule, trust me. You will be by the time you finish this book.)
I also help you understand all of the various backup methods and technologies, along with the pros and cons of each. I tried really hard to be evenhanded here, as every technology type has both advantages and disadvantages. Understanding each one will help you make your own decisions about what’s right for your environment.
I’d like to say one more thing about the coverage in this book. I do work for a company that offers a data protection service, so you might expect me to push my employer’s way of doing things. Nothing could be further from the truth. For those unfamiliar with my career, this is actually my first vendor in an almost 30-year career. I therefore know as much about our competitors as I do about our own offerings. My employer put absolutely zero pressure on me to put its products in a positive light. Instead, they simply told me to make sure I wrote a helpful book. But because I do work for a vendor, I did go out of my way to be evenhanded when I explained competitive offerings. I also specifically asked my 36 technical editors to point out if they thought I was going too easy or too hard on any product category. Most of these technical editors actually work directly with these products or for the companies that offer them.
The Work Continues
The fun thing about writing technical books is that they are out of date as soon as they’re published. That’s why I use my blog and podcast to provide updates on things that change after the book. If you care about data protection, feel free to check out my blog at backupcentral.com, or look for the Restore it All podcast at your favorite podcatcher.
Conventions Used in This Book
The following typographical conventions are used in this book:
- Italic
-
Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and file extensions.
Constant width-
Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to program elements such as variable or function names, databases, data types, environment variables, statements, and keywords.
Tip
This element signifies a tip or suggestion.
Note
This element signifies a general note or a quote.
Warning
This element indicates a warning or caution.
O’Reilly Online Learning
Note
For more than 40 years, O’Reilly Media has provided technology and business training, knowledge, and insight to help companies succeed.
Our unique network of experts and innovators share their knowledge and expertise through books, articles, and our online learning platform. O’Reilly’s online learning platform gives you on-demand access to live training courses, in-depth learning paths, interactive coding environments, and a vast collection of text and video from O’Reilly and 200+ other publishers. For more information, visit http://oreilly.com.
How to Contact Us
Please address comments and questions concerning this book to the publisher:
- O’Reilly Media, Inc.
- 1005 Gravenstein Highway North
- Sebastopol, CA 95472
- 800-998-9938 (in the United States or Canada)
- 707-829-0515 (international or local)
- 707-829-0104 (fax)
We have a web page for this book, where we list errata, examples, and any additional information. You can access this page at https://oreil.ly/modern-data-protection.
Email [email protected] to comment or ask technical questions about this book.
For news and information about our books and courses, visit http://oreilly.com.
Find us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/oreilly
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/oreillymedia
Watch us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/oreillymedia
Acknowledgments
So many people to thank...it’s really hard to know where to start. I am where I am in my life and my career because of so many people. This book was only made possible by the efforts of dozens of them.
I will start with my family. Thanks to Mom and Dad, who always encouraged me to be my best.
Thanks to my wife, two daughters, their husbands, and my granddaughter for keeping me grounded. To them I’m just Curtis, Dad, and Papa. They think my dad jokes are horrible, and my articles and books are boring. They also agree on my brisket, though. My brisket is amazing, or as Lily calls it, “famous.”
Thank you to Lou Hoffmeister for giving me my first job in backup, for Susan Davidson for not firing me when I had my first restore failure, and for Joe Fitzpatrick for saving my butt when that happened. Thanks to Ron Rodriguez for handing me the backup reins at MBNA. I never did learn how to log into that VAX, though.
Thank you to all those who helped me in my career. Thanks to SysAdmin Magazine (may she rest in peace) for publishing my first article, and for O’Reilly for taking a chance on an unknown author over 20 years ago. I hope Gigi Estebrook eventually recovered from being my editor. Mike Loukides seems to be doing just fine. O’Reilly is a classy organization and I’m super proud to be a part of it.
Thanks to my friend and podcast cohost Prasanna Malaiyandi, for offering a completely different perspective on many topics, while also keeping things fun. He’s also one of the very few tech editors that read this book cover to cover. Also, if you’re working on a project—any kind of project—ask him about it. Chances are he’s watching a bunch of YouTube videos on it, even if he’s never attempted it himself.
I need to thank Dan Frith and Jeff Rochlin for the chapter that each of them wrote. It’s always nice to get wisdom from the real field. I’m trying not to resent the fact that Dan’s chapter had the fewest grammar edits of any of the chapters.
I want to thank my 36 technical editors! Some of you read only one chapter, while others read the entire book. Some of you just said, “Looks great!” while others drove me crazy with edits and comments on every chapter. (You know who you were.)
- Andrew Cates
- Bob Bakh
- Bob Smolenyak
- Brian Greenberg
- Dan Frith
- David Barker
- Edwin Danso
- Eric Harless
- Franciso Amaro
- Jeff Rochlin
- John Baldauf
- John Stoffel
- Jorge Fragoso
- Juan Pablo Silva
- Julie Ulrich
- Kamran-Bijan Pechrak
- Kirk Kirkconnell
- Kurt Buff
- Kyle Shuberg
- Larry Blake
- Laura Silva
- Marc Selwan
- Matt Leib
- Matt Starr
- Michael Barrow
- Mike Bush
- Prasanna Malaiyandi
- Rob Worman
- Russell Cantwell
- Scott D. Lowe
- Shalabh Goyal
- Stan Horwitz
- Stephen Manley
- Stephen Quan
- Stuart Liddle
- Zoë Rose
I am going to thank O’Reilly again for taking a chance on me with another book. I especially want to thank Mary Preap, Melissa “Ravenclaw” Potter, Kristen Brown, and Kerin Forsyth for being my editors. Thanks also to Cassandra Furtado for her help as well.
This book was written almost entirely while walking on an Xterra treadmill using Dragon Professional running on a Dell laptop, with a SpeechWare FlexyMike Dual Ear Cardioid microphone—so I’m giving a shout out to those folks. I sure hope Dragon stays around. It should be more popular than it is.
Thank you to Jaspreet Singh, CEO of Druva, for giving me the green light when I told him that I wanted to write my next book, and for Thomas Been, CMO of Druva, for pushing me to actually get it done. Not every CEO and CMO would understand why an employee of theirs should publish anything that might say something positive about the competition, but both of you were in lockstep agreement that I should write exactly the same book that I would have written if I didn’t work at Druva. Kudos to you.
Finally, I want to thank those of you that read my books, blogs, and articles, listen to my podcasts, and keep this important topic going. Backup may be where many of us get our start, but it is also where some of us have found a home. My props to the sysadmin who has to maintain a backup system with open source software and no budget, while also administering databases, networks, or servers. Shout out to those of you in big environments that have to deal with the cutting edge of this industry, and keep pushing employers like mine to make things better.
To everyone that simply cares that all your data is protected, I say, “3-2-1 rule forever!”