Azure Backup: Best Practices and Use Cases

05 Apr Azure Backup: Best Practices and Use Cases

Posted at 06:55h in Azure Backup by Simon Spencer

Azure Backup is Microsoft’s cloud-powered solution to the question of how to effectively backup. It uses the cloud to ensure that you can safely and securely back up your organisational data and have it at arm’s length in case of disaster or disruption, while fully taking advantage of the cloud to remove the need for a complex physical backup solution.

In this article, we’ll go over the ins and outs of Azure Backup, as well as how you can get started with it in your organisation today. We’ll take a look at some use cases and best practices, and how we can help you embark on your Azure journey.

What is Azure Backup?

Azure Backup is Microsoft’s cloud-based backup and recovery solution, that uses the Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure to back up effectively and off-site. It takes advantage of the benefits of cloud-based backups, meaning that you don’t have to create a complex on-prem backup plan — instead allowing you to handle all of that in the cloud, making the whole process easier and more cost-effective.

There are a few major benefits to utilising Azure Backup to backup within your organisation —

Off-premise backup: Using the cloud means you don’t need an on-prem backup solution.
Azure Integration: Azure Backup lets you easily back up Azure IaaS VMs to ensure that data loss is mitigated.
Scalability: As with any cloud platform, scalability is a huge factor. You can easily scale your implementation to meet your needs.
Data Security: Azure Backup ensures data security throughout the whole data transfer process — both during transit and rest.
Unlimited Data Transfer: Azure doesn’t limit or withhold data transfer, and doesn’t charge for transferring data.

Azure Backup is a potent and flexible solution for lots of different kinds of implementations, and works with the following —

On-premise: You can back up your on-prem data with the Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent.
Azure VMs: Azure Backup lets you backup Azure VMs using the MARS agent, allowing for both full Windows/Linux systems and specific files and folders.
Azure Managed Disks, FileShares, Database SQL, and Blobs: With full integration to the Azure network, Azure Backup lets you fully protect your Azure-based infrastructure.

Best Practices for Azure Backup

Data Encryption and Security

Your organisation’s security is vital, even when backing up. While the Azure platform is fully secure — both in transit and rest — it’s still good practice to ensure that you have yourself covered, as if something somehow goes wrong you’ll be covered.

Data encryption is key to this. It means that if someone gains access to your data — usually through attacks such as social engineering attacks to gain access to the credentials for your backup — they’ll need an encryption key to access the data. This makes it useless without the said key, and so protects your most sensitive data from attackers.

Automating Backups

Backing up your data regularly is key to ensuring that your backup is effective. After all, it’s no good if your backup is months old — all your most recent data will be gone forever.

Using the backup automation feature in Azure Backup will help you ensure that you’re regularly backed up and covered.

Managing and Monitoring

If left unchecked, you can accrue costs that would be more than if you monitored your Azure Backup implementation and managed accordingly. Doing so will mean that you can scale according to your needs, and right size to ensure that you’re not overprovisioning.

This will save your organisation a lot in the long run, as you’ll be able to streamline your implementation and ensure it’s not bloated and costly.

Use Cases for Azure Backup

Small Business Data Protection

Azure Backup is great for small businesses to use for data protection. The scalability and accessibility of the Azure platform means that it’s much more cost-effective to use Azure Backup as a data protection solution than using an on-premise system, as well as reducing capital expenditure.

The ease of the Azure platform means that you don’t need to be worried about dedicating lots of time to managing your implementation, which is perfect for small businesses that might not have the time and resources to dedicate.

Large Enterprise Disaster Recover

For larger businesses, ensuring that you have a robust form of disaster recovery to ensure zero downtime and full continuity in the event of a disaster is vital. Azure Backup is the best solution for this, as the cloud allows you to have an always-accessible backup that isn’t on-premise.

With the nature of the Azure platform, implementing this into your infrastructure is easy as it already works well with existing Azure services.

Meeting Compliance and Regulatory Requirements

Compliance and regulatory requirements are important to consider, as failing to do so can lead to lots of consequences for your organisation.

Using Azure Backup to secure your organisation and ensure that you have a good backup in place will ensure that you stay in line with regulatory requirements — the Azure platform is compliant with all of the main regulation standards, meaning you don’t have to worry.

How We Can Help

Azure Backup is a versatile and flexible data backup tool that is perfect for any organisation looking to take advantage of the benefits of the cloud. With the immense number of benefits that come with Azure Backup, it’s a no-brainer to get started today.

If you’re looking for a helping hand to get started with Azure Backup and other Microsoft Azure products, our experts are here to help. We’ll be able to help you hit the ground running, offering support the whole way.