Who Uses Database Backup Software?
Database Teams: Responsibility for databases typically falls to a company’s database administrator(s), or a database team if the company has those kinds of resources. So database backup solutions will likely be used most by those administrators or the database team. While databases themselves can be highly accessible for any member of a company, database backup software—as a part of the database maintenance ecosystem—should be handled by those explicitly focused on maintaining a company’s database integrity.
Software Related to Database Backup Software
Related solutions that can be used together with Database Backup software include:
Online backup software: Online backup software usually focuses on smaller volumes of data that businesses would use on a day-to-day basis. These solutions will back up general-use data and files to online repositories. Generally, text documents, PDFs, presentations, spreadsheets, media files, and the like will be backed up with these solutions.
SaaS backup software: SaaS backup software is built to create data backups for any software as a service (SaaS) products a business might be using. These software backups are from cloud solutions, so the data can be anything from sales lead information to marketing data and more.
Server backup software: Server backup software, as the name would suggest, specifically focuses on backing up any server-specific data. These solutions are built specifically to handle large volumes of data, as servers typically hold the highest volume of data for most companies. They also tend to be focused on midsize and enterprise companies, since most small companies don’t need servers. That said, small companies with, say, a large internet presence might have servers as a big part of their business model and would thus need a server backup solution.
Challenges with Database Backup Software
Database backup solutions can come with their own set of challenges.
Backup speed: Two main factors affect the backup speed—the volume of data and the speed of the connection. The more data that needs to be copied during the backup, the longer a backup can take. This can be further exacerbated, though, by internet connection speeds when backing up cloud data locally or backing up local data to a cloud repository. Even small quantities of data can take a significant, inconvenient amount of time to back up if the connectivity is poor. If a company is planning on doing regular local-to-cloud or cloud-to-local backups, their internet connectivity should be strong enough to support it.
File volume: When looking for a database backup solution, users should choose one that can handle the volume of data they’re expecting to back up regularly. While some businesses might have thousands of data points to back up from their databases, others might easily pass from millions into billions of database points. Not all solutions may be able to handle that kind of volume, so it’s important to be sure their choice can scale to meet their needs.
Log management: Poor database backup management often results in oversized logs. Buying more disk drive capacity to accommodate database maintenance operation is only the short-term solution. Users can also add a temporary secondary log to handle the excessive growth of the log file, but that will also slow down the restoration process, so they might want to remove it once it is no longer needed. If users want to save space by undersizing the transaction log, the database server may auto grow it in small fragments. This results in log fragmentation which slows down the whole database backup process. Ideally, users should set the correct size for the log file according to the database size and requirement and buy additional space based on predicted growth.
How to Buy Database Backup Software
Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Database Backup Software
Whether a company is looking for its first database backup software or looking to replace an existing one, g2.com can help find the best fit.
Database backup software often comes with specifically desired features and capabilities. To start, companies should first think about their core requirements. They should think about the size and type of database that will be saved, storage location (cloud or on-premises), and constraints related to budgeting, staffing, or continued maintenance. If a database is on cloud storage such as Dropbox or Google Drive, there is no reason to replicate the cloud data to an on-premises NAS server for data protection, unless the user plans to experience significant internet data loss. Industries involving large amounts of sensitive data should also factor compliance and security needs into their proposal as well. Also, many companies already have other backup solutions, so these companies can first ask if their current vendor offers database backup as part of their backup solutions.
Prioritizing the desired feature set that meets the requirement can help narrow down the potential pool of database backup solutions, allowing teams to then apply further considerations for budget, ease of administration, security requirements, and more. This holistic approach empowers buyers to move forward with a focused checklist, which can be used in conjunction with G2 scoring to select the best database backup product for the business.
Compare Database Backup Software Products
Create a long list
Requirements gathering for database backup solutions is fairly straightforward, but can still vary greatly depending on the scope of capability. From the bottom of the list, there is backup software from the database vendor. They often come with the database software (Microsoft Azure SQL, Amazon S3, or MySQL databases) or database management software (MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MS SQL) but have limited features. For example, if a user is using the Azure SQL server database, they can use Microsoft SQL Server Backup. However, SQL server backup automates checksum (same data page bytes between original and backup) to ensure that the backup file is correct. That might not be enough depending on the context. On the other hand, there are expensive database backup solutions that offer advanced features such as additional integrity checks, different types of backup, good user interfaces, and so on. Some even integrate with disaster recovery software. Users also may want to encrypt sensitive database copies with AES. There are many options so companies need to prepare their list of requirements to get through the long list quickly. Since budget and staffing will largely dictate what products end up on the short list, a vendor’s ability to meet each of the company’s requirements and budget is fundamental.
Create a short list
From the long list of vendors, it is helpful to narrow down the list of vendors to come up with a shorter list of contenders, preferably no more than three to five. With this list in hand, businesses can produce a matrix to compare the features and pricing of the various solutions.
Conduct demos
To ensure a fair comparison, the user should demo each solution on the short list with the same use case and datasets. This will allow the business to evaluate like-for-like and see how each vendor stacks up against the competition.
Selection of Database Backup Software
Choose a selection team
To choose a selection team, the decision makers need to involve subject matter experts from all teams that will use the system. This primarily involves database teams and IT teams. The purchasing team can also help with the negotiation.
Negotiation
Using the requirements prioritization list, users can organize the data to help people understand how each solution meets their requirements. This can prevent siloed thinking and serve as a catalyst for internal debates and bring new questions for the vendor. Every product will have pros and cons, but the selection analysis should paint a clearer picture of each product’s ability to meet the company’s unique needs. The identified cons can then be used to either eliminate options from the short list or serve as leverage for discounts and other offers.
Final decision
After this stage, it is important to perform a trial run if possible with a small selection of IT professionals. This will help to ensure that the software of choice integrates well with the company’s infrastructure setup (on-premises and off-site or cloud backup). If the database backup tool is well liked and well utilized, the buyer can take that as a sign that their selection is the right one. If not, reevaluation of the options may be necessary.
