How NAS with Snapshots Can Be a Game-Changer for Your Business

We all need data backup, and network-attached storage (NAS) typically offer a myriad of backup options, but backup isn’t the only form of data protection for NAS. While a robust backup system is essential, there are many cases where restoring from a full backup may not be practical. For this reason, many organizations are integrating devices with snapshot capability into their data protection strategies.

Buffalo's TeraStation 5020 and 7010 series NAS devices offer snapshot technology for effortless short-term file backup recovery and ransomware mitigation so you can store your data with peace of mind.

What Are Snapshots?

Snapshots are different from backups. A backup is a complete copy of your data, whereas a snapshot is a recorded metadata set of the location of a block of data at a given point in time. This is why snapshots take up very little space, and also why snapshots can be created very quickly. When needed, you can use snapshots to quickly revert files and folders to the state they were at when the snapshot was created. In other words, a snapshot is a version, and restoring from a snapshot is to revert to a previous saved version.

Snapshots can be easily created during normal business operation and can also be restored from near instantaneously, all with little or no system or network disruptions. Instead of converting and restoring data from a backup format, a snapshot recovers a block of data, so you can instantly restore data in a matter of minutes.

Short Term Backup Gap and Versioning

Snapshots are not meant to fully replace backups. As your snapshot repository grows and fills, new snapshots will eventually overwrite old ones. Also, snapshots rely on your local data (drive or server) to map data. If the drive itself becomes corrupted or lost (say, in an office fire), then snapshots cannot help you recover any data.

However, snapshots are fantastic for short term backup storage and versioning. Since a backup is a fully copy of your data, if you need to back up 100GB of data every hour, you would need more than 500 GB after five hours—a nightmare if you need data versioning. On the other hand, snapshots take up very little space, allowing you to create a library of granulated restoration points. You can restore data from a week ago, a day ago, an hour ago, or five minutes ago. If you recovery data using a snapshot, every block of data that had been added or changed since it was created would be subsequently removed from the file. This allows you to quickly restore any file, folder, or even entire volumes from any unwanted changes, errors, or even deletions.

In general, snapshots are extremely helpful in situations where you would need an instantaneous short-term backup. For example, if you are performing system maintenance or upgrades, a quick backup can help you recover in case something goes wrong. Maybe a user accidentally overwrites or deletes a file, or maybe a file suddenly corrupts. In such a case, recovering from a snapshot is much more practical than performing a full backup restore as you can easily recover the missing file in minutes.

Mitigating Ransomware with Snapshots

Studies have shown that SMB enterprises are at the largest risk for ransomware attacks, as they often lack the resources to beat the threat. Attackers know that a full restore from backup can be a lengthy process—often hours or even days—and this creates downtime that you literally may not be able to afford. As a recent example, consider the 2018 ransomware attack on Hancock Health, a hospital in Indiana: despite having full data backups available, the hospital opted to pay the $55,000 ransom because analysis showed that it would have taken far too long – and cost far more – to restore the encrypted data from backup.

In the event ransomware encrypts your files, snapshots can help save the day by allowing you to immediately recover those files to an earlier point in time, before the infection, effectively saving you the time and money for having to perform a full restore.

Immutable Snapshots

The Buffalo TeraStation 5020 Series NAS offer the ability to create immutable snapshots either on the fly or at scheduled intervals, as well as create immutable snapshots as part of data transfer processes such as data backup, replication, and failover. Immutable snapshots cannot be modified or deleted as long as the protection period is active, and are compatible with all storage protocols. Imutable snapshots prevents both accidental and intentional modifications, ensuring long-term protection and reliability.

The Perfect Complement to Your Backup Strategy

Even without the threat of ransomware looming, having frequent, hassle-free recovery points can always help you stay prepared against data loss, and help optimize your file operations for your business. Using snapshots to complement your backup systems is a winning move, and can help you recover from emergencies. Although snapshots should not be used as the only backup method, they should still be considered as an important weapon in your arsenal to combat data loss.

Our cutting-edge TeraStation 5020 and 7010 offer snapshots and other backup features such as replication that can greatly improve your backup strategy. You can schedule snapshots to be created at regular intervals so you can have peace of mind with your data protection, or back up snapshots to another TeraStation so you will always have a full library of backups. Contact us today to see how our data storage solutions can meet your backup goals and protect your data.