Major Release: Multi Storage and Multi Schedule Backups!

We've had an action-packed few weeks here at SimpleBackups!
We've been hard at work delivering a plethora of improvements, introducing new features, and adding support for new providers and on top of all this, we've released two major architecture updates that are set to revolutionize the way backups are managed and utilized at SimpleBackups.

While each of these updates will be covered in more detail in dedicated articles, let's dive into the highlights.

Multi-Schedule Backups

We are thrilled to announce that you can now configure up to four schedules for each backup!

This enhancement opens up a world of possibilities for tailoring your backup strategy to fit your exact needs.
In the past this would have required you to create duplicate backups and then edit each to update their schedule and this was frankly below our standards when it comes to user experience.
One common backup concept that can easily be used to illustrate how to leverage multi-schedule in your backups strategy is called the "Grandfather-Father-Son Backup Strategy"

Let's break down what this means and how it can be beneficial for you.

Understanding Grandfather-Father-Son Backup Strategy

The Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) backup strategy is a hierarchical approach to data retention that helps ensure data integrity and accessibility over different time frames.
Here’s a quick overview:

• Daily (Son): Daily backups provide the most recent data copies. These are crucial for quick recovery of data that changes frequently and ensures that the latest version of your files is always available.
• Weekly (Father): Weekly backups offer a broader time frame, capturing a week's worth of changes. These serve as an intermediate recovery point and help protect against data loss that might not be immediately detected.
• Monthly/Yearly (Grandfather): These backups capture data over a longer period, preserving important historical data. They are essential for long-term data retention and compliance purposes, ensuring that you have access to historical records even if they are not needed immediately.

With our new feature, not only can you define multiple schedules for a single backup, but you can also specify how many copies of each scheduled backup you want to retain. This allows you to tailor your backup strategy to your specific needs.

For example, your backup strategy might include:

• Daily Backup: Run a daily backup at 11 PM and keep 7 copies. This ensures that you have a week's worth of daily backups, providing multiple recent recovery points.
• Weekly Backup: Run a weekly backup every Sunday at 3 AM and keep 4 copies. This setup provides a month’s worth of weekly backups, offering broader coverage and a safeguard against longer-term data issues.
• Monthly Backup: Run a monthly backup on 1st of each month at 6 AM and keep 12 copies. This strategy ensures that you have 12 months of historical data, which is crucial for long-term data retention policies and regulatory compliance.

This system is built with flexibility in mind, meaning you can combine any schedule types (including custom schedules) to fit your requirements. Whether you need daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly backups, or any combination thereof, our new feature allows you to configure and manage your backup schedules and retention policies with ease.

By implementing the GFS strategy with our new multi-schedule and multi-retention capabilities, you can achieve a balanced approach to data protection. This ensures that you always have access to recent data while also preserving critical historical information.

Multi-Storage Backups

One of the most requested features by our users is finally here!

You can now store your backups on up to 4 storage at the same time!

This means you can easily configure your backups to be stored on your preferred cloud provider but also keep a copy on you local storage and on another provider or SimpleStorage if you're looking for easy redundancy.

Previously, you could achieve multi-storage backups by combining your backups with a cloud storage sync job, but we recognized that the experience wasn't up to our standards. Our new feature ensures a seamless, intuitive experience, that literraly takes 2 clicks.

While GFS is a well known backup strategy that helps defining robust data retention, the equivalent to multi storage would be the 3-2-1 strategy.

Implementing the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy

The 3-2-1 backup strategy is a well-known approach to data protection that ensures your data is safe and recoverable. It involves maintaining three copies of your data, using two different types of storage media, and keeping one copy offsite.

With the multi-storage feature, you can effortlessly implement this strategy:

• 3 Copies: Maintain three copies of your data.
• 2 Different Media: Store copies on different types of storage media, such as local drives and cloud services.
• 1 Copy Offsite: Ensure at least one copy is stored offsite, enhancing protection against local disasters.

This approach offers redundancy, versatility, and robust disaster recovery, ensuring your data is secure and recoverable in any situation.

These two powerful features are designed to enhance the security and reliability of your backups while maintaining the best possible user experience.

At SimpleBackups, we believe in software that not only performs well but also provides a smooth, frustration-free user experience.
We are committed to developing solutions that make complex tasks simple and efficient.

Stay tuned for our upcoming articles where we will delve deeper into these features and explore how you can make the most out of them.