Pure Cloud Block StoreTM can provide disaster recovery benefits in many different ways. One validated scenario for backup and disaster recovery leverages and extends CloudSnap capabilities to secure and protect data sets on the cloud in the same region or across regions.
Simple, Built-in Cloud Protection
Let’s begin with the basics: CloudSnap works by taking snapshots of one volume or a group of volumes, and then sending those snapshots to external cloud object storage or NFS file storage. In concept, CloudSnap works similarly to replicating snapshots between two arrays, also known as array-based replication. This enables built-in self-backup to cloud, with the capability to recover snapshots back to the source FlashArray™ or any other FlashArray, including Pure Cloud Block Store.
Two Copies—Local and Cross-Region
With CloudSnap and Pure Cloud Block Store, Pure has overcome a lot of cloud data protection challenges. With the portability that CloudSnap introduces and the enterprise-rich features shipped with Pure Cloud Block Store, Pure customers can now build better DR solutions and manage data copies and backups with minimal effort and at low cost.
Here are two example scenarios that provide local and remote copies of data and leverage both CloudSnap and Pure Cloud Block Store.
Disaster Recovery with Asynchronous Replication and CloudSnap
In the diagram below (Figure 2), the Pure Cloud Block Store array in the production region is using CloudSnap to periodically offload a local region copy to an Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) bucket. The second copy of data is sent with asynchronous replication to remote Pure Cloud Block Store storage in another region. This scenario would provide an independent copy in the same region of the source array and also a second copy in the other DR region.
Low-cost Cold Disaster Recovery Option
The next diagram (Figure 3) also uses CloudSnap with the production array. The difference is that it uses cross-region protection groups to replicate offloaded snapshots from the source bucket to another bucket in another region. As this will eliminate the need for replication to a second Pure Cloud Block Store location, it’s a viable option for cost-conscious customers who have a higher tolerance for exceeding recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO). In the case of any disaster recovery event where the primary region is inaccessible or connectivity challenges are occurring, customers can deploy a new Pure Cloud Block Store instance on demand in the DR region, and then recover their CloudSnap snapshots from the second bucket.
CloudSnap, using AWS S3 cross-region-replication, provides an inter-region cold DR site, which can dramatically lower the cost of running DR and guarantees that an independent copy is always present in another region. A few highlights worth mentioning when using this approach:
- It’s possible to overcome any failures of accessing S3 buckets during region connectivity or availability challenges.
- Replication of AWS S3 objects occurs on AWS, so you can expect consistent replication performance.
- Data sent out using S3 cross-region replication requires no networking configuration, although egress charges still apply.
- Improve recovery time by making Pure Cloud Block Store and S3 buckets correspond in the same region.
A couple of steps are required to configure the CloudSnap AWS S3 buckets with cross-region-replication to leverage the cold site DR region scenario. Most of the steps on the Pure side are the same for this scenario. There are some differences, however, when working on the AWS console. For an end-to-end configuration guide, see Connect and Configure Cross-Region-Replication for Purity CloudSnap S3 Buckets.
Summary
The integration between the portability of CloudSnap snapshots with the durability of AWS S3 cross-region-replication offers a simple and cost-efficient cloud data protection solution. This is achieved by eliminating the need to run Pure Cloud Block Store on the cold site DR region, and replacing it with flexible, portable, and remote second copies. These copies of data can be consumed on demand in any availability zone and at any time, thus providing multiple avenues for getting critical workloads back online when disaster strikes.
Learn more
Visit the Pure Cloud Block Store web page.
Read how Pure helps customers with cloud disaster recovery.
Explore Pure Cloud Block Store documentation.
