Why ‘How Many Backup Servers/VMs’ and ‘What are the Max Terabytes Needed’ are the Wrong Questions When Choosing a Backup Service for Google Cloud Platform

Other backup and recovery solutions have taken their existing on-premises software and built the same big box up in the cloud and slapped a ‘virtual’ tag on it [aka ‘cloud washed’]. From our perspective, if you take this approach then you’re doing it all wrong.

Start by Asking the Right Questions

It’s important to start by asking the right questions. Here’s a few you should make sure to ask.

Right question #1: Am I able to scale up and down leveraging the scale and power of the Google Cloud Platform (GCP)?

Now we’re talking. Just choose your backup policy, zone and region, and you can backup to storage buckets – no need to worry about nodes and amounts of storage to build an effective solution.

Right Question #2:  How native and integrated into the GCP is your solution? 

HYCU Backup as a Service for Google Cloud is native-built for GCP.

We use GCP’s snapshots and storage buckets by default. The best part is that HYCU is plugged in as part of your GCP solution. That means:

• Full integration with Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) – just use your GCP login credentials to access HYCU for GCP.
• Works via Google Cloud API – enabling you to leverage the scalability of GCP – your data never leaves GCP, and you can choose different zones and regions to minimize your risk.
• Google Billing – HYCU makes it easy. We’re integrated with your Google Cloud backup monthly billing cycle.

So, bearing this all in mind, how will you know if you are dealing with a cloud washed backup solution? Easy, they will ask you all the wrong questions.

Avoid the Wrong Questions

Don’t get caught off guard by hearing questions you know aren’t right. Here are a few of the wrong questions:

Wrong question #1: How many backup servers/VMs will you need in the cloud?

If you have to pay for a minimum number of backup servers and VMs, then that’s a red flag. When you are talking about the scalability and flexibility of GCP, you want to leverage the flexibility and scalability of GCP. If you want to spin up one hundred or one thousand VMs and multiple applications to back up one month, and then spin them down in the next month, your backup and data protection service should be able to accommodate that, and be flexible enough to allow you to spin up and spin down with your business requirements.

Wrong question #2: What is the absolute maximum number of Terabytes you need to backup and protect? 

This question can be beyond scary if you aren’t careful. If you go over that ‘absolute maximum amount,’ several big box backup solutions will simply break down. You see, to make a big box solution work in the cloud, they need to know the maximum amount of Terabytes you need to backup and protect. They then build that big box equivalent in the cloud with a large set of VMs, and guess what? You’re paying for that ‘absolute maximum’ amount. No scale as you go. No pay as you go. Just a fixed-rate fat fee, and you’re paying for the absolute maximum no matter how many VMs, applications or Terabytes you are backing up and protecting.

HYCU’s Google Cloud solution is a pay-as-you-go software service. HYCU is cloud native, releasing the shackles of the on-premises backup world. We don’t ask you how many VMs you need. We don’t need to know how many Terabytes you want to back up to work. HYCU Backup as a Service for GCP scales up and down with you, with the same limitless storage and scalability as GCP. Best of all, our pricing is based upon the source capacity you want to back up, and how often you want it backed up.

While there are clearly wrong questions to consider. At HYCU we like to focus on the right questions….

So why is HYCU the best choice to backup and recover your Google Cloud Platform Data? It’s easy, but don’t just take our word for it, to learn more, go to https://www.hycu.com/protege/google-cloud or you can access it directly from GCP Marketplace.