Skip to Main Content

LACA Hosted Backups

LACA Hosted Backup Service

All the details about the LACA Hosted Backup Service

What is LACA Hosted Backups?

LACA offers our customers an off-site backup service for protecting their important data.
 
The service is built upon IBM Tivoli Backup software, and Storserver's backup appliances.
                   
 
 

Why Would I Use LACA's Hosted Backup Service?

You can use LACA's Hosted Backup Service for two purposes.
 
  1. If you are already doing local backups, you can use LACA's Hosted Backup service to create a second off-site copy of your data.  In the event a disaster happens locally that wipes out both your servers AND your local backups, you will still have a copy in a safe location to restore from.
  2. If you currently have no local backups, or are looking to replace your local backup solution, you can use the LACA Hosted Backup service as your primary backup option.
There is no equipment to buy, no equipment to maintain, and no tapes to deal with.
 
Backups are done using an "incremental forever" scheme.  Files are only backed up when they change.  You can work with LACA to set the retention policy when newer versions of files are backed up (how many versions you want to keep, and for how many days/weeks/months)
 

Pricing Information

Pricing for LACA's Hosted Backup Service is based on CAPACITY only.  It does not matter how many SERVERS you are backing up, it only matters how MUCH data you back up.
  • Cost is $9/GB/Year up to 222GB.
  • Above 222GB, pricing shifts to a per terabyte model.
  • Price per TB is $2000 per year
Examples: 
District "A" has 5 servers, with total backed up data of 800GB.  Cost would be $2000/year. The district backups could continue to grow an additional 200GB with no increase in cost.

District "B" has 1 server, with total backed up data of 1100GB. Cost would be $2900/year: $2000 for the first TB, $9 x 100GB for the additional 100GB.
 
District "C" has 1 server with 50GB total.  Cost would be $450/year:  $9 x 50GB.
 

If I Choose to Implement, What Should I Expect?

If you choose to implement, these are the steps you can expect to happen:
  1. You can choose to provide LACA with an admin login account for the server(s) you want to back up. This account would allow us to do the initial installation, as well as troubleshoot error messages that may occur during the nightly backups.  If you are not comfortable giving LACA an account, we can set up a Teamviewer session with you, and do the install remotely through your own account.  If there are backup errors, LACA staff may ask you to log into the server and send us log files to review, if we do not have an account  to look at them ourselves.

  2. After the backup agent is installed, a full backup will run overnight.  From this point forward, backups are always "incremental forever". Only CHANGED data will back up every night, not a FULL backup.  This reduces backup windows dramatically, as well as network bandwidth needed to move the files.

  3. LACA will work with you to select what data you want to back up.  You do NOT have to back up an entire server.. you can back up selected drives or directories only.

  4. LACA will work with you to establish a retention policy for old data (how many days to keep old files, how many versions of old files to keep, how long to retain files that have been deleted).

  5. LACA will email you a nightly report of the status of your backups. LACA staff receive copies of these reports and review them as well.  This report will show you your total usage, which LACA uses to bill your district for the backup service.

LACA's Partners

These are the vendors that LACA partners with to bring the Hosted Wireless service to your schools.