Monitoring Backups via Email

I've spoken to hundreds of IT Administrators about the way they check backups for their systems. The overwhelming majority use a simple method to check backups with inbound email reports. Email is a universally accepted method for communication. It is why we chose to build Backup Radar to support inbound emails for all backup products. Over 99% of backup products support sending a success/failure email report. The following problems with this method should be considered:

Absence of an email is overlooked

What happens if an email isn't received?

Most admins do not check for the absence of an email report. Unless you are manually checking via a spreadsheet daily, you likely won't notice if a system fails to send an email at all. This leaves you vulnerable to a system that doesn't send an email in with a success or failure. Even if you are manually checking via a spreadsheet this is a very monotonous and mundane task and it wastes a lot of time that could be utilized in other areas of your business. 

Centralized Reporting

The most common approach I've heard from backup admins is to create a public folder or seperate email account to have all the backup jobs sent to. While this makes backup checking a little easier, it really creates a problem when you need to report on backups. This method means you would have to manually create a report if needed. 

Trending

With email there is no way to trend all of the backups you receive for a client in an inbox. As a backup admin this doesn't allow you to see and fix underlying issues for your backups. If you can see the patterns then you can address those issues before they become major problems. 

Backup Radar solves all of these challenges!

We've built Backup Radar to be a world class solution that is simple to use. It will report a failure on any device that doesn't send in a backup email during the backup window. We allow you the flexibility to set one or many schedules (when you're expecting backups) and the threshold for failures (report a failure if the device hasn't backed up in 3 days). We use thresholds like this for workstation backups that may not be as mission critical as server backups or replication jobs. Backup Radar will centralize and report on all the backup products you have in use across your organization or client base. You can also give your clients or management easy access to their backups with a guest account. Check out these features and many more at www.backupradar.com/features.