Data Protection

Protection of our customers' data is of paramount importance to Agenor Technology. In response to this key priority, we have designed and implemented a comprehensive technical and operational solution to deliver an enterprise level backup and restore capability. This is a multi-dimensional solution which we believe delivers the essential assurance that our customers expect.

RackSpace Managed Backup Service

As part of the service provided by RackSpace, each server is fully backed up on a nightly basis to a tape media library. Backup jobs are fully monitored with audit logs generated for each backup event. RackSpace technicians continuously verify the successful outcome of these scheduled backups. In the event of a backup failure, a Support Ticket is automatically generated and RackSpace technicians investigate the root cause. The managed backup service also includes the essential Restore functionality, which can be invoked upon request by Agenor’s support technicians. Completion times will vary depending on how much information needs to be restored. Typically, a 200MB file takes around five minutes to be restored.

ICEflo Database Backups

The heart of the ICEflo service is the Oracle 11g relational database system. We have designed the backup and recovery solution for this database to meet the requirements of the most demanding enterprise environment. The solution is as follows:

Database Export to File System: Each night, a scheduled online export of the entire database is executed, with a “dump” file located on the server file system. This dump file is then backed up to tape using the RackSpace Managed Backup service. The restore mechanism has been fully tested and is subject to repeated tests, typically on a monthly basis.

Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN):  Oracle RMAN is an enterprise level solution that is widely used to achieve point in time recovery capabilities with transaction based point in time recovery. The ICEflo database instance is backed up using RMAN on a nightly basis and provides and enhanced recovery capability. The restore mechanism has been fully tested and is subject to repeated tests on a monthly basis.

Customer Held Backups

For some customers, there is a desire to hold copies of your own data on your own premises. In order to support this request, Agenor can configure a daily export of customer data which can be securely transferred from our servers within the RackSpace data centre to a server of your nomination. The combination of firewall rules (defined between RackSpace and your site/server) and the use of the SecureFTP protocol mean that this is a highly secure transaction. This is a custom requirement with a bespoke solution for each client so we work with customers to establish a solution that meets their requirements.

Backup Monitoring

All backup activity is fully monitored with log files created for each backup and automated alerts generated on backup failure. Monitoring and alerting have been implemented for each of the following backup methods:

  • RackSpace Managed Backup Service
  • Database export to file system
  • Oracle RMAN backup service
  • Customer data backup and transfer service