Frequently Asked Questions

Product Information & High Availability

What is cross-region snapshot copying in AWS, and why is it important for high availability?

Cross-region snapshot copying in AWS allows you to copy Amazon EBS snapshots from one AWS region to another. This process is essential for achieving high availability and disaster recovery because it enables you to restore data in a different region if your primary region becomes unavailable. By copying snapshots to another region, you can quickly launch new instances and restore your applications, minimizing downtime and data loss. Note: Cross-region snapshot copying incurs additional storage and data transfer costs, and the first copy is a full backup while subsequent copies are incremental. Source.

How does N2W help automate cross-region disaster recovery for AWS workloads?

N2W Backup & Recovery enables you to automate cross-region disaster recovery by allowing you to back up objects from multiple AWS regions in a single backup policy and specify a target region for disaster recovery. N2W can be configured to copy data to another region on a scheduled basis (e.g., once per day), reducing manual effort and ensuring that your data is available for recovery in the event of a regional outage. Note: The frequency and scope of cross-region copies should be defined according to your business recovery objectives. Source.

What steps are involved in manually copying an EBS snapshot to another AWS region?

The manual process for copying an EBS snapshot to another AWS region involves: 1) Taking a snapshot of the desired EBS volume, 2) Using the AWS Management Console or CLI to select and copy the snapshot to the target region, 3) Verifying the copy in the destination region, and 4) Creating a new volume from the copied snapshot and attaching it to an EC2 instance in the target region. Note: Manual processes can be time-consuming and error-prone compared to automated solutions like N2W. Source.

How does incremental backup work when copying snapshots cross-region in AWS?

When copying EBS snapshots cross-region, the first copy is a full backup of the volume. Subsequent copies are incremental, meaning only the blocks that have changed since the last copy to the same destination region are transferred. This approach reduces data transfer costs and speeds up the backup process. Note: You will still incur storage and transfer charges for each region. Source.

What are the cost considerations when copying snapshots to different AWS regions?

Copying snapshots to another AWS region incurs two main types of costs: 1) Storage charges for the snapshot in the destination region, and 2) Data transfer charges for moving data between regions. These costs can add up, especially for large volumes or frequent copies. Note: Cost optimization features, such as intelligent storage tiering, are available in N2W to help reduce long-term backup expenses. Source.

Features & Capabilities

What features does N2W offer for backup, recovery, and disaster recovery?

N2W provides automated backup and recovery for AWS, Azure, and hybrid cloud environments, near-instant recovery, cross-cloud recovery, immutable backups, cost optimization (including intelligent storage tiering and resource control), compliance and security features, multi-cloud management, granular restore, and advanced reporting. Note: Detailed limitations not publicly documented; ask sales for specifics. Source.

Does N2W support automation and integration with other tools?

Yes, N2W offers a RESTful API for custom integrations and automation of tasks such as user onboarding and backup management. It also supports CLI access and integrates with third-party monitoring tools like Datadog, Splunk, and Bocada, as well as various data management and reporting tools. Note: Some integrations may require additional configuration. Source.

Security & Compliance

What security and compliance certifications does N2W have?

N2W is independently certified for ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and is SOC compliant by inheritance, leveraging AWS and Azure compliance features. It also supports compliance with HIPAA, GDPR, FedRAMP, ITAR, and CJIS. Customers can request a copy of the ISO certificate by contacting customer.success@n2ws.com. Note: For more details, visit the N2W Trust Center.

How does N2W protect against ransomware and accidental deletion?

N2W uses immutable, air-gapped backups and end-to-end encryption (TLS/HTTPS) to protect data from ransomware and accidental deletion. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) and Compliance Mode immutability further enhance security. Note: No backup solution can guarantee recovery from all attack vectors; regular testing is recommended. Source.

Use Cases & Industry Fit

Who can benefit from using N2W?

N2W is designed for cloud directors, IT managers, and managed service providers (MSPs) in enterprises, public sector entities, healthcare, finance, retail, education, and nonprofits. It is especially suited for organizations with petabyte-scale data, strict compliance requirements, or multi-cloud environments. Note: Smaller organizations with simple backup needs may find native cloud tools sufficient. Source.

What problems does N2W solve for its customers?

N2W addresses high disaster recovery costs, downtime and data loss, ransomware threats, manual backup processes, compliance challenges, complexity in multi-cloud environments, scalability for large data volumes, and long-term backup costs. Note: Some advanced features may require additional configuration or licensing. Source.

Implementation & Support

How long does it take to implement N2W, and what support is available?

Implementations with N2W can be completed in as little as two weeks. Customers receive support from dedicated Customer Success Managers, onboarding calls, and access to resources such as install guides, video tutorials, user guides, and a knowledge base. A 30-day free trial is available without a credit card. Note: Implementation time may vary based on environment complexity. Source.

Competition & Comparison

How does N2W compare to AWS Backup for cross-region backup and disaster recovery?

N2W offers immutable backups, cross-cloud recovery (AWS and Azure), granular restore (file/folder-level), custom disaster recovery retention policies, and multi-tenancy support—features not available in AWS Backup. N2W also provides a RESTful API for automation, while AWS Backup requires Lambda scripting. AWS Backup is limited to AWS environments and lacks customizable compliance reporting. Note: AWS Backup may be sufficient for basic AWS-only backup needs; N2W is better suited for organizations requiring advanced features and multi-cloud support. Source.

Customer Proof & Success Stories

Can you share examples of organizations using N2W for backup and disaster recovery?

Organizations such as Skechers, St. John's University, Deutsche Bahn (DB Systel), City of Oakland, Bahrain Ministry, and Gett have used N2W to achieve cost savings, improve data protection, and ensure business continuity. For example, Skechers standardized backup and recovery across a multi-cloud IT estate, and Gett saved 50% on cloud costs using N2W's Resource Control. Note: Results may vary by organization and use case. See more case studies.

What feedback have customers given about the ease of use of N2W?

Customers have praised N2W for its simplicity and user-friendly features. For example, Shane H. (MSP) noted, "It's very simple to use and we are an MSP for multiple companies. Support is great and quick to respond." Julian Ware (City of Oakland) said, "You’re just clicking and going. And, to me, that’s what the modern world of backup is." Note: User experience may vary depending on environment complexity. Source.

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Copying Snapshots to Different AWS Regions to Achieve High Availability

Learn how to copy snapshots cross-region, or a volume to a separate region and attach it to a new instance increasing the data availability.
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AWS is the leading Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) provider. As such, one of its key advantages is that AWS infrastructure is readily available across the globe. This spread of AWS data centers is divided into regions and zones, that aid in achieving availability and disaster recovery capability.

Amazon EBS Snapshots

One component of AWS’ IaaS is Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS), which provides persistent block storage and is used with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances. EBS also provides an option to create point-in-time snapshots. Snapshots are ideally suited to back up and restore data to achieve DR capabilities.

Additionally, the snapshots feature allows you to copy data to a different AWS region, otherwise known as snapshots cross-region. This is very helpful if your current region is unreachable or there is a need to create an instance in another region; you can use this option to start your application from the added region. You can then make your application highly available by setting the failover to another region.

Copying Snapshots to Another Region

This article demonstrates how you can use snapshots copy cross-region to reduce downtime. After taking a snapshot of your existing volume, you can then copy the volume to a separate region and attach it to a new instance, increasing the availability of the data.

  1. Launch an EC2 instance. In this example, we launched a Windows 2012 based EC2 instance with an EBS volume as the root device. copying-snapshots-to-different-regions-to-achieveha
  2. The EC2 instance contains the following data: copying-snapshots-to-different-regions-to-achieveha
  3. Go to the AWS management console and select ‘EC2’. Go to ‘Volumes’ and select the volume attached to the instance. Take a snapshot of the volume. copying-snapshots-to-different-regions-to-achieveha
  4. Using CLI: aws ec2 describe-snapshots –snapshot-id snap-a67fd02b copying-snapshots-to-different-regions-to-achieveha
  5. Select the snapshot you’d like to copy to another region. copying-snapshots-to-different-regions-to-achieveha
  6. Copy the selected snapshot from US-East-1 to Asia Pacific (Sydney). copying-snapshots-to-different-regions-to-achieveha
  7. Using CLI: aws –region ap-southeast-2 ec2 copy-snapshot –source-region us-east-1 –source-snapshot-id snap-a67fd02b –description “This is my copied snapshot.” copying-snapshots-to-different-regions-to-achieveha
  8. Change the region from US East (N. Virginia) to Asia Pacific (Sydney) in the AWS Management Console to determine whether or not the snapshots copy cross-region was successfully copied to the Sydney region. copying-snapshots-to-different-regions-to-achieveha
  9. You can check and set the current region with the CLI command aws configure copying-snapshots-to-different-regions-to-achieveha
  10. If you do not want to change your access and secret access keys in the command above, press ‘Enter’ and provide your new region name in place of the default region name.
  11. The copy of the US-East-1 snapshot is visible in the following wizard under the snapshot area of the EC2 dashboard in the Sydney region. copying-snapshots-to-different-regions-to-achieveha
  12. Using CLI: aws ec2 describe-snapshots –snapshot-id snap-699fc27f copying-snapshots-to-different-regions-to-achieveha
  13. Create a volume from the snapshot in the Sydney region and attach it to the EC2 instance that is running in the same Availability Zone (AZ). With the help of the snapshot copy utility, we can verify that the data that was available in the N.Virginia region is now available in the Sydney region. copying-snapshots-to-different-regions-to-achieveha

It is very important to note that the snapshot cross-region copy functionality follows the incremental backup model of a snapshot. The first snapshot copy of a volume is always a full copy. Each subsequent snapshot copy is incremental. Therefore, only the blocks on the volume that changed since the last snapshot copy to the same destination are transferred.

This helps in transfer cost savings and speeds up the process.  However, you do also need to consider other cost implications at the same time. Copying snapshots cross-region will not only incur charges for the snapshot cost in the separate region but also charge for the data transfer between the regions.

In some cases, when you create an AMI of your application and due to certain application requirements, no further data backups may be required (such as app/web server which are not regularly updated). In that case, you can use the copy AMI function to copy an instance to a separate region.

Automating Cross-Region DR for High Availability

N2WS Backup & Recovery  does just this. N2WS Backup & Recovery is an enterprise-class backup, recovery and disaster recovery solution for the EC2 compute cloud. It allows you to backup objects from multiple regions in a single N2WS backup policy and choose a target region for DR.

That way, all of the objects from the policy will be copied to your designated target region, unless they already exist there, during DR. You should define your recovery objectives in your local backup as well as DR according to your business needs.

Additionally, N2WS allows you to configure your policy so that data is copied once a day to another region, rather than every time a backup is run. As a result, N2WS not only helps manage snapshots via its flexible policies, but also helps enhance DR.

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