By understanding the various ways a backup environment can be designed, you can then decide the most appropriate way to protect your data that meets the needs of your business. Typically, a backup environment can be set up in the following configurations:

• Local backup
• Network backup
• SAN backup
• Local backup

Local Backup
In a local backup environment, every server has its own tape drive attached. Each server runs a copy of the backup software, and makes a backup of its own data only. Every server does its backup independently of the other servers.

Network backup
In a network backup environment, a server with an attached tape device is designated as a backup server. The backup server will back up the data of the other servers through the local area network. This backup server will be installed with the backup software, while the other servers only need to run the backup agent software. The tape device attached to the backup server is usually a tape autoloader or a tape library.

SAN
In a SAN backup environment, servers are connected to a tape device through a fibre channel connection. The tape device used in a SAN is usually a high-capacity tape library. Multiple servers are usually connected to the tape library through a fibre channel switch.