Cross-region backup
Launched - Apr 2020
Overview
-What is Cross-Region Backup?
Within Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, cross-region backup allows users to create a backup copy of their block volume in a different region other than its current region. Learn more
-What problems does this feature solve?
1) Disaster recovery and business continuity: By copying block volume backups to another region at regular intervals, it makes it easier for you to rebuild applications and data in the destination region if a region-wide disaster occurs in the source region.
2) Migration and expansion: You can easily migrate and expand your applications to another region.
Team
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure,
Block Storage Team
Role
UX Designer
Collaborations
PM, Engineers
Duration
Jan2020 - Apr2020
Background Knowledge
For people who are not familiar with cloud infrastructure
-What is a block volume?
A virtual hard drive in the cloud that stores data. Think about your physical hard drive in your computer, however it is in the cloud. Learn more
-What is a backup policy?
A policy that defines when and how to do the backup (eg. every Mon at 5am ). Learn more
-What is a region?
A region is a localized geographic area that has one or more Oracle data centers (eg. Australia East - Sydney). Learn more
Defining the Scope of MVP
-Single Region vs Multiple Regions?
When designing this feature, we had a question about whether the volume should be backed up in only one single region or multiple regions other than its current region. The volume would ideally be backed up in whatever regions the user wants it to be. Yet multiple regions can be technically challenging and also adds a lot of complexity to the design. And a very important question is:
" How many users would actually use multiple regions to back up their block volumes? "
From this question, our product manager spoke with 7 customers. Only 2 customers he spoke with would be interested in creating backups in multiple regions. The main reasons were:1) Backing up in current region and one other region should be safe enough. 2) Backing up in multiple regions cost a lot more money.
The results of these findings supported the use of one single region for the MVP. That would allow us to launch sooner and start collecting customers' feedbacks earlier. From there, we can improve and iterate.
That being said, each region only has one destination region that the volume can be backed up in. We call it the paired region. It's a 1:1 relationship.
Defining Key User Flow
First Approach
After the initial design kick-off meeting with PM and engineers, the first approach I proposed was to put "enable cross-region backup" during the process of assigning or editing a backup policy to a block volume. As you can see below, when a user lands on a block volume detail page, the user can click on the "assign" or the "edit" link in the metadata box right next to "Backup Policy: " . That would bring out the panel of "Assign / Edit backup policy", from there cross-region backup can be enabled by checking the checkbox down below.
Pros:
-
Straightforward & convenient - know what block volume you are operating on exactly
Cons:
-
It can be confusing to users that the cross-region backup is only enabled / disabled during the policy assignment / editing process. It is neither in the block volume nor in the backup policy entities, it is in the middle of the assigning process.
-
It can also be confusing to users that volumes have the same backup policy can have different cross-region backup settings. Some volumes have cross-region backup enabled while others don't.
User Testing
During the design process, I had a few concerns as listed in the "Cons" section above. I had a feeling this experience might not be intuitive for most of our users. Therefore I conducted a few user testings with Oracle internal users to verify my concerns. I recruited 4 Oracle employees and did a quick prototype on InVision. I booked a meeting room, sat down with these potential "users" and asked them to click through the prototype to see if they can find how to enable cross-region backup. After that I asked how they felt about the whole process.
My concerns turned out to be true. Here are some examples of user feedback:
" For cross-region backup, since it is one type of backups, should it be controlled by backup policy as well?"
" Enabling cross-region backup in the middle of assigning process is weird. It's hard to find it, also hard to
remember."
" I would go to backup policy first and try to enable from there, that just makes more sense to me."
Change of Direction
Based on the feedback during user testing. We decided to change the direction of design. I decided to combine the cross-region backup function into the backup policy screen instead of leaving it in the middle of the assigning / editing process. Though it is one more step to do, it fits user mental model a lot more than the previous approach. PM agreed the second approach was better not only from design perspective, but also from engineering and product perspectives. I summarized the key takeaways as the following:
-
From product level, it makes more sense to combine the cross-region backup function into the backup policy, so the backup policy controls all the backup-related functionalities (schedules, cross-region, etc) of a block volume.
-
From engineering perspective, it is also easier to implement this way.
-
From design perspective, it is good to separate the operation from the object. Users can use only one backup policy and apply it to hundreds of block volumes. They will all have the same backup policy, therefore the same cross-region backup setting. It would be so much easier for users to remember what kind of backup policies applied to which block volumes compared to the previous approach.
Final User Flow
This is how the final flow looks like after we combined the cross-region backup into the backup policy. Now users have to go to backup policy first to enable cross-region backup, then assign the backup policy to the block volume. It is one more step, yet better fits user mental model.
Final Design - Key Screens
The complete project has about 34 screens and it covers all the following user flows:
-
Enable Cross-region Backup
-
Disable Cross-region Backup
-
Create Backup Policy
-
Duplicate Backup Policy
-
Edit Backup Policy
-
Assign Backup Policy
The following screens are the key screens for the main user flows we described above. They are "Enable Cross-region Backup" and "Assign Backup Policy" user flows.
Enable Cross-region Backup
Backup Policy Detail View
Enable cross-region backup function in the metadata box.
Confirmation Dialog
Confirm the change and the potential cost it may occur
Assign Backup Policy
Block Volume Detail View
For block volumes that doesn't have backup policy yet, assign a backup policy that has cross-region backup function enabled
Assign Backup Policy
Confirmation Dialog
Block Volume Detail View
Now the cross-region backup has been turned on, it will automatically be backed up in the destination region.
- END -
THANKS FOR READING
