So, you think your data’s safe. How often do you back up your computers? Are you backing up all the information needed to recover your systems completely? Are you sure its really there? Where are your backups stored?
Computers have a habit of letting you down when you least expect it: a badly-written program installer, malicious email attachments or power failures can wreak havoc on your system. Also, the moving parts and magnetic surfaces in your hard drive were not built to last a lifetime. So when Murphy's Law kicks in, and something fails, you'll appreciate why keeping a set of backups isn't the luxury you once thought.
A proper backup strategy is the most effective insurance against fire, theft, disk crash, natural disaster, human error, unhappy employees and viruses. These events can all cause data loss and result in time consuming data recovery operations (happy ending) or lost customers and lost business (a sad story).
The Cost of Not Backing Up
The doomsday perspective: Although, more often, single files are lost rather than whole systems, the cost of recreating lost data can be significant. Lost files cause a vast amount of time to be expended and may lead to lost business and customers. When you can’t access data in critical situations, or if vital data can not be found when needed, it can affect your bottom line.
Most people know someone who has lost a file. The Chernobyl virus caused thousands of computers to fail and a lot of organizations lost valuable data. When you lose your data some way or another, there are usually several ways to recreate it. Paper copies may be available so it can be retyped, or fragments of the information, or un-compiled source data, may be available elsewhere so that new versions can be created. Either way, these options are not often very attractive or productive.
No company should risk running a critical database and not generate a regular backup. The value of off-site vaulting of disaster recovery media is a "bet your business" event. For example, after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York, more than 50 percent of the businesses that did not have off-site recovery media went out of business
Alchetec will analyze your needs and present a complete backup solution to fit your requirements. The solution will provide you with the security of knowing that your data is available in the event you need to recover it.
Basic Backup Strategy
The goal of a backup strategy is to provide for the recovery of any file or system at a given point in time. Depending on the size and capabilities of your organization, different solutions are available to you. However, the basic principle is to implement a rotational backup strategy that includes full and incremental backups.
A full backup is done on a regular basis (usually monthly) to insure that you have a copy of all necessary files to recovery your systems in the event of a computer failure. After you have a full backup set, incremental backups are typically performed. That is only the files that have changed since the last full backup are saved. How critical your data is and how much data is changed, will determine how often incremental backups are done. In most scenarios, incremental backups are done daily. The purpose of incremental backups is mainly to allow you to recover individual files or versions of those files that you have changed or lost.
Many people use the same disk, CD or tape when doing backups. This can cause problems because when a file becomes corrupt on your hard drive when you perform a backup, you will write over the previous version, which would be the only good copy of the data you have. That is why a good backup solution would incorporate the rotation of backup media. Backup media is relatively inexpensive compared with the risk of not using multiple sets for backing up. Additionally, by creating an adequate rotational backup scheme in which you keep permanent copies of a backup set, you have the ability to recover data from a given point of time. For example, if at the end of a
year you retain the full backup set, you will always be able to recover data from that point in time. If, for example, an error occurred with the year-end process of your accounting system and you didn’t notice it until you closed the first quarter, with the properly saved backup set, you could rollback the data and correct the error.
Finally, many people today only backup some of the information they need. For example, they may backup their documents and spreadsheets onto a diskette or only backup some of their systems such as a server. Although this is better than nothing, it doesn’t provide adequate protection against data loss. Many programs save configuration and registration information in system files that allows access to the programs. Without backing up this information, recovering your ability to access the programs you use for your business may be as devastating as the loss of your documents themselves. Additionally, many systems are ignored such as laptops and desktops where most of your businesses information is kept.
Let Alchetec help develop a comprehensive backup strategy for your business. Contact us at 773.275.9900 and sleep well tonight knowing your business is safe from the loss of data.
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