Data Backup Solutions -helpful information
The Importance of Data Backup
Data loss does happen and a lot more often then you may imagine. Data loss can be caused by several factors including; hardware failure, data corruption, natural disasters such as fires, theft, malicious damage by hackers and viruses, and people- failure to change tapes of run backup.
Having the right data backup solution in place is help protect your business and its valuable data, ensuring that when data loss does occur you have a reliable and complete data backup to restore from.
Three Key Parts to Data Backup
Data Backup Hardware; there are many options available here and the hardware you select will greatly depend on the size of your business and amount of data you need to backup. Backup hardware at the small end covers devices such as zip disks and Recordable CD, moving through to the most common hardware being Tape Drives and auto-loaders which can store large volume of data.
When speaking with your data backup specialist or consultant you need to ensure you discuss items such as: volume of data you need to backup not only now but your expected growth over the next 2-3 years; time taken to carryout data backup procedure, compression ratio, cost of tapes, upgradeability, warranty condition, just to name a few.
Data Backup Software: you need to ensure you backup all important data, this may be stored in emails, databases, remote servers, notebooks, remote desktops. Specialised software is required for different data sources, operating systems and even applications. It is critical you select the right software to ensure you backup all your data sources.
Data Backup Management: having the right hardware and software provides the tools you need to ensure a reliable data backup system. Adopting and adhering to a pre-defined backup methodology ensures the backup is performed at the right time and covering all the required data sources. Most importantly it should cover tape replacement policy, data restore testing, ensuring data is keep secure and preferably offsite and planning to ensure the hardware and software is upgraded as required to meet your growing data backup requirements.
Correct Data Backup Ensures Business Continuity
The ability to recover quickly from data loss is critical to ensure business continuity. This may be simply recovering an important file or email that has accidentally been deleted or corrupted, or it may be due to a break-in, in which your server has been stolen. Having the correct data backup solution in place will ensure you can recover your data and get your business operation as quickly as possible with minimal loss of data.