5/23
What are the Important Fundamentals of Data Backup?
Information technology backup, or data backup, is a copy of your computer data stored securely elsewhere, so that it may be used to restore data after loss.
Having a conversation about backup is actually a multi-layered conversation. There is no such thing as a standard backup for every business. There are multiple layers of choices, with issues spanning from a lost file to a catastrophic event or ransomware. To begin strategizing about backup, these 2 objectives, (RPO and RTO) must be considered.
Recovery Point Objective (RPO) – The maximum amount of data, measured by time, that can be lost before data loss will exceed what is acceptable to your business. (Example “Can we go back 24 hours, 3 hours or anything in between.”)
Recovery Time Objective (RTO) – The timeframe required to get applications and systems back up and running to avoid cost ramifications to your business. (Example “Can you be down for 48 hours while the network is being restored, or do you need to be back up and functioning in minutes?”)
Each business must assess the timeframe and costs of acceptable downtime and make informed decisions evaluating the cost and recovery times.
Should businesses utilize On Premises or Cloud Backup?
On Premises Backup – This onsite “in your building” backup generally offers the fastest “recovery” time (RTO). Moving data in the building is commonly always faster than retrieving information from the cloud. The cloud is fast, but with potentially terabytes of data to move, your network is likely 2 to 20 times faster downloading everything. In addition, if a problem occurs to the cloud backup company, or Internet is down (in the case of serious damage to your office for example), having the backup “in your building” may be the only effective way to recover.
Cloud Backup – This “offsite or online/remote” backup transfers data to a storage server or facility over the Internet with multiple internet connections, to avoid a single point of failure. Since this is an “offsite or online/remote” backup, it offers protection from fire, floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. In addition it protects against a sophisticated hack or power damage to large amounts of equipment. However, cloud backup is not immune to data loss.
In most cases it is highly recommend to have BOTH onsite and offsite (cloud based) backups to mitigate as much business risk as possible.
Additional considerations include file based versus image based and full backups versus incremental for the actual backup. These options are best discussed AFTER a complete understanding of your business data backup needs to make certain the right choices are being made. Your IT Service Provider can assist you with this and will have a Disaster Recovery Plan (see blog), to assist you if serious issues arise.
Resources for most business are not unlimited, choosing the right backup and restore strategy before there is an issue is critical for success when the time comes. EVERY business will need their backup at some point, and having a plan in place beforehand puts businesses WAY ahead if an event occurs.
Businesses must weigh needs, expectations, and expenses to identify the best backup plan and strategy.
I.T.WORKS!’s dedicated TEAM physically monitors backups to ensure they are working – not taking it for granted. Secure Backups are confirmed completed (they are individually checked). Clients that follow I.T.WORKS! stringent protocols will have backed up data in three locations. This is how we assure clients that we are always aware of backup status. Your backup plan is only as good as the strategy of your IT Service Provider and the integrity of their company.
Effective backup requires a person physically watching, checking, and chasing down errors. When you need to recover your data to keep business running, our processes won’t let you down.
Some questions for an IT Service Provider to guide your search.
- How does my current strategy align with like businesses, is there a company similar in size? How long did it take to get them back up and running from a bare metal (i.e. totally down) restore? May speak with them?
- Is a copy of my backup of my data in the cloud?
- Is this a HIPAA-compliant backup? Is every copy of the file backups encrypted?
- As a business, is there something we should do differently?
- May I have a copy of our Disaster Recovery Plan?
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If you have questions, please feel free to call, we would love to help you gain a better understanding. 508.375.6444