Putting together an almost fool-proof backup plan
22 April, 2008
Why backup?
The need for backup arises from the risk of losing your data. Putting it bluntly, what will happen if your company loses part or all its data? For many, this would mean temporary closure or substantial revenue loss, for others it will mean winding up altogether. Backups can also prevent data tampering; which can be as damaging as data loss.
Below are the five most common reasons why you need backup:
- Errors caused by end users or by admin staff (like support)
- Failure (software or hardware)
- Hacking and data tempering
- Theft (data or hardware)
- Disaster (e.g. a fire)
Things to consider for your backup plan
1. How prepared are your IT staff
Things tend to go wrong and occasionally do go wrong. Most companies introduce their new staff to health and safety procedures and fire drill. It would be a great exercise to brief IT staff about any existing backup plans. If you do not have any in-house IT staff, assign the role of Data Administrator to one member of staff as it is the case for First Aid.
2. How much downtime in hours can you afford?
In the business of storage, this is known as the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) or how much downtime you can afford. The shorter, the better although this varies tremendously even across a sector; for some, a few minutes or a few hours would be the strict maximum while others can do just fine with a few days’ downtime.
3. How much lost information in days can you afford
Also known as the Recovery Point Objective (RPO). In an ideal world, the RPO should be the point in time just before the interruption occurred. Some companies can accommodate an RPO of several hours or days. However, mission critical applications like online banking require a RPO of less than one second. Having such a small RPO also means that any changes to the source data is applied to the back up data almost instantaneously.
The need for backup arises from the risk of losing your data. Putting it bluntly, what will happen if your company loses part or all its data? For many, this would mean temporary closure or substantial revenue loss, for others it will mean winding up altogether. Backups can also prevent data tampering; which can be as damaging as data loss.
Below are the five most common reasons why you need backup:
- Errors caused by end users or by admin staff (like support)
- Failure (software or hardware)
- Hacking and data tempering
- Theft (data or hardware)
- Disaster (e.g. a fire)
Things to consider for your backup plan
1. How prepared are your IT staff
Things tend to go wrong and occasionally do go wrong. Most companies introduce their new staff to health and safety procedures and fire drill. It would be a great exercise to brief IT staff about any existing backup plans. If you do not have any in-house IT staff, assign the role of Data Administrator to one member of staff as it is the case for First Aid.
2. How much downtime in hours can you afford?
In the business of storage, this is known as the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) or how much downtime you can afford. The shorter, the better although this varies tremendously even across a sector; for some, a few minutes or a few hours would be the strict maximum while others can do just fine with a few days’ downtime.
3. How much lost information in days can you afford
Also known as the Recovery Point Objective (RPO). In an ideal world, the RPO should be the point in time just before the interruption occurred. Some companies can accommodate an RPO of several hours or days. However, mission critical applications like online banking require a RPO of less than one second. Having such a small RPO also means that any changes to the source data is applied to the back up data almost instantaneously.
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