The technology side should be easy, at least from my standpoint.  Implement a proven backup and disaster recovery process to securely protect your data.  By that, I mean you need to have a stable server or platform to store your current data.  Next, your current working data needs to be backed up to another stable device onsite with large storage capacity to not only recover current data but also archived data in the event you need to restore files from a long while back.  The last point in the process is to securely transfer and store the backup data at an offsite location.  This last part of the process is the true disaster recovery preparedness in any good business plan.  If your current location is fully or partially lost, for example in a fire, you can recover data from the offsite location and resume business in a relatively short period of time.

The business side of a backup and disaster recovery plan should be equally as simple.  However, in reality, nothing is as easy at it seems.  Backup software and hardware devices require resources, not only money to purchase the applications and servers but also time to research, implement and test. The failure of so many businesses to address their data backup and recovery need lies with the disproportionately low value they place on their servers and computer systems that store their company data.  Every business, regardless of industry, is reliant on their computers to perform daily business operations.  With my previous statement, I am continually amazed at how many companies have inadequate or no backup plan or process in place.

For instance,

• many companies do not review what data is backed up.  The consequence of this is usually discovered when they attempt to recover a needed file and it is not there because the data they need was never part of the backup routine.
• many companies do not test their backups.  This is the most often frequent issue with backups I’ve seen with desperate companies. Many businesses still use notoriously unreliable tapes for backup because that is what has always been used in the past.  Did you know tapes have failure rates often cited at over 50%?
• many do not backup data offsite.  Offsite or online data storage used to be very expensive, but that is not the case anymore.  There are still places that charge $3-$5 per GB of offsite data storage but that is no longer the norm.  If your data is only available on the server or system and a drive close to that same location, a small event may destroy both instances of your data, both your current and backup storage.  For example, power events, like lightning strikes or power surges are the most common event to destroy data and water damage such as a water pipe breaking or sprinklers are close behind.

What are the results if a business tackles both the technology and business side of safely securing their company data for any event?  Easy, their data is always available to them. Their data is recoverable whether they accidentally deleted a file and need to recover it from yesterday , or a mail server crashes and all their documented correspondence is gone until they quickly recover from their onsite backup, or better yet run a virtual mail server off their backup device until their mail server is restored.  And in the rare event of a true disaster, their data is immediately available online, fully encrypted, from any Internet connection. Additionally, a new backup server, fully loaded with images of their servers to run virtual machines, is overnighted to any location.

Are you interested in comprehensive and secure backup and disaster recovery options?  Contact us for proven data backup solutions.

Get a solid backup and recovery solution for your business. Don’t cut corners, or costs, on this one. What would happen if your business server(s) quit working right now? Even if you have a backup, such as on tape, on an external USB or even on one of the many cheap offsite backup options, would you be able to recover your server and how long would it take? If you’re using tape to backup still I really recommend making a change. Tape has a pretty significant rate of not allowing you to recover data. That rate varies depending on study, but often I see 50% failure for tape backups when trying to recover data. The cheap offsite or online backup is cheap. But when you calculate how long it will take to process and download your data it becomes a measurement in days not minutes that you need for a business that is down.

We’ve gone through the whole evolution of backup media options, software, hardware, offsite, imaging, data centers, etc… After much searching and a number of trials we’ve got a proven backup and disaster recovery solution that really works. this backup/imaging option is a server (NAS) that sits onsite at your business. It takes multiple incremental snapshots throughout the day, up to every 15 minutes if desired. It handles SQL and has some pretty great Exchange mailbox item recovery built-in (it actually works!). So if you delete a file or need to go back and check revisions of files/folders it’s all there. The recovery is fast because the device is on your internal office network.

So what if your server crashes completely, like if someone decides to use it as a coffee table and spills their cup o joe. If your server crashes this NAS backup device can be up and running an image of your server in under 30 minutes. Yep, less than 30 minutes and your business is working just like nothing happened. This gives you time to purchase a new server and then port the image onto your new hardware and BAM… your new server is going and your a happy camper.

So what if there is a major incident like a water line break or a tornado… in this case the NAS also allows for transfer of data/backups/images offsite to secure data centers in Colorado and Maryland. The data is all encrypted using the highest available schemes such as blowfish or 256 bit encryption.
…besides the fact we recommend placing the NAS backup device at a different area of your office than the server…

It’s just like going to buy insurance, no one wants to take time to do it or spend money on it, but boy, when something bad happens and you can recover from it quickly you understand why you need it.