Did you know that 60% of businesses FAIL 6 months after a cyber attack? Pretty scary statistics really. Having a proven and robust backup plan allowing you to recover corrupt or deleted data after a data loss is critical to keeping your business going. Read our guide on backup & recovery giving you some simple tips on how to mitigate a data loss scenario.
If you want a free tailored audit of your systems get in touch , We can offer a free audit and detail all the steps required to get a robust system in place. We can then install and monitor your backup systems ensuring you are always on point when it comes to backup & recovery.
Work out your data policies
Firstly and most importantly you need to establish a backup & recovery policy that encompasses the following elements:
- What data needs to be backed up – You may have certain data that needs to be backed up more often than other data
- How often should it be backed up – Again some data may only need a monthly backup and some may need hourly
- Where should it be backed up – Consider the 3-2-1 backup strategy
- How many copies and on what media should these backups sit
- Who should have access to the backup data
- What is the process when data needs destroying
Once you have this in place put it in writing and make sure all relevant people read and acknowledge the policy you put forward.
Use the right kit – Prepare for expansion and secure your backups
Once you have a backup & recovery plan and policy in place then you need to consider the media to use for your backup. More specifically you need to consider both speed and expansion. If you have 1GB of company data that needs backing up and you decide to keep 2 copies of data backed up at all times then your backup media will immediately require 2TB of space. This however leaves no room for expansion.
If you are backing up your email server then the database is going to grow each day, Also if you are doing full system backups of servers etc then with each round of operating system updates the data used will increase.
We suggest as a minimum having 1.5x the required space. So if you need 2TB to cover 2 server backups on each backup drive then we would suggest making sure those backup drives have at least 3TB of capacity. A better bet is to go with 2x – Again storage is cheap!
Ensuring you have fast storage is also important. Tape storage is still used widely and whilst it offers fast write speeds recovery of data takes a long time. Backing up data across the internet into the cloud whilst good for offsite backup and incidental backups it can take a long time as the speed is limited by your upload speed of your broadband (typically lower than download speed).
We have found success in using USB 3.0 backup drives combined with cloud storage. Cloud storage for archival data that does not require fast recovery and USB 3.0 backup drives for everyday backup. USB 3.0 allows for speeds up to 5 gpbs which is fine for large data stores.
Assuming you have a form of portable offsite backup such as USB drives then you will want to make sure that the data on these tapes is not easily accessible in the event of loss or theft. To that end we suggest using enterprise level backup software, not only will this encrypt your data at the point of backup but also allow easy management of your backups. We have teamed up with a industry leading provider of backup solutions and we also get preferential pricing, If you need enterprise grade backup & recovery software get in touch
TEST!
So you now know what you need for a good backup & recovery system but a good backup solution only works if you can prove it works. Do you regularly test your backup by restoring your data? Do you complete full bare metal recovery to test your backup images?
Any system we put in takes into account validation of data and we routinely check backups for both data recovery and full image restoration as part of our backup monitoring service.
How we can help
Backup & recovery
We have 20+ years of experience in configuring and maintaining backup systems for our customers, we are also a reseller of Storage Craft enterprise grade backup solutions and have access to preferential pricing so we are perfectly placed to install and monitor a robust backup solution for your business.
All of our backup solutions take into account the core principles mentioned above and we work within your budget to make sure you get a solution that is affordable and fit for purpose.
For a free on-site audit check out our website now for contact information
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