BACK UP
A recent business journal reported that 90% of all companies that experience a disaster will fail within the first year. The top reason why? Insufficient backup of data. Technology Architects can replace hardware and software but we cannot replace your data unless you have it backed up. With exponential data growth and sprawling virtualized environments, backing up data has become progressively more critical to business of all sizes.
The two primary reasons backups are used are:
- To recover mass data lost due to disaster (fire, sprinklers systems, flood, theft, vandalism, power surge, etc.)
- To recover smaller data banks recently lost due to various reasons
What to back up?
The more important your data is to you, the more important it is to back it up. Multiple backups utilizing more than one media and being stored in different locations is becoming more popular with increasingly critical data and more cost effective means of backing up. Technology Architects can provide multiple solutions to your back up requirements.
When to back up?
All backup schemes will have some performance impact on the system being backed up. For the period of time that a computer system is being backed up, the hard drive is busy reading files for the purpose of backing up, and its full bandwidth is no longer available for other tasks.
The period of time when backups are scheduled to run on a system is called the backup window. Typically backups are run during the night or during the period with the least amount of active use. The backup window is usually planned with users’ convenience in mind.
Using job scheduling software can greatly improve the reliability and consistency of backups by removing most of the human element. Most backup software packages include this functionality.
HOW TO BACKUP
All types of storage media have an infinite capacity with real cost. Matching the correct amount of storage capacity (over time) with your backup needs is an important part of the equation in designing a backup scheme for you. All backup schemes have some labor requirements, the more complicated backup schemes will require more time to configure
Magnetic tape has long been the most commonly used medium for data storage and backup. Tape is a sequential medium, so even though access times may be poor, the rate of continuously writing or reading data can actually be very fast. Some new tape drives are even faster than modern hard disks. Tape, more-so than any other media, has a proven track record of successful backup capability. Tapes can reside within your server and or they can be locally attached most commonly through USB.
The main advantages of hard disk storage are quick convenient access times, availability, capacity and ease of use. Disk can reside within your server and or it can be locally attached through interfaces like SCSI, USB, Ethernet and iSCSI. Some disk-based backup systems support data de duplication which can dramatically reduce the amount of disk storage capacity by daily and weekly backup.
Remote data backup services have gained a great deal of traction over the last couple of years. The biggest advantage is that there is no human element required, eliminating the need for on site tapes or disks and the associated work of rotating and storing them off site. Backing up via the internet to a remote location can protect against some worst-case scenarios such as fires, floods, theft, vandalism and power surge.
Automated backup and scheduling should be considered, as manual backups can be affected by human error.
A backup is only as useful as its associated restore strategy. Due to ever changing technology, keeping current with your backup technology is imperative (new systems replace old and new support replaces old). For critical systems data, the restoration process should be periodically tested.
MONITORING
All backup systems should be setup with redundant monitoring. Technology Architects will configure your system to notify you of all successful backups as well as all those that fail. A third party monitor is a must; we can identify growth and capacity requirements that are essential to successful backups.
Establishing a chain of trusted individuals and providers is crucial. Backup tapes and disks are physical items and must only be handled by trusted individuals.
Certain industries require backup reporting to be compliant with regulatory standards. Many organizations rely on Technology Architects to test, validate, and optimize their backup operations.