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Backup Strategies for Businesses Today

The truth is, today, most small businesses have no business continuity or disaster recovery plan in place. Gartner estimates that only twenty five percent of small businesses have disaster recovery plans in place. Disasters do occur. Just look at the hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The question is not IF but WHEN. And when a disaster hits, are you prepared to recover from it?

The first part of a backup strategy is to understand the need. What kind of data is being backed up? Many businesses aren't sure where to start or what should be done. The short answer is: Most, if not All your data. Each business has its own unique needs that must be understood first. The type of data and the backup budget must be determined. The amount of data and the recovery time expectations help determine the infrastructure - thus the cost - that is needed to support the disaster recovery plan.

Now, let's talk about the different types of data. Less isn't always more, at least when it comes to data. In the case of backup, more is less. The more data you store, the less time it's going to take to be back up and running, the less downtime you will have, and the less money the disaster will cost.

Critical Data This is the data that the company depends on, the bare minimum to run the business. For most businesses this could include customer and accounting information. Typical small businesses that bother to backup, are backing up critical data. This is a great first step towards disaster recovery, but most don't realize that this isn't enough information to get the business back up and running.

All Data

This extends beyond just critical data to include all data unique for the business. There can be a number of things that aren't an immediate necessity to running a business, but replacing or redoing this information takes time and further increases the costs of recovery from a disaster if not backed up.

Applications When attempting to restore data only, the new system needs to be up and running with the applications installed on them. Sometimes it is hard to find the original software, and get the latest updates. It is better to include the applications in the backup process.

Personalities

ome businesses are concerned with every aspect of productivity, even right after a disaster. They believe that personal settings and preferences on the computer are important enough to mention here. The user's unique profiles include internet favorites, desktop settings, colors, and the overall look and feel.

Systems System level backup is also often referred to as a DR (disaster recovery) solution. The reason is simple, that if a physical disaster, i.e. hard drive failure should happen, that the system could be up and running exactly the way it was prior to the disaster. This is the preferred method of backup. It is the most comprehensive, and the quickest to restore. It includes all data both critical and non-critical, the most recent installed applications, the users' personalities, and the operating system.

Infrastructure

There are a number of choices for how to store the backup information. Hard disk costs are dropping at a rapid rate these days. Prices are incredibly reasonable and backup-to and restore-from hard disk is by far the fastest method around.

Offsite Backups Just because there is a second copy of information lying around, it doesn't mean the company is able to recover from any disaster. What happens if the building catches on fire? Yeah, most people don't think that anything like that could ever happen to them. Hurricane Katrina recently has shown that it could happen to anyone. It is a horrible thing to think about, but it is possible to lose one's home, one's office. What would be worse is not being able to recover from the disaster, to bounce back. It is estimated that 60% of businesses that have complete data loss close down within six months. Because of this it is important to store a copy of data offsite, a safe distance away from the office. At least once a week, a backup should be moved offsite.

Another option that is growing in popularity is online, or internet based backup solutions. Data is encrypted for security and transferred using the internet to a remote server where the data is stored. Internet based backup has a number of benefits - including easier restoration of data, less hassles then dealing with archiving and transferring of media, and depending on how often the remote backups are run, could potentially have more recent data. The downside is that internet upload speeds are typically much lower then download, and backing up large amounts of data through the internet can take a long time.

Backup Integrity

So you have got a backup process in place - that's great! But you are only half way there. Half way? How is that possible? Have you tested your backup? Did your last scheduled backup perform without errors?

Be proactive. Check the backup logs every day. Make sure there weren't any errors. If there were, search out a solution and make sure the backup is re-run.

Set up a schedule to regularly test the integrity of the backup. Set up a test restore environment. A dry run can tell you wonders about your disaster recovery process and help set recovery expectations.

Summary

The first step is to make a plan. Choose the data and the recovery objectives that fit within your businesses needs and budget. Implement that plan, and check the integrity of it often to insure proper and reliable backups. Lastly, test the restore process. Make sure things are being backed up the way you expect and that you are able to restore everything that you need. Following these simple steps can help you be prepared for any disaster and get your business back up and running as soon as possible.