Is My Data Consistently Backed Up?
Too many companies are relying on their in-house disaster recovery plans to fully restore their business data without having ever tested the recovery process. Instead, they are operating under the assumption that everything is functioning as it should.
The reality is that a very large percentage of these companies are putting the organization at risk of losing all their data due to a faulty or inconsistent backup process. There are many reasons and excuses for the data recovery process not being tested. However, should a disaster occur those reasons aren’t going to be very comforting.
Reasons Recovery Plans Aren’t Tested
As stated before there are a host of reasons the recovery process isn’t tested as it should be. Many IT departments consider testing the recovery process much too risky or labor-intensive. A complete failure has to be simulated in order to test recovery. Should the test fail, there could be significant consequences, and those responsible may face professional embarrassment.
Conversely, waiting for a real disaster to wipe out the company data and then finding out that the recovery process is not working is an even worse scenario. Companies found this out after Hurricane Katrina wiped out the primary datacenters, and their recovery plans turned out to be insufficient. Testing the recovery process is also a time consuming task that often involves more than one person. Because most data recovery plans don’t have one person assigned to the process of recovering data, everyone begins falling into the trap of believing “it’s the other guy’s responsibility”.
The Solution
Best way to quickly and accurately recover data is with a fully-automated off-site storage solution such as those offered by online backup services. Online backup providers offer a wide array of options to simplify this process. With online storage and automated backups, the IT department never has to worry about where the data is located in the event of disaster. And the simplified recovery process provided by these online backup companies makes it much easier to test the recovery process on a regular basis.
Additionally, business owners and IT managers don’t have to worry about when the last backup occurred. Online backup systems are automated and run silently in the background, capturing any changed data. After the initial backup, this incremental backup takes over keeping all data as up-to date as the network it is residing on is – should disaster strike at 2:00 PM, the backup will have everything saved up to that time.
Recovering from disaster using a remote online backup system is as simple as opening a program and following a “wizard”. The amount of time it takes to restore the data is dependent on the amount of data being restored. As mentioned before, testing this type recovery system is also simple.
Computer data recovery should not be something that is left to chance. No one wants to experience a disaster; however, being prepared for one is mandatory when over 90% of most company’s information is stored electronically.