Companies use computers to store client information, financial data, and many other forms of data critical for day to day operations. This makes company data one of the most valuable assets for any business. Hard drives fail, servers crash, and even the most secure computer can be compromised by a virus or a malicious attack.
A working business backup can determine if you your company will survive when a data loss event occurs. This guide is design to provide information about different types of backups available.
Where should our backups be stored?
When choosing a backup a company needs to consider on-site backup, off-site backup and online backup options
On-site backup – This backup is performed at the business location. The data is stored locally and never leaves the office. The benefit of this backup is that if you need to restore data, it can be done fairly quickly and without any additional steps. Typical on-site backup setup is performed to an external hard drive or a tape drive.
Drawback: if the backup is located in the business and business is destroyed, the backup will be destroyed as well.
Off-site backup – This backup was done to supplement on-site backup. Typically a company or someone within the business took the hard drive or a tape drive out of the office. This allowed an extra level of protection if the office was ever destroyed.
Drawback: Requires constant effort for someone to rotate tapes and backup drives. Data can be located in not secure location and can be lost or stolen.
Online backup – This backup uses a 3rd party service to perform a backup online. Advantage of online backup is that it does not require for someone to manually disconnect drives, or move tapes. Data can be located in a geographically different location assuring its survival in case of a catastrophic event in the business.
Drawback: Depending on the amount of data that you need to backup, online backup can take a long time to complete. Also, many business owners express concern over security of the backup data.
Are all backup solutions the same? What is being backed up?
In addition to selecting the location of the backup, each business needs to understand the type of backup that is being performed. The following file types are available 1) Simple file backup. 2) File and Database backup 3) Full image backup.
Simple file backup – With this backup only data files are backed up (word, excel, pdf, pictures, videos). This backup does not backup database files or applications.
File and database backup – With this backup in addition to data files, the backup will be able to preserve your important database files. This can include SQL, Exchange, and many other database’s. This backup does not backup applications.
Full image backup – This backup is capable of creating a full image of your server or computer. If a failure occurs you can restore everything on the machine including files, database, and applications.
How often should we perform a backup?
How often your backups occur will determine how much load there is on your server and if you experience any data loss. Our recommendation is at least once per day.
What is the best backup option?
The best backup solution is a BDR Appliance
BDR (Backup and Disaster Recovery) – Appliance is a complete solution that is made to protect your business in case of data loss or a disaster. The appliance can be configured to backup the company’s servers every 15 minutes on a block by block level. If a disaster occurs, BDR can function as a rapid failover server. Additional features include backup of data to a datacenter or synchronization of multiple BDR appliances to offer true disaster prevention.
Do you need help choosing the right backup for your business?
If you would like to know more information about the right type of backup for your business we are happy to help. Contact us to schedule a consultation and find out which backup solution is right for you.
Thank you,
ECS team.
Back to ECS Houston IT company
