Data Backup System – Backup solutions have proven to be a stern weapon against digital menaces such as data loss, data corruption, accidental deletion of files or folders, and malware attacks. Irrespective of the degree of digital catastrophe, data backup systems are the sure-shot way of acing through any disaster. This is why it has become more of a norm in a corporate world to enact a state-of-the-art backup strategy. Depending on the degree of necessity, organizations are enacting full backup systems to the incremental backup strategies. Seeing the sheer prospects, many companies have come forward to provide backup and recovery services. Since it is a highly specialized task, therefore not everyone is capable of offering efficient backup copies of the vulnerable data. This duty of care demands some considerations which must be accounted for while choosing any data backup service.
Important Considerations
In the times when a lot of companies are offering sub-standard disaster recovery services at a very cheap rate, small and medium business enterprises are getting into their trap. Though they end up in their trap by calling it a smart move as they have secured their data by paying a very nominal amount. But when any calamity strikes and that so-called backup process does not provide required copies of the data, they couldn’t do anything except repenting on their choice. However, to make sure that not everyone gets in this dirty trap, following are the five key considerations which you should expect in a full fledge data backup system:
Right Medium
There are a lot of medium over which you can prepare data backups. From the tape drives to compact disks, every storage medium has its own pros and cons. It is said that the right storage medium is the one that offers more storage with quick accessibility. However, this is not true for every case. For instance, DVDs are a great and easy way to restore the data. However, this easiness will turn into a hassle if data storage reaches terabytes of memory, as it will become very hard to manage these DVDs. Similarly, external hard drives are a great way to backup large data but their portability may result in theft or malfunction.
While cloud based backups offer efficient and redundant backup services, cyberattacks tend to hamper their effectiveness. But with the highly sophisticated security systems of the cloud storage solutions, cyber-attacks have a very minimal probability. In a nutshell, the choice of the right medium varies on the case to case basis, yet it is one of the most important considerations.
Testing Data Backups
Backup testing is an important consideration in selecting any data backup system. It is one of those key determinants that will alert the user about any possible glitch, before time. In simple words, you would not be able to know the integrity of your backup system until and unless you test it. For instance, upon testing it was found that out of every 100 backed up files, four random files did not get recovered. So, in this case, testing identified that there exist some glitches in the recovery system and that needs to be checked. In this lieu, backup testing is an important factor in deciding the integrity of any data backup system. This is the reason it is recommended that backup systems must be tested once in a month.
Off-Peak Hours Scheduling
Off-peak hours scheduling does not seem much important consideration but from the bandwidth point of view, it has many benefits. Any such data backup system that offers off-peak hours backup schedules, is considered as the smart and efficient data backup system. The reason is quite simple as backing up data during office hours or peak times may hamper network bandwidths. This would subsequently result in the deteriorated data transfer rates, disconnections, and more time in backing up data. So, for any data backup system to be regarded as best of all, off-peak hours backup scheduling is a must-to-have feature.
Data Audits
Managing a data backup on one server is a relatively easy task as compared to managing backup files on multiple servers. However, in the case of business expansions, multi-server data backups are quite normal. So, in such a situation, the data backup system will work up-to-the-mark only when stern data audits are scheduled. With the regular data audits, you will have a complete overview of your data backup system. You will know that which of your vulnerable data is backed up where and which vulnerable directory has not been backed up. With such purposefully designed data audits, efficiency, and intelligence of data backup systems increases manifold.
Security
No backup system is complete without a stern and handy data security mechanism. If a data backup system is short on security parameters, then it is nothing more than a crap. With the poorly secured data backups, not only backed up data will be exposed to the hackers, but the overall system also gets compromised. With the help of compromised backup security system, hackers can easily penetrate the subjected system and get what they want. In short, compromised security is nothing but inviting thieves with consent.
Conclusion
Each backup service provider claims its system to be best of all. However, things aren’t as simple as they seem. The backup system is not only about making copies of vulnerable data, but it is also about getting them backed up in case of need while not compromising on security. To curtail this hassle, the above-mentioned considerations or factors equip anyone with the right expertise to evaluate each backup system. Moreover, the relative nature of requirements, budget, and degree of feasibility demands of a generalized characterization, rather than a specialized one. In addition to this, compatibility with the desired operating systems is also an important consideration.
