Oops, I Lost My Data

You may be in a situation where you know yourcalculate the running costs (electricity, consumables,
data is not being backed up correctly – or at all.depreciation, repair) for the method you choose.
You know it needs to be lookedStorage
into………….but you just can’t ‘find theSome experts will say tape is vulnerable to damage
time to speak to the other team members about it.and corruption. The solution is to make multiple tape
Data is the second most irreplaceable and valuablebackups and then store in a cool, safe place. Actually
asset after ‘people’. In the event of atape will last years without problems.
disaster, insurance money can only pay compensationMany companies offer off-site tape storage. This
and replace tangible assets; it cannot replace peopleallows you to store tapes in a library/cataloguing
or your unique data.system that can be viewed online. They are kept in a
So where do you start? Well every business hassecure vault with idea climate conditions for tape
their own requirements and generally will look to theirlongevity. You are also able to instruct the storage
IT support company for advice on their specificcompany how often they visit your office to
needs. In my experience IT companies (particularlyexchange your backup tapes on an agreed tape
for SMEs) just rather organise blue cable, servers,rotation plan.
peripheries and maintenance plans – than ensureWhat about the Internet?
a decent Disaster Recover (DR) plan is in place. AndYes some people have backup software that allows
if they recommend a DR plan, it will be based ontheir data to be de-duplicated and compressed so as
their biases on the subject.to fit in the available bandwidth. Some IT people
Here is what to consider and investigate whenactually backup onto the available space on their
developing a data backup plan.Website Database. Web hosters often offer a
First – How much data are you generating eachcertain amount of data to be stored in the back end
day? That is how many Gigabytes?of the web site itself - for a monthly fee. Just check
Second. How many days/hours of data can youto see the extra costs associated with data transfer.
afford to lose?Also in the event of a systems failure (where
Third. If there is a major systems failure – howcommunication lines can go down – thus internet
much downtime can you afford?and WAN) how are you going to retrieve the data?
How much data needs to be backed up daily? YouIT people are also known for taking home older
should only need to do an incremental backup of theservers – placing them in their garage and
NEW data for the day.backing up data over the internet to their second
When to do a FULL backup? …………….hand PCs. Is this a reliable solution considering sick
Usually weekly.days, holidays, burglary and internet integrity?
Also you may require ArchiveSome companies will host your data in a similar way
backups……………often monthly.to Web hosters? Just ensure that they are in fact a
Once you know the quantity of data to backup dailysuitable option when you factor in costs, reliability,
& weekly, you can then decide on the method.bandwidth, data restoration time and DR.
You need to consider how much data needs to beWhat if you need a ‘Standby Data Centre”
stored on Disc (eg NAS) for rapid access in case of ain the event of a major disaster?
systems failure; and how much data can be storedYou can always consult your IT Company on what
on Tape (LTO, DLT). Tape is cheaper to run butto do if you need to rebuild a whole server room in a
takes longer to backup and access.major crisis. Larger organisations have a remote DR
The simplest method is to buy a Tape drive unit thatsite that allows their staff and their whole network
can backup about 200 – 400 GB of data. Theto relocate and recommence with 1 – 2 days, in
costs vary ($1000 - $2000) for the unit and thethe event of a disaster. This of course bears a huge
individual tapes cost about $50 - $60 each (you oftencapital cost.
need about 20 tapes). If your data is close to aYou can always ensure that you have data kept off
Terabyte (TB), you are now looking into moresite in one form or another and that you have a plan
money to set up ($5000 - $10000).in place that allows your IT company the option to
- Removable hard drives are becoming more popularrebuild a server – load your data and get your
as they are now becoming more affordable whencompany up and running in a couple of days….at
compared to tape. Although they store lessleast for critical systems. There will be some ongoing
information than tape – you can access the datacosts to keep this plan running….but keep in mind
faster on a hard drive than a tape.the cost of downtime for your own business. How
On the other hand, you can store a lot of your dailymuch money is lost every hour your business is not
data on Disc Storage (NAS etc..) however theoperating?
hardware can be very expensive to purchase andOther simple solutions
very expensive to operate. You need to keep theThere is more software being developed that will
units running constantly - even if you just want tocompress and simplify your data so that you are only
have access to a simple word file – the wholebacking up a smaller parcel of data.
unit needs to keep running. A lot of electricity forThis is definitely worth investigating, however I would
disc, whereas tape just sits on the shelf.recommend that you start changing policy internally
You just have to know what data you need to storewith regard to backup solutions. Remember that a
for rapid access (Disc storage) or archive or not solarge source of your problem is that company
urgent (Tape) and balance your expenditure andemployees often make several copies of the one file,
operating costs accordingly. Also remember to factordo not delete there ‘Sent files’ and do not
in the amount of data increase you are experiencingarchive or manage their emails. This is where you can
in your organisation (thanks to emails and larger filesave a lot of memory – and thus know for sure
sizes – there is at least a 50% increase in allthe REAL amount of data that needs to be stored.
extant data per annum!!!). Finally make sure you