Abstract

Backup strategies vary. Some companies choose theirs for its value. Some back up everything. Some ignore it all together. While we definitely don’t advise the latter, we do understand that it is a financial investment for what is essentially insurance. What’s more effective is building a backup plan that fits the type of data you create and store.

There are numerous backup strategies. Some are attractive for their affordability, some for their thoroughness, but regardless of the strategy you use, your backup strategy will absolutely need to fit the kind of work that you do. Businesses need to make considerations for the type and amount of data that is created, and what would happen if that data were lost forever. Let’s take a look at what it means to have a backup plan built specifically for your operations.

The Operational Backup

Planning out an affordable backup strategy isn’t that difficult once you consider what data is truly important to the success of your company. Put a better way, what data, if it were lost, would put your business in a major bind? You work with your data day-in and day-out. You know that there are some that are absolutely essential to your business’ sustained well being.

Problem is, can you guarantee that your data would be safe if something were to happen to the workstation or server that it is stored on? You can’t. To mitigate risk, having a backup strategy that considers what data you use most and how you use that data becomes important. Called an operational backup, the strategy includes using incremental and differential backup options to ensure that when something goes horribly wrong—and, at some point it definitely will—that you can restore the data you need, when you need it.

Why is this Strategy So Important?

Humans cause most of the data loss a company experiences. They make mistakes, can be completely negligent (or even vindictive), and often don’t pay any mind to the care that your information systems need. If humans are the root cause of data loss, it stands to reason that having the data backed up is a good operational strategy in the first place.

If your central hardware is damaged or fails unexpectedly many of your configurations throughout that manage your business’ IT can be swept away. Systems like email and access control hold important operational and security information and take days or even weeks to build from scratch. Having this information stored in an up-to-date backup saves the headache and expense that having to do so would impose on your business.

The Speed of Operational Recovery

Most companies that have a backup plan in place, struggle when they need to recover lost data. The speed to restore is just not there. That is because with many disaster recovery platforms, the conventional restoration methods take time. It stands to reason that if you are incrementally backing your data up, you would want the ability to restore that data quickly, in the event that there is the need for it.

At NetMGM, our knowledgeable technicians work with organizational backup every day and can set up a backup system that works to protect the data you need protected, is able to restore that data quickly, and do it at a price point that works for your business.

If you would like more information about setting up a dynamic backup and disaster recovery platform for your business, call us today at 888-748-2525.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Building Data Redundancy Is Important

Rafiq Masri

With over 25 years of experience in Information Technology, Rafiq is one of the most accomplished, versatile and certified engineer in the field. He has spent the past 2 ½ decades administering and supporting a wide range of clients and has helped position Network Management, Inc. as a leader in the IT Managed Services space.

Rafiq has built a reputation for designing, building and supporting top notch IT infrastructures to match the business objectives and goals of his clients.

Embracing the core values of integrity, innovation, and reliability, Rafiq has a very loyal client base with some customer relationships dating back 20+ years.

Rafiq holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and has completed graduate programs in Software Engineering and Business at Harvard and George Mason University. Rafiq is a former founder and CEO of Automation, Inc. in Ann Arbor, Michigan as well as a valued speaker on entrepreneurship and technology at industry events such as ExpoTech and others.