Data Backup Digest

By now, we hopefully all know the importance of implementing a backup solution. Data is vital to the upkeep of business – chances are that your enterprise, or the one you work for, has a strong reliance on data. It changes all the time, with things being added or edited or deleted, and those changes need to be mirrored in a backup.

Imagine if all that data just vanished, with not a trace of it to be found. Perhaps some of it could be rebuilt from memory. But is it going to be accurate? How long will that take? Besides, that small percentage won’t even cover all the rest of the data. The bottom line is that every business needs to have a backup plan in place.

But here’s the kicker: a backup solution isn’t complete on deployment. Implementing a backup solution doesn’t in itself eliminate data loss. A survey conducted this year by Kroll Ontrack found that the majority of consumers and businesses are implementing backup solutions, but many have unintentional gaps in their protocols that are causing costly mistakes.

61 percent of Kroll Ontrack’s survey respondents had a backup solution in place at the time they suffered data loss. 42 percent of the overall respondents backed their data up on a daily basis and 29 percent did the same on a weekly basis. That’s all well and good, but if that’s the case then why is there such a high amount of data loss?

The trouble is that oversights in backup solution implementation and monitoring can cause problems down the line when data loss occurs. Of those who reported data loss despite a backup solution being in place, 21 percent said their backup wasn’t working correctly, 21 percent didn’t have the failed device included in their backup plan and 19 percent said the backup wasn’t up-to-date.

This just goes to show that to deploy a backup solution and cross your fingers isn’t good enough. You might think all your data is being backed up correctly, but unless you actually check and monitor then you’re not going to know until the disastrous happens.

“When nearly three-fourths of respondents confirm they are regularly backing up data yet are still experiencing data loss, the criticality of a complete backup strategy becomes crystal clear,” said Jeff Pederson, senior manager of data recovery operations at Kroll Ontrack. “This includes regularly validating that your solution is functioning as expected, and frequent testing and monitoring to ensure the backup is current and complete. In cases where oversight or backup failure leads to data loss, consider enlisting the assistance of a reputable and experienced data recovery provider.”

Elsewhere in the survey, of the reasons to prevent use of a backup solution, many cited the time and research to administrate such a plan. However, when you consider the huge repercussions of data loss (not only the impact of time lost, but also the costs to rebuild or recover the data), that’s really not a valid excuse. If you insure your property or your vehicle, why aren’t you insuring your data?