Best Practices For Small Business Backup. What To Keep, How To Store & How Long To Save The Data
UBMI Publications
October 26, 2010
More info click here: www.3X.com
By 3X Systems Director of Sales, Rocky White
While every company understands the need for remote backup, many struggle with how much data to backup and how long they should retain that data. Years ago, when companies used tapes, the question wasn´t all that complicated. A son-father-grandfather system could be used on any arbitrary cycle and keeping a half dozen extra tapes was no great expense.
As companies have shifted their backups into the cloud and upgraded to modern storage systems, this question is no longer as simple as it once appeared. If six extra backups consume hundreds of gigabytes of space, this could lead to increase the cost of backup by hundreds of dollars per month and thousands of dollars per year.
Three questions can help determine the right amount of business backup protection for your company:
Does your company face any regulatory requirements?
While the question is obvious, the effect of regulations may not be so clear. If a company must keep all data for seven years, how frequently must a backup be completed? Keeping a weekly backup for seven years cuts down on space, but could leave gaps in the company´s protection. If a file is created on Monday and deleted on Friday, a weekend backup wouldn´t protect it. It may be necessarily to keep daily (or more frequent) backups of critical data.
Does your company have an operating reason to retain data?
Most of the time, backups are intended to bring users back from a crash or the accidental deletion of files. In some cases, a business may have an operating reason to keep data longer. For example, a salesperson might make an unreasonable promise to a customer in email and then delete the email. If a customer came back 90 days (or later) intending to challenge the company based on that email, a week of backups would be inadequate.
How long would it take you to notice that something is wrong?
If you need to recover data in the event of a disaster, another key question is the time it would take you to detect a disaster. Most users would realize that they had deleted or overwritten a file in a short period of time. Most administrators would recognize an Exchange crash immediately. But how long could corrupt entries sit in one of your enterprise applications before a user accessed a specific record? How important might it be that you can recover that?
Conclusion
Retention policies are a key consideration when configuring, as well as choosing a backup solution. These three questions can help you decide what´s right for your organization.
For more information on private cloud backup solutions, visit www.3x.com
By 3X Systems Director of Sales, Rocky White
While every company understands the need for remote backup, many struggle with how much data to backup and how long they should retain that data. Years ago, when companies used tapes, the question wasn´t all that complicated. A son-father-grandfather system could be used on any arbitrary cycle and keeping a half dozen extra tapes was no great expense.
As companies have shifted their backups into the cloud and upgraded to modern storage systems, this question is no longer as simple as it once appeared. If six extra backups consume hundreds of gigabytes of space, this could lead to increase the cost of backup by hundreds of dollars per month and thousands of dollars per year.
Three questions can help determine the right amount of business backup protection for your company:
Does your company face any regulatory requirements?
While the question is obvious, the effect of regulations may not be so clear. If a company must keep all data for seven years, how frequently must a backup be completed? Keeping a weekly backup for seven years cuts down on space, but could leave gaps in the company´s protection. If a file is created on Monday and deleted on Friday, a weekend backup wouldn´t protect it. It may be necessarily to keep daily (or more frequent) backups of critical data.
Does your company have an operating reason to retain data?
Most of the time, backups are intended to bring users back from a crash or the accidental deletion of files. In some cases, a business may have an operating reason to keep data longer. For example, a salesperson might make an unreasonable promise to a customer in email and then delete the email. If a customer came back 90 days (or later) intending to challenge the company based on that email, a week of backups would be inadequate.
How long would it take you to notice that something is wrong?
If you need to recover data in the event of a disaster, another key question is the time it would take you to detect a disaster. Most users would realize that they had deleted or overwritten a file in a short period of time. Most administrators would recognize an Exchange crash immediately. But how long could corrupt entries sit in one of your enterprise applications before a user accessed a specific record? How important might it be that you can recover that?
Conclusion
Retention policies are a key consideration when configuring, as well as choosing a backup solution. These three questions can help you decide what´s right for your organization.
For more information on private cloud backup solutions, visit www.3x.com
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