The Savvy CIO

Talking about data backups is as fun as going to the dentist.

Every time I visit the dentist, I get a lecture about flossing more. I’ve never had a costly cavity, crown or root canal, so my newfound concern for my teeth only lasts for a few weeks. I have more pressing matters than prevention.

Many leaders approach data backups this way. Like my teeth, they haven’t yet paid the price for lack of prevention. It isn’t likely to affect them and there are always more urgent issues on their plates.

Of course, backups (like flossing) are important to tend to. Businesses in Chicago still remember the 2004 fire on LaSalle that locked down a building for weeks. Most companies’ offices were fine, but they couldn’t get to their data.

Guess how the unprepared fared?

If your business is affected–whether from natural or man-made disaster, or the more regular threats of hardware failure, human error or viruses–the cost of being unprepared can literally cripple your business.

Here are four basic backup tips you can act on today to better safeguard your business:

1.    You can do better than a tape drive

This old standby is slow to save and restore, and it’s not very reliable when compared to more recent media types. Consider CD, DVD or removable hard drive options: same idea as tape, just faster, better and more reliable.

2.    Have an off-site backup policy, including how you are going to read that data

Make sure your policy is being followed. Apathy on this routine can be devastating.

Don’t just ensure you have the data, ensure you can get to it easily. This is another reason to prefer CD, DVDs and removable hard drives to tapes. Tapes require specialized drives and software, which you won’t have outside your office.

3.    Target critical data

Don’t lump all of your data together. Your financials may be the most important, and they need to be current. Likewise, the files that were changed yesterday (maybe 2% of all your files) are probably 98% of what you would need immediately to continue doing business.

4.    Consider on-line backups

On-line backups through a service provider are an increasingly attractive option, either in addition to or in place of on-site backups. Costs are fairly low, and a scheduled on-line backup solves all of the above issues in one fell swoop. MozyPro is just one example of many.

Have you found effective backup options, or taken other steps to protect your business against loss?

This entry was posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 11:01 am and is filed under Data Management, Strategy & Consulting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.