THAT WAS A NICE SAVE!

• When this phrase is uttered in a meeting of a team of system operators, it is not necessarily a nice moment at a sporting event, but the adequacy of backing up IT systems. 31 March is World Data Backup Day, which aims to raise awareness among users and companies about the importance of data backup, as data has become one of the most important assets in our information society (data is the new oil) and IT services are the most important enabler of business operations, so they need to be protected. And one of the most important elements of protection is the proper backup of our data and systems.

Our IT environments, from home networked devices to robust enterprise systems, contain elements where data or settings (configuration) need to be backed up. This is necessary so that they can be restored in the event of any problems or problems, as the loss of our data can be a costly business risk, a drain on a user’s wallet, or even a source of emotional distress – no one wants to lose family photos, memories or work on a computer or other storage device. Data loss and loss of service can be caused by a number of unexpected events, where backups are the only solution. Most often, data loss is caused by hardware failure, computer viruses, intentional or accidental human intervention, and although there are many options and different ways to protect against it, the last and surest resort is always a properly performed data backup.

“Unfortunately, I haven’t backed up my phone in months. When I dropped it I realised that all my recent family photos were gone. Although an expert managed to make a copy, it would have been much cheaper if I had thought of it earlier and turned on the backup or taken care of it regularly.”

Of course, data backup, like the other elements of keeping us safe, is not a one-off, easy-to-do task, but a process with many elements, as our data, the IT services and solutions we use change, and we need to keep up with these changes.

WHAT IS NEEDED TO HAVE A PROPER BACKUP?

• First and foremost, we need to know where our data is, how it is used and how much of a problem it is if it becomes inaccessible or is completely destroyed.
• We need to assess the risk of a hardware failure, a ransomware attack or other catastrophic event such as a fire or other natural damage that affects our systems.
• We also need to consider how often our data in a given location changes and determine the frequency of backups accordingly.
• We need to decide what backup solution we will choose, what medium or storage will be the location for our backed up data. A company needs to know exactly what the acceptable recovery point objective (RPO) is for a given system, and how long it will take to recover data or services from an available backup (Recovery Time Objective – RTO)

“Despite spending money on a server with redundant batteries, a faulty power supply caused a failure that could only be resolved by replacing the storage system and recovering from the backup.”

KEY TASKS:

• Determining the data to be backed up – this could be user data, images, documents, or even a database, a complete application or system with all its data.
• Selecting the backup solution – could be a simple external storage, some kind of cloud service, or a complete backup system service
• Perform backups on a regular basis – preferably automatically

It is important to check backups periodically, restore data from them, as it is very unpleasant to find out that you only thought you had a backup, but you cannot restore from existing backups. It is essential that backups are kept sufficiently separate so that if a damaging event occurs, the backup is not corrupted at the same time as your working system. It is advisable to design a backup process where there is the possibility of remote storage that is physically separated from the operation.

“Unfortunately, our backup system was constantly accessible on the company’s network, so the ransomware virus also locked up the data stored in it. Recovering from the archive caused us to lose over a month’s work, resulting in high costs in recovering from the incident and significantly damaging our company’s reputation.”

Of course, a business has different data backup expectations and capabilities than a user, but it is paramount for both to be regular and diligent about backing up their data. Today is a good example!