Selecting a Backup Solution for Your Critical Information

A recent study conducted by Insight Express showed that 30% of IT managers estimated that their companies lose at least $10,000 in revenue and productivity after a server failure. For 85% of the respondents, recovering from a server failure takes two or more hours.

The same survey, however, found that many businesses lack backup plans or recovery measures. Thirty-five percent of those surveyed don't back up on a regular basis. Insight Express also found that 54% don't see the need to back up their entire systems more than once a month.

And here's something else to consider: Gartner Research has stated that two out of five enterprises that experienced a disaster went out of business in five years.

For today's small businesses, it is no exaggeration to say that information is the engine of their business. Think about it. Everything about your company - product development, sales, finances, human resources, everything - exists in and is managed through your information system. Information technology isn't just an administrative marvel, either; it's the repository and means of delivery for the information that drives your business. In a very real sense, your information is your company. How you protect it, manage it, and put it to work is the key to business success.

Of course, all of these tasks have been greatly complicated by the exponential growth in data volumes. According to a 2004 survey by Horison Information Strategies, a consulting firm that researches the storage market, the amount of corporate data is increasing at an average rate of 50 percent to 70 percent every year.

That's why, more than ever before, you need to ensure that your network is adequately protected. It's also why you should integrate your security technology and policies with an effective backup and recovery plan. A multi-tiered approach should cover antivirus programs, firewalls, content filtering, vulnerability management, intrusion detection, and a regularly tested backup and recovery plan.

In the event of a system failure, such an approach can have you up and operating again in no time.

Backup Procedures
Maintaining the integrity of the information on your system is essential. Hardware breaks and people make mistakes, so it's imperative that you make frequent backups of your system. How often should you back up? Should you perform a full, incremental, or differential backup? The details below will help you decide what type of backup best suits your business.

Full Backup - As the name suggests, a full backup backs up all files on the system.

Incremental Backup - An incremental back up only back ups the files modified since the last backup. This type of backup is useful if you wish to have a log of file usage activity. Incremental backup enables you to restore a specific day's work without restoring any changes made since that point in time.

Differential Backup - Differential backup is a cumulative backup of modifications made since the last full backup. This type of backup enables you to restore all files changed since the last full backup.

No Need to Choose
In the past, companies were often forced to choose between fast backups and quick recovery. That's no longer the case. It is now possible to create backups and restore to specific system recovery points quickly, ensuring that, in the event of a crash, mission-critical systems are promptly brought back online. Here's how the combination of the two solutions enables you to maintain data availability while minimizing system downtime:

D2D2T Backups A multi-stage, disk-to-disk-to-tape-based data protection solution offers significant benefits over traditional backup media, such as tape drives. These benefits include faster backup; improved media reliability; reduced total cost of ownership (TCO); and reduced IT intervention and management.

Recovery The latest recovery solutions enable users to recover systems quickly and reliably with low-level images of the entire logical disk structure, serialized and written to a single file. Recovery solutions may be used for the following:

Bare Metal System Recovery. Depending on the amount of data, a server with applications, settings, and data can often be recovered in less time than it would take to reinstall the operating system alone.

Change Management. Before a change is applied, a system can be backed up while still online. You can also prompt an up-to-the-minute incremental backup just before the change is applied. If problems occur due to the new change, such as adding a device or installing a patch, a recovery solution will enable a full recovery back to the most recent incremental backup.

Introducing Continuous Backup
In May, Veritas (now a part of Symantec) introduced the Backup Exec "Panther" beta, a solution that delivers true continuous data protection. The Panther functionality captures granular changes in real time and ensures information is continuously protected. In other words, whenever a change is made, that change is captured and protected. Multiple versions of files are captured and available for recovery or retrieval. True continuous data protection means businesses no longer have to perform time-consuming full, incremental, or differential backups.

Keep Up the Backup
Below are some additional things to keep in mind once you have a backup and recovery plan in place:

• Scheduling - Know how long the network will be down so you can set up convenient times to back up.
• Retention - Know how long data should be retained - several months or for years?
• Review - After each backup job, review logs and archives for errors.
• Library Maintenance - After spending the time to back up your files and applications, make sure you clearly label the media and note where it is stored.
• Rotation and Expiration - Depending on the media used, you might be able to re-use the backup media. While cost-effective, keep in mind that at some point the media will reach its end-of-life and will need to be disposed.
• Disposal - Do not think throwing media in the trash is enough. Physically destroy it so unintended parties cannot access it.
• Verify Backups - Test your data restoration so you can take corrective action if needed. Regularly scheduling test recoveries ensures that backup procedures work properly when they're needed.

Conclusion
The ongoing explosive growth in corporate data has resulted in a greater-than-ever demand on small businesses to provide necessary data protection. A simplified and automated process for backing up and recovering all data and system information is key to keeping a business up, running, and growing.

FROM SYMANTEC SMALL BUSINESS SITE