Data backup is one of those important but not urgent business requirements and therefore is often overlooked. It does not cause the phone to ring, bring in a new customer or directly add to the profit line, although it is an underpinning foundation of business success.
Prevention is of course better than cure, although following on from implementing an effective backup solution, is the question as to how can data be recovered when the unthinkable happens. Fortunately recovery rates are good, either via specialised software or by using a data recovery company.
Data backup solutions do not need to be expensive and each business will have different requirements. On-line backups often provide a low cost automated solution, complete with regular email confirmations, without the need to purchase additional hardware or media. These are also becoming increasingly more viable and cost effective, due to faster broadband services and reduced cloud storage costs.
However the manual approach also works well where one person takes on the overall responsibility and where a user friendly procedure is in place. For larger volumes of data, a high capacity tape drive or disk cartridge solution is often the most viable way forward, providing the data and backup logs are checked on a regular basis, which we typically monitor and check as part of our support agreements.
