More businesses are seeing more volumes of data in their day-to-day operations.
Consequently, what even recently were considered as acceptable ways to secure, back-up and recover systems and data are proving to be no longer good enough.
A number of important changes are happening in the way businesses can now best manage and protect systems and data. As David Peach, director of IT support specialist QBT explains, it’s important for managers to recognize that the way we now do business has resulted in a new approach to data back-ups & recovery to ensure business continuity.
With the growth in data volumes more of QBT’s customers were finding tape solutions no longer proved cost effective and did not provide an adequate off-site solution. Human fallibility has too much room to play when a tape back-up approach requires the right tape, at the right time, as well as the need for someone to physically ensure copies are held off site in a secure environment. There is simply too much room for human error.
Improved and more complete backup and data recovery strategies.
To address these problems, a number of leading IT support providers have developed vastly improved and more complete backup and data recovery strategies than the tape-based systems businesses have been making do with. For instance, QBT’s security solution provides a) on-site back-up of data within the day, b) on-site over-night backups, c) off-site over-night back-up of data to QBT’s servers located in a secure data centre, d) an off-site recovery server to allow access to data in the event of a major system failure and e) disaster recovery servers available to replace any failed servers on-site in the event of an extended failure.
While tape systems would typically back up daily overnight, the new offsite systems typically run automatically on the server at an interval chosen to suit the business demands, (often with shorter intervals like 2 hours or 30 minutes, identifying and backing up any file changed since the previous back-up). Each daily back-up is retained until the end of the day when an on-site back-up is run capturing all files changed that day. The end of day back-ups are then kept for 14 to 30 days subject to the client’s specific needs.
This on-site strategy is designed to provide quick and easy recovery of lost or damaged files from any of the half hourly back-ups or from the one of the end of day back-ups. The half hourly back-ups mean that even files created or modified each day can be recovered if lost or damaged. File recovery does not require tapes to be loaded and searched as the data is on-line and can be accessed for recovery via a secure remote connection.
Off-site backup at the end of the day to a service provider’s servers located in a secure off-site data centre replaces the need for tapes to be taken home and managed by staff. This removes the risk of tapes being lost, stolen or damaged while outside the office or of being left at home when next due for updating.
There are other benefits to using a service provider for data protection.
For instance, with QBT’s service the off-site back-up is encrypted and password protected while being sent off-site via a Virtual Private Network (VPN) link to a data centre. The data centre provides a very high level of protection, dual key access control, 24Hr security, restricted access to approved staff, power protection, fire protection systems, air conditioning and secure cabinets for file servers. In the event of a major system failure a client’s file server and data can be restored onto QBT’s recovery server located in the data centre to allow access to critical files. Access to files and email can still be provided up to the previous night’s backup.
If your business were to change strategy from simply disaster recovery to one that offers secure data protection, regular offsite back-ups and access to back-up servers in the event of server failures or catastrophic infrastructure failure, you could minimise downtime and lost productivity if a disaster were to strike.
Like so many things in IT, the costs involved in running a new off-site system are probably less than the tape-based approach in which most businesses invested in the past.