One of the most essential parts of the preparation is choosing a proper solution that fits your company. What may be the right choice for a large scale corporation with many locales and offices with large amounts of data, will not be the appropriate solution for a smaller business. The size of your business matters when choosing an appropriate solution. Price should never be the only priority when considering a backup solution, although in the end it can be a deciding factor in making the choice that is sensible for your business.
Choosing software to back up your data locally is a place to start. Factors to consider should start at the reputation of the software company. A reputable organization with a strong background should be an important factor when making this choice. A part of a company’s reputation can be based on support they provide their consumers. A company that offers more regional and local support is likely to have more stable relationships with their consumers. The stability of a backup solution is also critical when backing up data on site. Unstable software can be the undoing of any company looking to have a viable solution available for purchase.
Finding the correct solution for the organization to back up data off site offers many choices. The cloud has become an increasingly popular part of sending your data offsite. While it can be very secure, it can also be more expensive than other solutions. In a larger environment it requires less user interaction than removing and replacing external disk drives configured to use the purchased backup software solution. There are less pieces of hardware at risk of failure. When using removable drives many times you may rely on between five and sometimes nine external hard drives in a rotation. Some forms of cloud backup require a separate computer or server to be tasked with sending your data to the cloud.
Removable drives can be a part of securing your data offsite. As an organization you must find a solution that fits your business. While relying on several drives in a rotation to keep your offsite backups current poses a certain risk, it can also prove more cost effective for a smaller business. The drives will require more end user interaction, but the security of knowing your data is backed up and easily accessible locally can be very convenient as well. Moving your backup data off site is critical to any backup solution, in the case of any on site unforeseen catastrophe.
Choosing a backup solution that fits your business needs is a crucial part of your information/data security and business continuity. When making your choices cost, while important, should not be the only deciding factor in the final choice. While every business has cost limitations, they must remember that the true value of a reliable backup solution both onsite and offsite is never realized until the disaster actually is experienced. Only then will you know if you have made the correct decision. That being said, proper research when choosing the products and methods of backup could prove critical to your ability to recover from the unforeseen disasters that most certainly can and inevitably will happen. Preparing properly for disasters is what will, in the end, give you the peace of mind that the company will continue to function in the event of a disaster.
by Thomas Kavanaugh, Help Desk/ Network Engineer
