No matter how groundbreaking your backup solution, it’s never impervious to failure. There’s nothing worse than finding out your faulty backup system has cost you more time and money than it cost to create.
Whether you’re using tape, disk or a D2D2T backup solution, you need to maintain and monitor the system, and you should always have more than one backup copy.
Related: 3 step guide to choosing a backup solution
Follow my three tips to prevent data loss:
1. Preventative Maintenance
Maintain your backup system pre-emptively to avoid data loss. Sincetape has a shelf life of between 10 and 30 years, and disk has a lifetime of 3 to 5 years when not periodically used, you must conduct preventative maintenance to protect your organisation.
“Make sure tapes are cleaned and verified regularly. Verification reduces risk by checking that the backup indeed works and can be restored if needed” - Mike Bentzen, R & G Technologies.
The same applies to hard drives, which should be stored in a low-humidity environment and kept dust free. Test them regularly to make sure the backup solution is still capable of performing restores. “That way, if the backup isn’t functioning correctly, you have a chance to replace faulty equipment before it’s too late” - Bentzen.
Regular cleaning and testing ensures that you can replace items before they fail, safeguarding your business from system failure.
2. Monitoring
Always keep an eye on your backup solution to ensure everything is running smoothly. “There should be some sort of monitoring function or monitoring facility running on the server to detect faulty disks or potential disks that might fail in the near future” - Bentzen. Watch for telltale signs that your backup isn’t functioning correctly, ensuring there aren’t any warning lights or strange sounds coming from the disk drives.
3. Multiple Backups
There’s no such thing as too much backup. According to Senior Consultant Mike Brown, “One of the rules in IT is you never rely on a single copy of something because it will often let you down. So the more backups you have the more chance you have of getting data from one of them”.
Making multiple backups of your data increases your chances of your data being safe in the event of a system failure. A backup solution involving onsite and offsite backups such as Disk to Disk to Tape (D2D2T) reduces your risk significantly. Although a pricey option, D2D2T is one of the best backup solutions. D2D2T is rising in popularity because it uses the features of disk and tape storage mediums in a complementary and cost effective manner. This entails copying data quickly to hard drives, and then utilising the longer life of tape cartridges for long-term storage, or archiving.
“Regardless of the type of backup solution you’ve got, the risk of data loss reduces significantly the more backups you have - we recommend at least four” - Brown.
While backing up your backups may sound like a superfluous exercise, like anything, backups are not immune to malfunction. Most organisations can’t afford the cost of downtime, so make sure you have more than one copy in your backup solution.
Prevent Data Loss
There’s no point in having a world-first enterprise backup solution if you don’t take preventative measures to ensure that it’s fulfilling its purpose. Therefore, make sure you’ve invested in consistent maintenance and monitoring measures and ensure your backup solution is comprised of multiple copies of your data.
Related: Data loss prevention guide
The cost of data loss is extensive, so you should always maintain a well-managed backup solution to keep your business thriving even in the event of a disaster.