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A Topic that Warrants Repeating.
5/22/2008
It happened to my daughter again the other day. She had just finished a school report on the library computer and forgot to save her work on her portable drive. She then of course had to do the work all over again. What a disaster that could be for your business if instead of forgetting to save on a small drive it was your server had crashed and to have to reenter work from 1, 2, 3 or more days because either you did not have a backup or your backup was corrupted. According to The National Weather Service we are in the middle of Tornado season in the south and the northern season is just about to get underway. Severe weather has many dangers to your data especially lightning strikes and the related power surges that can damage sensitive equipment.
There are a few things that you can do to avert this type of mishap. First of all have a standardized backup procedure. Can you answer these questions? Who has the responsibility to initiate the backup? When is the backup to begin, and how often? Where is the data being stored? A proper backup copies the data onto a media separate from the hard drives because hard drives do crash. You do not want to be in a position where your data and backups are on the same drive that crashed. Some security experts recommend having a backup file off site to protect your data against natural disaster or fire. During a recent Hurricane season COMPEX was able to store a Florida company's data on our servers until the storm had abated and the customer could resume operations.
Secondly make sure that your staff knows how to both backup and retrieve or restore your data. Having a backup tape, for example, that no one knows how to use is not much better than not having a backup. When was the last time you ran a restore on your system? Testing the system is a good training tool but will also verify that the backup is functioning properly.
Thirdly back up your data as frequently as possible in such a way that old backups are available for a time in the unlikely event that a more recent backup is corrupted. One way is to have media that can be reused on a rotating schedule such as every 2 weeks. Some companies keep the backup data for years.
Depending on your companies situation there are many choices in the marketplace for where and how to store your data. A Google search of the term “computer backup” netted 17,200,000 websites on the subject. The old reliable tape backup, CDR or DVD-R, Zip Drives or one of several on line data backup services can all be good choices. If you are not sure which system would be best for you or how to best utilize your current system call Compex Customer Service at 508-754-6868 or email customerservice@compexsoftware.com
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