What You Need to Know About Backup and Disaster Recovery

Despite ransomware entering the scene as one of today’s most prevalent threats, backup and disaster recovery (BDR) doesn’t have to mean what it did a couple of decades ago or even five years back. The primary thing is that several cloud-based backup and recovery tools are available for businesses today. Automate your backups, so backing up data now has a set-and-forget process. Data backups are also a crucial cybersecurity best practice. This is because they assist firms in defending against cyberattacks that target company data, such as ransomware.

Backup software has changed a lot over the past few years. The speed of backup and restoration has improved.  Thus providing an easier way to navigate multiple services, and making user data more secure. Backing up your system is now part of modern IT management. However, with such a low barrier to adoption, tech applications in businesses should immediately start.

What Exactly Is Backup and Disaster Recovery?

Let’s start with the basics. Data backup and recovery  encompasses two essential components of a strong business continuity plan:

Backup

Data backups were performed manually and, therefore, took a lot of time, traditionally using tape storage, removable disks, or optical media. They were resource-expensive regarding real estate, they had specific temperature and humidity thresholds that defined them & most importantly, there was damage caused by being access controlled! Today, standard practices have evolved toward saving your data to an external physical medium or cloud. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) advise businesses on the ideal backup for their setup, facilitating automatic backups with data recovery. It drives lightning-fast data transmission, which is used to make the process very short and precious. Moving to digital backups is a big plus for business data protection.

Disaster Recovery

A robust and tested disaster recovery plan is essential for minimizing data loss during a disaster. This strategy may include restoring data from backups and utilizing backup IT hardware to regain access to apps, data, and IT resources.

What Does Backup and Disaster Recovery Include?

A Backup Plan

You must sit down with your MSP and determine what data must be backed up and how frequently. You will also need to schedule your backups so that the data is always current. Since backing up can be time-consuming, you will have to set aside some unstressed backup times when business will not happen.

After your MSP determines the requirements for backups, they will determine which type and software work best for your business to automate this process and ensure a full-proof backup.

Organizations can use the following types of backups according to their operational requirements and specific business objectives, or they also may have a hybrid approach suited for a given situation:

Full Backup

This includes all data sources and will require much space for the entire set if it’s a cloud-based backup. This one takes longer to execute and is done the first time a data backup is built.

Differential Backup

Differential backups are a faster way to save the data that has changed since your last full backup, saving storage space and bandwidth. However, this process can be quite a bit slower due to the requirement for the last full backup and the fact that every differential is built upon one another.

Incremental backup

There are different types of data backups, which include differential and incremental backups. Differential backups are similar to incremental backups, but they capture all the data that has changed since the full backup, unlike incremental backups, which only back up changes between operations.

Bare-Metal Restore

A bare-metal backup and restore is a system-wide backup method that replicates all system data, including the operating system, boot information, apps, data, hidden files, and preferences. It is ideal for quick system recovery or transferring between systems.

Local Backup

Local backup entails backing up data to an on-premises device near the data source, providing quicker setup and faster restoration times. However, it is prone to disasters such as fire, flood, or theft, so businesses should have a secondary backup system for primary data center failure.

Backup Appliance

A backup appliance is more of a storage system with built-in software optimized for data backup. It is a one-stop solution: log in to the network and change your settings. However, it is expensive and might lack flexibility, as some features are not customizable. A new appliance is required to gain enhancement. However, backup appliances are still cost-effective and efficient.

Cloud or Remote Backup

If you store data on a remote storage system hosted in the cloud, you can access it with an Internet connection without needing hardware components. However, it might be slower than backups near data centers, and the security and reliability of the remote location become a factor.

Hybrid Backup

Hybrid backup is a safe way of providing data safety in disaster calamities. It combines local and cloud backups simultaneously to ensure ultra-fast restoration. It will cost hardware and software, but if you want to avoid losing data or, more importantly, revenue, this is worth the cost.

A Disaster Recovery Plan

If a disaster occurs, a backup plan is critical to restoring data. Choosing the proper processes/software for your system can ensure an efficient way of restoring that data.

A disaster recovery plan will include the following:

• Recovery Time Objective (RTO): The maximum time a business has to recover normal operations after the disaster, like 30 minutes,2 hours, or even 12 hours.
• Personnel Roles: The plan provides rosters for personnel handling disaster recovery processes, including their names and contact details.
• Hardware and Software Inventory: Create a complete and accurate list of all your IT assets, from critical to important to unimportant ones.
• Disaster Response Procedures: Documented guides for staff during natural and manufactured disasters, detailing how they should respond to minimize lost data and restore the systems.
• Communications Plan: It is fundamental to have a complete communication plan that keeps all involved, external and internal (customers or partners), up-to-date.
• Testing: By evaluating your disaster recovery plan, you can get live feedback on how good its functionality is and where it needs improvement. It would help if you also ran testing activities to train the staff force about handling an emergency case.

Why Is Backup and Disaster Recovery Important?

In today’s environment, the question isn’t ‘if’ but ‘when’ a data loss will occur.

MSPs can only partially avert natural disasters. However, business owners can collaborate with their MSPs to develop efficient plans for dealing with natural disasters.

In terms of disasters, one study found that cybercrime has increased by 600% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The global yearly cost of cybercrime is now estimated to be $6 trillion, with a projected cost of $10.5 trillion by 2025.

It is no wonder that companies must be proactive in handling human error, accidental deletion, and lost/ stolen devices.

Safeguarding a business from all these possibilities necessitates planning with disaster recovery solutions that promise near-instantaneous data retrieval, and this is where BDR fits.

In a world where failure to secure essential business data could mean the difference between losing and keeping your entire customer base, any organization that needs to backup its critical information is playing Russian roulette with their livelihood.

Conclusion

Backup and disaster recovery are vital parts of any business. This is due to the rise in IT threats that face businesses, no matter how big or small. Having them is paramount, as you want your data systems not only backed up but safe.

That is why MSPs give backup and disaster recovery services to their clients. It is the first thing to happen if you want to remain in business. Therefore, all companies should prioritize it for what works best and something your MSP can tailor to your unique business needs.