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 help firms defend 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, it provides an easier way to navigate multiple services and makes 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 to save 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 enables lightning-fast data transmission, significantly reducing process time and making it more efficient. Moving to digital backups is a big plus for business data protection.
Disaster Recovery
A robust and tested disaster recovery plan is essential for minimising the impact during a disaster. This strategy may include restoring data from backups and utilising 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 to ensure the data is always up to date. 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 foolproof backup.
Organisations can organise the following types of backups according to their operational requirements and specific business objectives, or they may also have a hybrid approach suited for a given situation:
Full Backup
This includes all data sources and will require a significant amount of space for the entire set, especially 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 previous full backup and the fact that every differential is built upon the previous one.
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 centre failure.
Backup Appliance
A backup appliance is essentially a storage system with built-in software to optimise a 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 customisable 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 centres, and the security and reliability of the remote location become a factor.
Hybrid Backup
Hybrid backup is a safe way to provide data safety in disaster situations. 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 a disaster, such as 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 comprehensive and accurate list of all your IT assets, from critical to non-critical ones.
- Disaster Response Procedures: Documented guides for staff during natural and manufactured disasters, detailing how they should respond to minimise 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 also be helpful to run testing activities to train the staff on handling emergency cases.
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 organisation that fails to back up its critical information is playing Russian roulette with its 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 prioritise what works best and something your MSP can tailor to your unique business needs.
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