Backup and Disaster Recovery
At some point, everyone will lose data. It is often at this point you will realise
how good your backup strategy is.
If the data on your server was lost, what would you do?
There are several data loss scenarios to consider.
Hardware Failure
Hardware is becoming more and more resilient, but it will never be 100%
perfect. Although better quality components cost more and reduce the risk
of failure, failure can never be completely eliminated. You can do very
little to prevent this from happening. Backing up your data will allow
you to be prepared when it does happen.
Fire/Theft/Flooding
The end result of these can be the same as a hardware failure: an unusable
box and no data. Did you know: In the UK, a home or business is more likely
to flood, than have a fire? (source: Environment Agency). You probably have
a burglar alarm and fire extinguishers, yet flooding is more likely than
fire. No matter how good your hardware, it won’t withstand a fire and will
almost certainly be affected should it flood. Keeping backup tapes in a fire safe is
good practice and highly recommended. However, after a fire, access to a
building may not be possible for several days and structural damage to the building
as well as fires being left to burn themselves out may render the tapes unusable.
User Error
Users can often delete or overwrite important files accidentally. Sometimes
they realise this immediately, other times the error is not detected until
much later when the file is next needed. Having a backup which enables you
to retrieve files from a long time ago will help in this situation.
Malicious Attack
Outside hackers (and sometimes employees) can deliberately cause data loss or corruption
in many different ways and under many different circumstances. Whilst this kind of risk
can be minimised by implementing good security policies, it is still a common cause of data loss.
