September 2007 / September 2007 - Data Backup Strategies

Business continuity planning has been a prominent topic in information technology for the last six years. Despite the issue’s relevance, U.S businesses still lose 12 billion dollars per year on average due to data loss. In fact, 93 percent of companies that lost their essential data for ten days or longer due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of that disaster. Companies now have several options available to them to backup their data. This month’s tech brief will examine the various choices available and let you decide which option, or combination of options suit your company the best.

Tape Storage

Tape is one of the oldest types of backup available on the market. This device reads and writes data stored onto a magnetic tape. Though it is a physical medium like a hard drive, there is a major difference. Tapes can only allow for sequential access to data. The process of finding data is significantly prolonged with this method. These devices have a variety of ways they can connect to a server such as SCSI, USB, and Firewire and are used in conjunction with a software application.

The pros of using this backup system are:

• Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost compared to other backup methods
• Tapes have a long shelf life and great archival quality
• Storage tapes can range in sizes from a handful of gigs all the way up to 800 gigabytes.
• Tape systems are a proven technology

The cons of using this backup system are:

• Mechanical errors can occur due to several moving parts
• Someone in the office must remember to swap out your tapes and take the most recent backup offsite and stored in a safe location
• Restoring an entire company from tape can be a lengthy process depending on the amount of data.
• Tapes are climate sensitive and can become warped in extreme temperatures

Disk to Disk Backup

Disk to Disk technology is simply when hard drives from a server are backed up onto another server’s drives rather than to a CD, DVD, or tape. This backup process is most commonly known as a network attached storage. This dedicated backup server connects to your network and will replicate all data with the help of a software agent. There are several software programs out there for backing up data.

The pros of using this backup system are:

• Faster restore and backup speeds due to nonlinear structure of information
• Technology is more expandable than a tape system
• Lower cost of ownership due to decreasing hardware costs
• Can use de-duplication software to drastically cut down on the amount time backups take

The cons of using this backup system are:

• Not an offsite solution
• Shorter archival life than tape

Online Data Vaulting

Online Data Vaulting is a method of backup which uses your internet connection to send information to a data center which it is stored and replicated for disaster recovery purposes. Depending on the provider or scope of service, sometimes the data is sent to multiple locations, or just replicated several times at one central point. This method of backup encrypts your data and compresses it as it sends over your internet connection.

The pros of using this backup system are:

• It’s a system where you only pay for what you use
• Ability to set retention policies
• Eliminates human error as software agents automatically runs backup
• No purchase of software
• Establishes a baseline for business continuity

The cons of using this backup system are:

• Cost, depending upon the amount of data being backed up
• Initial backup can take a significant amount of time
• Backup depends on having internet connectivity
• Must keep your password in a safe place for the vault as most service providers do not keep that information on file for security purposes

What's Right for our Company?

The methods above list the most common technologies available for data backup. Though deciding on technology may be the path your company chooses or is headed toward, recent trends in information technology are showing a hybrid approach as the most sound answer.

Why Use a Blend of Technologies?

There are several reasons why using a blend of technologies should be considered. For example, companies that are backing up several hundred gigs of data to tape a night are hurting their network performance. It is not uncommon for a backup of this size to take over twelve hours to complete. When employees come back into the office the next morning, their productivity can be jeopardized because the network is still devoting its resources to that backup job. As mentioned above, a disk to disk solution is much faster than tape, but is not a removable solution. The best solution truly becomes blending the technologies together. Companies will first implement the disk to disk solution and then copy the backup to a tape and take the tape to a secure location offsite. Another example of blending technologies would be using online data vaulting with either a tape or disk to disk solution. When combining these technologies, companies often elect to backup the most critical data such as accounting and confidential client information to the vault as well. In case of an emergency occurring, the vault will allow you to access that data from anywhere. This is a great option for companies that have remote sites

What Can Thrive Do To Help?

Data backup is far too crucial to be an ignored item as the statistics tell. Using a combination of any of these three technologies is a great way to protect your business from theft, disaster, or human error. It’s important to check with compliance boards that govern you industry to see what they recommend for best practices for data. For any other questions on data backup and how Thrive can help your organization determine the best solution, please contact us for more information.Contact Us.