Having a good backup strategy can allow you to have a good plan b in case you lose your data, and for many businesses is a legal requirement as well. In this article I will provide more information on backups and details on how to create a good backup strategy to suit your needs.
The biggest risk group for data loss are businesses who have small LAN setups and standalone computers; which isn’t surprising as many small businesses are uneducated about the importance of backup and do not have procedures in place to create regular backups. Contrary to popular belief backups do not cost time or money.
How to formulate a sound backup strategy?
In order to formulate your backup plan you should consider
High Priority Data: A simple test to find out of files qualify as "high priority" is to ask yourself if you could do without the said files, would you be at a significant loss if you lost your client list, order enquiries, or purchase invoices? Chances are the answer would be a "yes" so they should be regarded as high priority.
Accounts, spreadsheets, and other important data should be organised in logical folders following a descriptive tree structure to facilitate in the backup process.
Emails should be backed up weekly, in case they are hacked or important emails are accidentally deleted. Most email providers will provide an POP3 or IMAP connectivity enabling you to download all the emails with a client like Thunderbird to create local backups, other web based email providers will enable you to create backups at source and download the entire archive.
Before backing up emails, it’s wise to clear out spam, this must be done carefully to avoid deleting non-spam emails.
Emails are often overlooked, but can be very useful several years later, they often contain important contacts that you will need to refer to years later, help with auditing etc.
Lower Priority Data: Any outdated files, images, videos etc which aren’t urgently needs can be permanently deleted from disk to free up drive space, necessary files that aren’t crucial, but still help with the functioning should be backed up weekly or monthly.
Legal Compliance: State Laws on data retention requirements as well as data protection are always evolving alongside technological advances, it’s important to look up local laws in regards to data protection, freedom of information, privacy bills and information regulations to find out what your exact legal obligations on what data to store and how.
Hardware required for successful backups: Hardware required for backups are inexpensive, and in many cases users will already have the necessary hardware in place to start performing backups.
To begin, users need to roughly work out how much space a typical backup will require. Software like Acronis True Image will compress the backup down to 50-80% of the space it takes up on your drives, however users will need much more space in order to keep 2-3 previous versions of backups in order to create a second safety net in case a more recent backup fails.
External drive backups: Currently hard drives are so cheap, it’s now possible to acquire 2TB external hard drives for around £80. They typically run on USB 2.0 and firewire connectivity, although firewire is set to be phased out in favour of USB 3.0 which is more accessible and faster than firewire.
Advantages: Cheap to buy, highly compatible and easy to use, frequently come bundled with backup software allowing users to back up straight out of the box.
Disadvantages: Ideal for backing up a single computer, or one computer at a time, these drives tend to use the same technology as internal hard drives, and are prone to data corruption from dropping the devices and from contact with magnetic instruments, although many do have built in magnetic shields.
Network Attached Storage: Network Attached Storage (NAS), are lan based storage systems which can be connected to via any computer on the network.
Advantages: NAS are simply an extension to the external drive backups discussed earlier, a hard drive is connected directly to the router, instead of an individual computer, it’s inexpensive and enables every user to access the drive. After the drive is mapped onto a terminal, software applications like Acronis can make whole drive backups or individual file/folder backups straight onto the NAS, meanwhile the drive is still accessible by others.
Disadvantages:Can impair network performance when backup is taking place, and leaves the NAS open to accidental deletion by end users. NAS should be an intermediary backup for an IT technician to make more secure archives later.
Online Storage: Online Storage has become a viable option to backup large amounts of data, thanks due to fast internet connectivity. Online backup services have been largely designed for consumers in mind to store music, documents, and small zip files, however with increasing emphasis on data security and encryption as well as adherence to regulatory bodies online storage is fast becoming useful for small businesses to store backups on a highly secure offsite server.
Advantages: Free 5GB accounts available with highly regarded services like SugarSync and OpenDrive, manual services like Skydrive offer 25GB.
With the installation of the backup utility, users can begin to automatically backup their files on the fly.
For a small price of $5 users can get unlimited backup storage allowance from services like Mozy or Carbonite
Disadvantages: Unsuitable for large files, as upload speeds are limited by your internet connection
Not suitable as main backup source as files and folders of backups and constantly modified and risk of corruption is present. Regulation may also prohibit use of online storage as primary or sole backup method for business related documents.
Administration and Liability: It must be noted that responsibility for making backups ultimately lies with the owner; therefore, owners will need to take adequate measures to create a failsafe backup mechanism. Unfortunately despite all the promises made by online backup services, if the backups do go wrong, the responsibility still comes down to an owner.
This is why, it’s paramount to use a variety of different backup methods, online backup as well as secure local backups should be performed, and the backup drives should ideally be detached from the network when not in use to prevent accidental deletion. Scheduled Backups The technician can elect to create scheduled backups, on a weekly basis the technician will gather all the files and archive them in order to allow the files to be recovered in case the files are lost or deleted.
The backup software will have tools available to test the backup in order to make sure that it works properly. This must always be performed, in order to make sure you have a workable backup with which you can restore your files with. Automated Backups Software like Norton Ghost allows automation of the backup procedure, the software runs in the memory of each computer and keeps a record of file changes, and then on a daily or weekly basis any additional changes made to the system are updated on the backups, the software can be set up to create daily or weekly backups of the system or just user files.
Windows has its own built in backup program which can be found by typing backup in the search box, Mac users are able to download the backup utility from the apple website.
However a commercial backup solution is more preferable due to the flexibility offered. Worthy contenders for the best Windows backup software are Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image, Paragon Drive Backup.
The biggest risk group for data loss are businesses who have small LAN setups and standalone computers; which isn’t surprising as many small businesses are uneducated about the importance of backup and do not have procedures in place to create regular backups. Contrary to popular belief backups do not cost time or money.
How to formulate a sound backup strategy?
In order to formulate your backup plan you should consider
- The data you wish to back up.
- The desired output location to store your backups.
- Who administers the backups? Will they need training.
- What software and hardware are required for purchase.
- How frequently backups will run.
- Will staff need training to use backup procedures?
- High Priority data such as financial records, accounts, running projects, address books and emails which are absolutely crucial need special attention, backups should be made daily, and tests should be run in order to test the validity of backups.
- Low Priority data such as downloadable software, videos, images and installed applications can be backup up less frequently as they are less urgent and can be replaced without backups
- Legal Requirements dictate that certain financial records must be backup up, along with the data protection act, they also dictate how data is stored for live use as well as backup archives.
High Priority Data: A simple test to find out of files qualify as "high priority" is to ask yourself if you could do without the said files, would you be at a significant loss if you lost your client list, order enquiries, or purchase invoices? Chances are the answer would be a "yes" so they should be regarded as high priority.
Accounts, spreadsheets, and other important data should be organised in logical folders following a descriptive tree structure to facilitate in the backup process.
Emails should be backed up weekly, in case they are hacked or important emails are accidentally deleted. Most email providers will provide an POP3 or IMAP connectivity enabling you to download all the emails with a client like Thunderbird to create local backups, other web based email providers will enable you to create backups at source and download the entire archive.
Before backing up emails, it’s wise to clear out spam, this must be done carefully to avoid deleting non-spam emails.
Emails are often overlooked, but can be very useful several years later, they often contain important contacts that you will need to refer to years later, help with auditing etc.
Lower Priority Data: Any outdated files, images, videos etc which aren’t urgently needs can be permanently deleted from disk to free up drive space, necessary files that aren’t crucial, but still help with the functioning should be backed up weekly or monthly.
Legal Compliance: State Laws on data retention requirements as well as data protection are always evolving alongside technological advances, it’s important to look up local laws in regards to data protection, freedom of information, privacy bills and information regulations to find out what your exact legal obligations on what data to store and how.
Hardware required for successful backups: Hardware required for backups are inexpensive, and in many cases users will already have the necessary hardware in place to start performing backups.
To begin, users need to roughly work out how much space a typical backup will require. Software like Acronis True Image will compress the backup down to 50-80% of the space it takes up on your drives, however users will need much more space in order to keep 2-3 previous versions of backups in order to create a second safety net in case a more recent backup fails.
- How much capacity does each user folder take up?
- What is the size of their email archive?
External drive backups: Currently hard drives are so cheap, it’s now possible to acquire 2TB external hard drives for around £80. They typically run on USB 2.0 and firewire connectivity, although firewire is set to be phased out in favour of USB 3.0 which is more accessible and faster than firewire.
Advantages: Cheap to buy, highly compatible and easy to use, frequently come bundled with backup software allowing users to back up straight out of the box.
Disadvantages: Ideal for backing up a single computer, or one computer at a time, these drives tend to use the same technology as internal hard drives, and are prone to data corruption from dropping the devices and from contact with magnetic instruments, although many do have built in magnetic shields.
Network Attached Storage: Network Attached Storage (NAS), are lan based storage systems which can be connected to via any computer on the network.
Advantages: NAS are simply an extension to the external drive backups discussed earlier, a hard drive is connected directly to the router, instead of an individual computer, it’s inexpensive and enables every user to access the drive. After the drive is mapped onto a terminal, software applications like Acronis can make whole drive backups or individual file/folder backups straight onto the NAS, meanwhile the drive is still accessible by others.
Disadvantages:Can impair network performance when backup is taking place, and leaves the NAS open to accidental deletion by end users. NAS should be an intermediary backup for an IT technician to make more secure archives later.
Online Storage: Online Storage has become a viable option to backup large amounts of data, thanks due to fast internet connectivity. Online backup services have been largely designed for consumers in mind to store music, documents, and small zip files, however with increasing emphasis on data security and encryption as well as adherence to regulatory bodies online storage is fast becoming useful for small businesses to store backups on a highly secure offsite server.
Advantages: Free 5GB accounts available with highly regarded services like SugarSync and OpenDrive, manual services like Skydrive offer 25GB.
With the installation of the backup utility, users can begin to automatically backup their files on the fly.
For a small price of $5 users can get unlimited backup storage allowance from services like Mozy or Carbonite
Disadvantages: Unsuitable for large files, as upload speeds are limited by your internet connection
Not suitable as main backup source as files and folders of backups and constantly modified and risk of corruption is present. Regulation may also prohibit use of online storage as primary or sole backup method for business related documents.
Administration and Liability: It must be noted that responsibility for making backups ultimately lies with the owner; therefore, owners will need to take adequate measures to create a failsafe backup mechanism. Unfortunately despite all the promises made by online backup services, if the backups do go wrong, the responsibility still comes down to an owner.
This is why, it’s paramount to use a variety of different backup methods, online backup as well as secure local backups should be performed, and the backup drives should ideally be detached from the network when not in use to prevent accidental deletion. Scheduled Backups The technician can elect to create scheduled backups, on a weekly basis the technician will gather all the files and archive them in order to allow the files to be recovered in case the files are lost or deleted.
The backup software will have tools available to test the backup in order to make sure that it works properly. This must always be performed, in order to make sure you have a workable backup with which you can restore your files with. Automated Backups Software like Norton Ghost allows automation of the backup procedure, the software runs in the memory of each computer and keeps a record of file changes, and then on a daily or weekly basis any additional changes made to the system are updated on the backups, the software can be set up to create daily or weekly backups of the system or just user files.
Windows has its own built in backup program which can be found by typing backup in the search box, Mac users are able to download the backup utility from the apple website.
However a commercial backup solution is more preferable due to the flexibility offered. Worthy contenders for the best Windows backup software are Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image, Paragon Drive Backup.
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