Essential Data Back-Up & Disaster Recovery Tips

Even the most careful and cautious business in the world is at risk of natural and human-made disasters that could bring down essential infrastructures and systems. No matter what industry you are in or what size your business is, a foolproof data back up and disaster recovery plan is vital to protecting your company and avoiding a crisis should the worst happen.

Getting back-ups correct is no easy task, and disaster recovery is even more difficult to implement effectively. Ever changing and growing technology such as cloud solutions adds yet another layer of complexity to IT systems and is just another aspect that needs a reliable back up plan. As well as this, strict data laws such as GDPR put even more pressure on companies to protect their customer’s data and avoid security breaches.

The terms data back-up and disaster recovery are often misunderstood and misused; it is essential to understand that having a back-up plan is different from having a disaster recovery strategy and that you may need both!

What is data back up?

A data back-up is a copy of your businesses data stored on another device in a different location to your originals. Often data back-ups are in the form of a separate drive or storage device within a data centre or stored in a completely different location to everything else.

In most cases, back-ups are created on a daily basis, so your back-up file is always up to date and relevant. Cloud technology provides an automatic and remote solution for creating daily back-ups. However, some businesses still operate with a physical drive that is backed up regularly by an individual.

These data back-ups give you the ability to restore your data back to the original source should anything go wrong. When running a business, it is essential to have a back-up plan in place to protect your data from the worst-case scenario. Creating a back-up plan requires deciding what needs to be backed up, how often it needs backing up and how long it should be kept for.

You will also need to consider how and where this data will be backed up. There is a range of back-up data solutions out there and to properly understand which is right for you and your business; you first need to understand your back-up requirements fully.

What is disaster recovery?

Disaster recovery is much more in-depth than a data back up and includes having a full plan and technical solution to keep your business running should a disaster strike. To establish an effective disaster recovery plan, you first need to identify which systems are required to keep your business functioning should an incident occur and how long your business can run with each various system being offline.

Disaster recovery solutions come in many different forms; some will automatically take over from the primary system if the connection is lost, while others involve restoring the system from back-ups.

Top tips to keep your business protected

Many businesses will require both a back-up data plan and disaster recovery strategy to protect themselves from a crisis adequately. There are a few best practices that every business should follow to ensure their data and systems are effectively protected in the event of a disaster:

Plan

The most important practice for any business is to make sure you have both a back-up data plan and a disaster recovery strategy in place to protect yourself. If your data doesn’t exist in at least two different places, then it might as well not exist at all; the same can be said for your systems and workloads. Computers and the data within them make up your organisation, and if you choose not to protect them properly you could end up with nothing.

Cloud

Use the cloud to make reliable and automated back-ups. Cloud-based back-ups will back up your data over the internet and can be restored from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection. Data is stored off-site and often protected from physical natural disasters such as flooding or fires. Back-ups can be arranged to complete automatically in the background, meaning you don’t have to worry about remembering to do them on a weekly or monthly basis.

Organise

Organisation is key. For a functional and reliable back up, ensure your files are organised into a sensible system. This way you will easily be able to locate your lost data should the worst happen.

Audit

When it comes to establishing an effective disaster recovery strategy, start by reviewing the basics. Audit all your internal back-up plans and determine where the areas of weaknesses are. Even the best disaster recovery plan in the world can’t recover data that hasn’t been properly backed up.

Update

Keep your disaster recovery plan current. A disaster recovery plan cannot simply be set up and then left to its own devices until it is required, it needs to be maintained and updated as the business grows and evolves. It should always be at the forefront of your mind, and whenever a system or process within your business is changed, your disaster recovery plan needs to reflect that.

To review your back-up and disaster recovery strategy, get in touch with the experts at Cyan  – we are ready to help to ensure your success.

Using The Cloud For Your Disaster Recovery Strategy

One of the priorities for every IT department is to ensure there is a sufficient recovery strategy in place should a disaster happen. Small businesses can lose thousands of pounds for every hour that their IT system is down. The best way to limit the costs and the damage of IT failure is to prepare for the eventuality and ensure there is a backup plan ready.

With over 60% of businesses using cloud technology in some form or other for their infrastructure, it is clear that a cloud solution can significantly help with the day to day. However, the cloud can also help with secondary workflows that include backup and archiving to help with your disaster recovery strategy.

Traditional disaster recovery strategies for businesses are expensive and inefficient; they often require multiple solutions as well as labour and maintenance which can increase the costs dramatically. Cloud-based solutions already offer increased security for businesses, and with a cloud-based disaster recovery strategy, you have a secure, scalable disaster recovery strategy.

If you want greater agility and protection for your business, should the worst happen, then a cloud-based disaster recovery could be a cost-saving solution that will help your business to feel prepared for every eventuality.

The benefits of using the cloud for your disaster recovery strategy

Reduced manual backup

A cloud-based disaster recovery strategy will automate the backup process for you. This helps to free up time and resources needs for manual backup. This is particularly helpful for businesses with a small IT team who need to dedicate their time to strategic aspects of IT and the company as a whole.

Taking time to manually backup data means time is taken away from troubleshooting, improving systems and creating efficiencies. Instead, the manual backup will require reviewing archives, monitoring progress and ensuring there is sufficient space and storage for backup. All of these processes could be significantly reduced with an automated cloud solution.

Predictability

Using a cloud-based system for your backup helps to ensure predictability not only for automated backup but also for knowing your costs. Having a cloud system for your disaster recovery strategy typically comes with a set monthly fee which can help you when it comes to budgeting and ensures you know your costs beforehand.

Utilising another provider for your backup and disaster recovery strategy also frees up IT staff, as well as the cost of time and resources, to give you better reliability and assurance that backup is always taken care of through immediate automation.

Immediate backup

When it comes to internal backups, companies rarely check their systems to see if they can recover and restore all data should the worst happen. Many businesses will only complete a backup process at night which means retrieving all data in a situation is almost impossible.

Cloud-based solutions use a continuous backup method which means you’ll lose minimal data should a disaster strike. As the cloud automatically detects and transmits changes to files, there is no manual process involved, and you do not need to worry about when the backup takes place. All of the data restoration is taken care of for complete peace of mind.

Off-site

Even if your business has a robust data recovery and disaster management plan, if your equipment for backup is on the same site as the business then it may not help you at all. Should the workplace suffer from an unforeseen accident such as a flood, storm, burst pipe or fire, then your servers and backup systems are likely to suffer, and you will lose all of your data.

With a cloud-based solution, you have backup data in an external location. This means that should there be a problem in the workplace, your data will remain safe. As cloud backup occurs within minutes, you know that data is safely stored offsite from your organisation which gives peace of mind and can help to relieve any backup issues such as loss of revenue, lower productivity or negative customer feedback.

Security

As many customers who already take advantage of the cloud for their day to day running will know, a cloud-based system can give an organisation additional security. A cloud-based solution keeps data secure by being offsite and using data encryption; this means that only authorised users can access and decrypt the data.

Data encryption in the cloud is also applicable to backup and archived data which can significantly add to the security of the organisation which can help to reduce the risk of security breaches for organisations as well as providing peace of mind to customers.

Plan your disaster recovery strategy

When it comes to planning your disaster recovery strategy, it is essential to not only prepare for the worst but make sure there is always a robust system in place that works for your business. At Cyan, we can help to make sure you have a secure and effective disaster recovery plan in place using the cloud. If you want to protect your business and prepare for every eventuality, get in touch with our team of expert advisors.