What Is Data Backup
Data backup is making a copy of data and storing it somewhere else. Traditionally, backups were stored on external hard drives that you occasionally plug into a computer to back up your information—if you ever remembered to do it.
With the popularity of cloud storage, many backups are living offsite in data centers. This article explains the best practices of data backups and the initial steps you can take.
Why You Need to Backup
Data backups are essential for a few reasons. First, having backups of your data ensures it is accessible should a natural disaster happen that ruins your hardware. In the same vein, having a recent backup of your data would allow you to recover from a cyberattack quickly should a criminal hold your data hostage.
Backups are also crucial for audits as they can provide archival history.
Finally, backups provide you with a way to replace data in the event of deletion—an accidental slip of a mouse or a hostile employee. A recent backup would allow you to continue without lost data.
Best Practices
Regular Backups
The benefit of backups comes from their frequency. Backups should be daily, so if a backup is needed, the least amount of data is lost.
Businesses with operation-critical data should back up data in real-time. These backups can be manual or automatic.
Redundancy
Having multiple backups is essential if any single method up goes down. Working with cloud platforms can be helpful since redundancy is often already in place.
Offsite
Your backups can be physically offsite or through a cloud-based platform. Having offsite backups connects to our point on natural disasters: damage to physical servers because of something like a flood won't ultimately sink your organization.
Endpoints
Do not limit backups to your database. Endpoints also need to be backed up regularly, as they often contain mission-critical data.
Encryption
Encryption is essential for security. Encryption of your data backups will help you stay protected against data theft and corruption.
Regular Tests
Regular testing makes sure that the data you're backing up is properly stored and regularly accessible.
Set Retention Span
Regularly backing up data means that you'll often have a large backlog in storage. Set a retention plan for how long to retain these backups.
How Anteris Can Help
At Anteris, our HaaS structure allows businesses to access enterprise-level data storage and security through our private cloud network.
In addition, we can combine hardware and data management to create greater resilience. We can do this in various ways, such as linking onsite servers to our data center or installing multiple servers on the same site so if one fails, others are online. These solutions could easily cost up to $100,000, putting a significant strain on your bottom line. At Anteris, we've already made these investments, allowing our Clients to access enterprise-level technology at a fraction of the cost.
Let us make your technology freeing, not frustrating.
