The first traditional backup option that has generally been used for years is to move the data that resides on your hard drive to either another hard drive that is external to your computer system or to some kind of memory device that is capable of storing your data. In years past, this might have been a floppy disk. Today, there is a very strong likelihood that it will be a memory stick. Incredibly, there are memory sticks on the market today that can store around 32 gigabytes of data. This is a staggering sum of data, to say the least.

While this sounds great in theory, what happens if your house happens to burn down? Odds are, your memory stick is probably somewhere in the rubble. This creates a situation in which it really doesn’t make much sense to keep your backup data in the same physical vicinity of your main computer system. Why? Just look at the example that we mentioned a moment ago. What if your entire house burns down? Worse yet, what if you happen to be traveling and you lose your memory stick? As you can imagine, this can be very problematic.

The second traditional backup option, believe it or not, was to simply transfer data that was located on your hard drive directly to some other computer system located in your home or office. Once again, you can probably see where the deficiency in this plan resides. It simply doesn’t make sense to exclusively backup all of your data to either an external hard drive or memory stick that will be in the physical vicinity of your main computer system. While the odds of your home burning down are low, there is still a variety of other risks that you will want to avoid by having your backups located in the same physical spot as your main computer system. So what’s the solution?

With the widespread adoption of broadband Internet service, a new type of backup system became a viable option. We are talking about an online backup system that pulls files from your computer and stores them safely in a geographically separate location. Best of all, you can access this location from anywhere in the world that has an Internet connection. That means you are free to sleep well at night knowing that all of your important data is backed up to a location that is not literally the same as that of your primary computer system.

Backup types

Depending on your data type Vault Online recommends to choose between four types of backup:
• Full online backup
• Full offline backup
• Incremental online backup
• Incremental offline backup

Time constraints and the amount of data that you have will determine what backup type to use for which data and how often to perform it.

Live backup vs offline backup
Live backups are performed while the system is in full operation. Users can access the backed up application or the underlying database to perform normal actions such as data access and update.

Offline backups are performed when the system is not in operation and is inactive (e.g. at night or on weekends). Users cannot connect to the application or the database, and backup is the only process affecting the system.

Incremental backup vs complete backup
Incremental backup and full backup can be used in conjunction with either live backup or offline backup.

As the name suggests, a complete backup is backing up of the full data set. You can perform a backup of all files, databases and applications.

An incremental backup is backup of the changed data set only. It can be setup to backup the data changed since either last incremental or last complete backup.

How often to run backup procedure
You will need to determine a suitable period of time (called backup window) when a specific type of backup can be executed. It is recommended to schedule a backup window when the system has the least activity or no activity.

Selected backup type, size of your data set, preferred recovery time and other conditions will determine the duration of a backup process. Therefore you need to develop procedures that will suit your situation and requirements.

Some backups can be performed live while other backups should only be done offline. For example, static files, such as photos, videos, system configuration files and the like can be backed up at any time. The backup window for static files is limitless.

Conversely, because databases are always active, they require special commands being activated to allow backup in order to keep data integrity. In this case, the backup window during the off-peak hours is recommended.

You should determine the recovery time that you business can afford. This is the time your business can function without access to the key systems and applications.

It is very important to set user expectations realistically during the planning stage so that everyone understands and agrees on the estimated time it will take to recover a system after a disaster occurs.

Below are some actions you can take to reduce the recovery time:

• Proactively manage, document and backup system configuration and critical corporate files.
• Prepare and document data recovery procedures. Estimate the time required to execute these procedures. This should include the time required to identify the problem and find the solution; and the time to restore the data from the storage media.
• Prioritize the data recovery procedures. To perform their duties, users usually require access to the recent data (e.g. last emails, recent documents), so it is wise to restore this data first. Users can then start using recent data, while the rest of the data is recovered.
• Prepare and keep records of recovery procedures for different situations.
• Develop a strategy that focuses on the right balance between the cost of backup and the required speed of recovery.

a. Human error

Human error is one of the most common causes of system failure. For example, a user can accidentally delete or overwrite a critical system or database file. Even though most of the data can be restored from existing backups, some data might still be lost. A great deal of effort will be required to recover from such errors, which will lead to a loss in productivity and high costs to a business. Correctly implemented online backup can dramatically reduce the impact of human errors. This is achieved by continuous backup of all changes to the critical corporate files. If the file is deleted or damaged by a user, it can be easily and quickly restored from the remote server.

b. Hardware failure

Hardware failures can happen to any part of the system, including servers, workstations and storage devices. Eliminating as many single points of failure as possible will protect your business from hardware failures. This is achieved by duplicating most hardware resources which can be utilized in case the primary resources fail. Unfortunately, duplicating hardware resources can be very expensive to implement and manage.

c. Transaction failure

Transaction failure is not a very common type of data failure, but it can have as devastating effect to your valuable data as any other type. Transaction failures occur when something happens to your server during an update of a transaction such as data loading to the database. The database could be left in an inconsistent and unusable state, and will need to be repaired before users can use it again.

d. Disaster

Natural disasters and malicious human activities would completely disrupt your day-to-day operations. These include fires, floods, theft, earthquakes, etc. Remote storage of critical business data is a necessity to protect your company from these unforeseen events.

In addition to backup, you should also consider improving your hardware infrastructure to lower risk of data loss. Some of the hardware upgrades are relatively affordable and should be implemented by most businesses. At a minimum, I would recommend installing RAID devices, dual power supplies and uninterruptable power supplies. These upgrades do not guarantee the availability of data, but can prevent system failures.

There are many factors that can lead to data loss. There are also many types of different backup strategies that aim to protect your data. You need to assess your business environment and user requirements before deciding what type of backup strategy to implement.

Some of the factors you need to consider when analyzing the backup strategy requirements are as follows :

• Types of possible failure that your system may be susceptible to;
• Preferred recovery time;
• Backup types;
• How often do you need to run backup procedure;
• Data storage requirements;
• Recovery points

These factors are explained in more details in the future posts.