Will your backup work when you need it the most? Is your backup approach seamless or disjointed? Do you test your backup methods regularly?
Testing your backups consists of more than simply recovering the previous day’s files or recovering a server to another location. If your aren’t testing your backups at least once a year, your data isn’t protected.
Things change over time. Your business will acquire new servers, launch new software, implement new processes and experience storage growth. Thus, a seamless backup process with periodic testing of your backup implementation is critical.
Maintaining a disaster plan is important. Your disaster plan should address:
- How much data do you need to maintain?
- How quickly do you need your files or systems back online?
- How much critical business data can you reasonably afford to lose in the event of a major disaster?
- When restoring old data, will you encounter compatibility problems?
- In addition to data, do you also need to protect systems or hardware?
- Do you have a succession plan for key IT personnel?
- What is plan B in the event that you can’t bring systems back online quickly?
- How much will it cost to restore systems and data back to their pre-disaster state?
Unfortunately, it’s too common for companies — that are confident in the reliability of their disaster recovery plans — to suffer critical data loss because no one ever verified that the backups could actually be recovered.
The best way to test backups is by simulating real-world data loss scenarios, and recovering as if those scenarios were actually happening in real life. These disaster recovery drills should also be scheduled at random dates and times, so that you’re forced to constantly be ready for an unexpected drill.
Keeping your backups uniform, seamless and simple will make backup and recovery easier. It will allow you to adapt to change and growth as it occurs. A single service provider that can back up your databases, email servers, flat files and PCs while also providing e-discovery, archiving, perform backup testing, mirroring and bare metal recovery is the best solution.
For more information on testing your backups watch this short video below.