Disaster Recovery
Data Backup: A Life Saver
Lightning can strike any time, and in any form. It can be a power surge leaving your hard disk useless or an over flooded bathroom sink leaving your equipment blown out. It can also be as simple as lack of attention. Whatever the deal is, it will certainly bring one question to your mind – do you have a backup of your data? Sadly the answer usually is no. Many people lose several months and sometimes years of work in such situations.
Why you need a Backup
A backup is your safety net in case of a disaster. Data can be lost due to corruption such as unauthorized access, viral spyware, accidents and mistakes. Any of these can happen any time and cause you problems and not to mention – mental stress. To avoid such difficult situations it is best to get a data backup service. Data backup is necessary for single users as well as users on large networks. It prepares you for any damage or disaster situation.
How to make a Backup
Backups for home use computers can be kept in a portable hard disk or a pack of DVDs. Here are a few steps to make a backup of your personal home computer:
- Put all your necessary files in a folder.
- Put them all in a Zip file. This is a better storage option, however if the zip file gets corrupted then it will be difficult to recover the data.
- Make DVDs of the data and label them.
- Store them in a place away from the sunlight, a better place would be a drawer or a cupboard which no one uses frequently.
- If u have a portable hard disk then just copy the data in it and set it on write protect mode.
In case of a large but non-organizational network, it would be advised that you make a backup of data on the main server. Use a heavy encrypted firewall and password protection on the machine to keep it safe from unauthorized access. However, no computer in the world is safe from viruses, hackers or spam so it is better that you make an external backup similar to the one you created for a personal computer.
In case of a large organization’s IT network, it would be wise to hire an IT service company. These companies complete the following steps to ensure you are safe even in case of a disaster:
- Make a backup of your entire network, every server and computer on it
- Daily or weekly backup is taken to ensure your work is up to date in case of a problem
- Data backups are kept in two secure places. One of them is kept away in a secure isolated place and the other is kept on an online server.
- Network security is improved to protect the system as much as possible, to avoid re-storing often.
The above mention steps can vary depending on what type of services you engage in. If you are interested in learning about how Thrive can assist you in your data backup solution. Please contact us here!