The Backup System and the Backup Plan
A Backup Article Contributed by Melissa Larose
The Backup System and the Backup Plan
A backup system is good business. A backup plan is even better business. Protecting your files and data by making a copy to tape, or disk, and storing it in a separate location, as in off-site or in a fire proof safe and locked securely, can mean the difference in surviving a disaster. Planning ahead to protect your livelihood would seem to be an important part of business planning. Yet it is amazing how many people truly believe nothing like that can happen to them. Before you allow this to happen to you, consider some simple safe guards.
Backup Systems Protect
Many computers have a backup system of sorts already built in to them but this is not enough to secure your data. If the computer crashes, the data stored on it can be corrupted or worse, completely lost. Copying data to a floppy disk is worthwhile except that there is a size limitation to them. Databases, generally speaking, won't fit on a floppy disk. In addition, a backup system involving storage to a floppy disk is something a student might do, or someone in a very small home business.
Most modern businesses have data storage that requires a much larger storage capacity and a much more secure process.
You want to be able to copy your data to a single (or several) disk or tape and not just one floppy disk.
The Backup System Decision
The ultimate choice of a backup system should stem from the backup plan. The backup plan should include a detailed review of the data generated and absorbed by the business. This information will be different for every single company. Only you know what the value of your data is to you and your customer.
Once a detailed investigation into your data is complete, your next step is to decide how best to backup that data, restore that data, and store that data. The result of these decisions would be a comprehensive backup system. This backup system is drawn out and described in detail. The decision on how often the data is copied to it stems from earlier discussions of data value and budget. What can you afford to do to meet your needs?
Use a Backup System to Your Advantage
The backup system is yours to utilize as needed. Most people never consider that they might have to actually recover data from their backup system but that is what the system is there to provide, a means to recover lost, damaged, or corrupted data.
Your backup system can be used not just for data and database storage. It can also be used to store copies of all your software, including the operating system. In other words, you can copy your whole network through a backup system. In using the backup system you have now protected yourself from computer crashes by reducing the time needed to restore the system as a whole. No more re-feeding software disks into your computers to rebuild your network. Just restore and go.
