Seven data backup strategies you need to adopt for your data

Data backup is a necessity in the existence of any business, and each day, a company generates significant amounts of data that demands storage space, protection and security. With some information being highly sensitive, it helps to determine different strategies that a business owner can not only rely on for storage but also safeguard their most sensitive data.

Taking that you have adopted two or more data backup methods for your data, there are a few things you must put in place to reinforce your data backup strategies, among them the following seven:

Conduct regular backups

You must acknowledge the fact that your business produces data every moment of its existence. Depending on the importance of the information generated by the day, and the amount of data your company would be willing to lose should a disaster strike, develop a backup frequency.

Keep the data uploads regular, while ensuring the backups are not too close to the primary data, lest they suffer the same fate as it.

Organization and structure

Most businesses do not appreciate the complexity of data backups, and that is why they often fall into common missteps. Data backup should not just be about pushing all and any information on a backup solution, say, the cloud.

Most people do not have a defined structure or organization for their information in the reserves. Ideally, not all data deserves a place on backups. Determine a strategy where you filter out information according to a sector, value, need for often restoration, among other factors. The structure helps you get rid of unnecessary files and folders to free up space for the needful data.

Backup testing

In the area of technology, anything can go wrong, and in a millisecond, you can suffer the loss of massive data, without sparing the valuable pieces of information. Backup testing allows you to be a step closer in ensuring the guarantee of the correct storage and optimal security of your backups.

Backup testing involves testing the upload and download processes. The tests must be regular, so you can identify any hitches that arise further into the use of specific backup processes. For example, if you backup MySQL with ottomatik, you want to counter check whether you can download your files in one piece, without encountering unexpected errors.

The test period also helps you to analyze the downtime you are likely to experience during the processes.

Include the whole network, not just data

A good data backup plan is inclusive of the entire network system, so you do not experience an unexpected loss of internet connectivity that will render your business crippled upon a disaster.

Consider different solutions for your network due to susceptibility to outages and service disruptions, among them, upgrading your system to a more robust wired connection, or bridge the foreseen gap with wireless WAN that will quickly deploy when the need arises.

Onsite backup strategies

Onsite backup is the most commonly practiced technique among businesses. It involves storing files and folders within the office space. Ideally, it can still employ different backup methods, for example, cloud services on your devices, tapes, hard drives, CDs or tapes.

For your onsite backup, you must be very specific with the organization and structure, so you do not have to spend ages sorting through one tape to another in a bid to retrieve a particular file or document.

Offsite backup strategies

While backup methods should provide you with a boost of confidence in the fact that your data is secure, but you cannot simply rely on one approach 100%. An offsite backup strategy allows you to have a plan B, should things go south in your onsite reserves.

Determine a location deliberately further from the physical location of your business where you can safeguard some highly sensitive and irreplaceable information.

Train and involve specific personnel

Data backup is a hefty process that you cannot accomplish on your own. Since many people in your workplace are directly involved in data generation, it is necessary to include parties in the backup and retrieval processes.

Ideally, the people you involve must have a direct link to the information in question. Allocate different responsibilities to staff, restricting access to more sensitive data. Further, train your whole team on basic backup techniques like when to shut off devices, and why not to drop drives, among others.

Data backup is an essential operation as other functions in a business, and therefore should be accorded as much seriousness and attention as possible. The backup strategies as mentioned earlier should set you on course to rightfully manage your reserves.