In the current times, data backup has become one of the crucial business operations. With risks like system failures, security breaches, and natural disasters it is necessary to take backup tasks seriously. A data backup and recovery plan not only achieve your data but also ensures that a sudden loss of current data and files does not affect your business.
What exactly is data backup and recovery? And how does it works?
Backing up data should be one of the top priorities in your business. But among the backup devices, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. With the following backup methods, you should consider the pros and cons of each device before making a purchase.
Data backup methods
Physical Backup Using Disks or Hard Drives:
Disk and tape drive backups are the traditional forms of data backup. Also, CDs and magnetic tape drives are inexpensive. They have the lowest per gigabyte backup cost. They are generally used for archival data storage. But they also have their drawbacks. They have a high read/write latency; thus, backup and recovery times are too large. With tape, you’re backing up your data on a physical device which increases your maintenance overheads.
Modern-day innovations like the Solid Straight drives or Hard Drives offer a faster backup and recovery process than its predecessors. They include additional benefits such as deduplication and data compression. With a cost-effective solution, physical device backup has its benefits, but the key is finding a way to do it economically and efficiently.
Hybrid cloud backup:
With a hybrid cloud backup solution, you’re backing up data on a local device and in a secure offsite data center (cloud) for redundancy. You use a Network attached storage (NAS), a dedicated device with its own IP address, to save your data locally. Using this solution, you always have a secured local copy of your data and a secured offsite backup.
The data in your machines are backed up to the local device first. You don’t have to worry about its replication to the cloud affecting the performance of machines or your Internet connection. You can also use automated tools to back up from the local device to a secure offsite data center after the business hours.
Direct-to-cloud backup:
The main drawback of NAS is its inability to scale beyond the limits of the local system. With a direct to the cloud backup, you send your data instantly to the cloud, expediting the need for a local device. You pay for storage provided by your cloud platform. At any moment, if you require additional storage, you can easily upgrade your subscription plans. By employing this solution in your organization, you’re essentially backing up your data in a remote data center, without the local copy in your office.
Based on your Internet speed and specifications of your machines, these backups could take much longer. Thus, introducing a risk of data loss. A Direct-to-cloud backup is best suitable for SaaS (Software as a Service) cloud data. Because you’re essentially taking a backup of data that already live in the cloud.
Data recovery methods
Recovering your Data:
Security breaches and ransomware attacks can halt down your entire operation. You may feel overwhelmed with a secured data backup in hand if a disaster occurs. But without a recovery plan, your backups are useless. There is no point in spending thousands of dollars for backup services if you cannot ensure business continuity from the point of disaster. Data Backup is only the first half of the entire process.
The following recovery methods will help you in devising a reliable data backup and recovery strategy:
From your local device:
With a backup stored in a local device like a hard drive, you can simply plug it into the main computer or server. If the server itself is damaged, you can utilize a virtual machine on your backup server. Your business applications, settings, files, and folders can all continue to run from that device on a virtual machine. This is one of the best options if you’ve already experienced a server failure, or a machine has had a security compromise. Because you are recovering from your local device, the data recovery happens quickly. But it may take more time to reconfigure settings on the virtual machine.
Recovery from the cloud backup:
If you have a backup on a cloud platform, you need to download it on your local systems in order to recover from a disaster. This involves transferring gigabytes or in some case terabytes of data over your Internet connection. A slow connection could result in hours or even days of downtime. If this is the path that you take, it’s imperative to find a solution that can recover from the cloud in a few minutes.
Recovery within the cloud:
If your local device is damaged, some providers can spin up a virtual machine for you right in the cloud. This service is also known as “disaster recovery as a service” or DRaaS. Your cloud platform will automate the recovery and with a virtual machine in place, your business will not suffer downtimes.
conclusion
In the digital era, your data is an asset which can have a huge impact if not backed up properly. Data Recovery is very crucial and can save the individual or organization from the serious loss of economy and reputation. There are trade-offs among backup devices, that’s why you should choose the solution that is best suited to your business.
Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™ services and solutions in how we can help your business.
