Today, the primary method to protect servers from data loss is to backup data to inexpensive removable media such as data tape cartridges, removable hard drives and CD-ROMs. Disaster recovery plans consist primarily of manually transporting the removable media to an offsite storage facility. However, a tape-based backup model can be unreliable and data restoration speed slow.

Since the data protection model used by most companies is optimized for backup, not recovery, the recovery of individual application objects is often expensive, time consuming and unreliable. Often, recovery operations require involved manual intervention by IT personnel. As a result, organizations are challenged to ensure adequate data protection capabilities.

Exploding Data Growth:
Increasingly, businesses must store massive amounts of digital information. This data growth is driven by multiple applications and uses. According to the University of California Berkeley, new stored information for businesses grew about 30% per year between 1999 and 2002. Propelled by the relentless digitization of business documents and processes, data growth has been, and continues to be, exponential.

Demand for Data Protection:
Protecting digital information is mission-critical for competitive organizations. Any inability to access e-mail, corporate file shares, or other applications results in lost productivity, impacting the bottom line. Disaster recovery and data protection startegies are now an absolute necessity. This increased emphasis on security has raised the bar for data protection initiatives.

New Trends:
The current trend is moving away from older tape-based technologies and towards external disk drives. In addition, the Internet has provided the opportunity for offsite backups. In this model, software pushes data out of the office entirely, storing it securely in a remote data center. This ensures that data backup is located in a separate physical location from the main site in the event of disaster.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Tip #1

Restore Backup Tapes

I recommend: Verify that backup tapes for the past two weeks can be restored to a test server and that mission-critical and organization-critical data is valid. For more information visit http://www.evolvetech.com/mambo/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&Itemid=70&p=24

Tip #2

Review Procedures for Natural Disasters

I recommend: Review procedures for natural disasters that may occur locally including fire, flood, earthquake, lightning strikes or other potential causes of complete data loss. For more Information visit http://www.alexandriasbdc.org/busrecovery.asp

Tip #3

Minimize Data Loss

I recommend: Verify that core application data (e.g. e-mail, calendaring and database) can be restored. Review back up practices and confirm that data loss windows are appropriate. For example, transaction logs backed up during the day can be appended to the last full back up to minimize daily data loss. For more information visit http://free-backup.info/the-importance-of-testing-backup-software.html

Tip #4

Review Policies

I recommend: Review policies for off-site storage of backup media including security access. For more information visit http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/technology/security/are_you_still_not_backing_up_your_data.mspx