Date: November 30, 2004
Subject: Protecting Your Data

     2/ What would happen to your data if your computer stopped working?

     3/ How much money would you lose if you were unable to access critical data?

My point in asking you these questions is to emphasize how important the data on  your computers is to the survival of your organization. Many readers of these bulletins have a data backup system in place but for those of you who do not I would like to ask a fourth question:

     4/ What is keeping your data from being completely and irretrievably lost?

Cost of backup vs. cost of data loss - What is often overlooked when computers are purchased and maintained is that the value of the data on a computer system will eventually exceed the cost of the system itself. While great pains may be taken to obtain the most reliable system with the finest warranty quite often a much smaller amount is allocated to the proper backup of the data that will be stored on that system.

Two principal arguments show that the cost of an adequate backup program is much smaller overall than the value of the data being protected:

     1/ Creating and maintaining corporate data requires a significant investment of time and labour, a similar investment of time and labour would be required to recreate this data should it become inaccessible or lost.

     2/ Your data also has a great deal of internal value in terms of cash flow, client and contact information, development plans, etc. Imagine the cost that would result in the event that billing information or contact information for vital clients is not available.

Ten Tips to an Effective Backup Procedure -  I would like to list for you ten tips that will help you to establish and maintain an effective backup procedure:

     1/ Decide what to backup - Depending on your circumstances it may not be necessary to backup all data and software on your system. Systems such as network servers should have a complete backup on a regular basis. Systems such as workstations may only need to backup various user modified files on an occasional basis. An understanding of the difficulty involved in recreating any lost data will be the most useful guide in determining the amount of data to backup.

     2/ Decide when to backup - Make a schedule and stick to it. This schedule will be largely determined by the frequency at which your data changes but in general a daily backup of regularly modified data and a weekly backup of all data will be adequate.

     3/ Maintain multiple backup sets - Have at least two sets of backup media and rotate them on a regular basis. For many of our clients we recommend that they use a monthly rotation of backup media for daily backups operating in parallel with a semi-annual rotation of backup media for weekly backups, as well as an annual (or longer) rotation of backup media for monthly backups. For other clients we recommend that they use two sets of backup media that are rotated every other week. In either case there is the advantage of added security as well as the reassurance that existing backup sets will not be overwritten by new backup sets and causing both backup sets to be destroyed if something goes wrong.

     4/ Backup before updating - Prior to any major system upgrade, such as the installation of a Service Pack or Security Update, it is recommended that you perform a full backup of the system being updated. Some will go so far as to recommend a backup before installing any software but in most cases this is excessive. The reason for this is that if the installation goes wrong or the power fails at a critical moment you will at least be able to restore your system and get back to work in a relatively short period of time.

     5/ Use overlapping backups - In a networked environment it is possible to backup to a remote hard drive as well as to the regular backup device and to use a different backup method in either case. The advantage of this practice is that if it becomes impossible to restore from one backup it may be possible to restore for the alternative backup.

     6/ Delegate responsibility - Assign the responsibility for the backup to one individual in your organization. Ensure that they know to check that the backup has run as expected and to switch backup media as necessary. It would also be advisable to designate someone who would be able to cover the primary individual during vacation and sick time.

     7/ Maintain a log - Use a log to monitor your usage of backup media. This log should be used to determine when to overwrite backup media as well as showing which media should be used next. You can also use this log to note any errors with the backup for future analysis.

     8/ Save a backup offsite - Storing your backup data in the same facility as the original data may be convenient when individual files need to be restored but can be disastrous in the event of the destruction of that facility. It is a good practice to rotate at least one relatively recent backup to an offsite location so that data may be protected from most hazards.

     9/ Read the reports - Most backup programs create a report of what has been included in the backup, what has not and what errors may have occurred during the backup. On a regular basis examine these reports to confirm that the backup is running as expected. In doing this you might also catch minor problems before they become more serious.

   10/ Test your backup - It is not good enough merely to view the status reports of whatever backup system you choose as these reports only inform you that data has been processed but do not test if the data can be restored. At the very least select a single file out of your backup and attempt to restore it in order to confirm that data may also be retrieved. For further assurance you should also test your backup on a quarterly basis.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about this or any other issue.

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