Data Protection Solutions: Six Questions to Ask

 

Company management is under growing pressure from government regulation and the business environment to make sure the company's operation is not jeopardized by a data loss. You have been given the responsibility of determining what type of data protection solution would be appropriate for the company. Where do you start? What should you look for when evaluating data protection plans? Read this article to find out.

Many network administrators are considering an all-in-one data protection solution because it can greatly simplify data protection process. These solutions also tend to be less expensive than buying each component separately, and they provide a single point of contact for all their support needs.

In a recent survey it was found that over half of the respondents indicated that they would prefer to rely on a single vendor for their data protection solutions whenever possible.

An all-in-one Data Protection solution for the purposes of this article includes the hardware components and necessary backup software to backup an organization's critical data, maintain the backup data both on-site and at secure off-site locations, monitor the system 24X7, provide server virtualization, and data restoration so the data network can be up and running as soon as possible.

There are a few things to consider before making a decision about going with a particular solution.

What type of hardware is being used?
A network attached storage (NAS) server with internal storage capacity is attached to the network and the server hard drive is mirrored in the NAS storage.

What software is included?
There is client software loaded on the server for the backup process. The resident NAS software is used for compression, encryption, bare-metal recovery, and continuous data protection.

Is the solution secure?
Most solutions offer encryption. Encryption is a critical component in backup data protection. The solution should support AES-level encryption. The backup data should be encrypted on site and while in transit to the off-site location and at the hosted site.

Can the solution scale to data storage demands?
The data protection solution should be capable of running efficiently and scale without a lot of specialized hardware

Is offsite backup included in the solution?
Most companies today need not only onsite backup, but they also need the capability to have a redundant copy of their backup data stored off-site so the data can be recovered in the event their site was unusable. Both on-site storage and remote storage should be part of the solution.

How often is the data backed up?
The frequency of the data backup determines how much data will be lost. If the data is only backed up once a day then 24 hours of data will be lost. Most businesses could not accept that kind of loss. They require a shorter recovery point. Most solutions provide backups take place every 15 minutes. The best practice is to determine an acceptable recovery point and pick a solution that meets that objective.

There are a lot of all-in-one data protection solutions. Some companies prefer to purchase deploy, and maintain the solution themselves. The in-house option also requires the labor and expertise to administer the system. Some solution providers bundle the data protection equipment and software into a bundle that also includes the labor to monitor the system 24X7 as well as the labor to maintain and respond to notifications and outages. The system should be flexible enough to scale as needs change and provide a one-point-of contact when there is a need for service.

Are You Absolutely Sure Your Critical Data Is Secure?

 Today's business environment is pressing business owners and managers to reexamine the threats that could cause business interruption.

Organizations of all sizes are generating and depending on growing amounts of data, and the network administrators find themselves caught between providing adequate performance and capacity when access is needed and taking security measures to ensure the data is protected in a timely manner.

Many risks are unavoidable, but companies operating without a business continuity plan to protect your critical data are extremely vulnerable to unexpected downtime and data loss.

Studies show that 93% of businesses that lost their computer network for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster, and 50% of businesses that found themselves without a way to restore or reconstruct their data for this same time period, filed for bankruptcy immediately.

But even if a company doesn't experience this level of catastrophe, it can still end up losing a considerable amount of productive work and man hours due to a system crash, virus, power outage, or even human error. Not to mention the money it will take to restore the data system.

All businesses face a certain degree of risk, but savvy business owners and managers are looking to eliminate unnecessary risks as well as uncertainty. Business continuity solutions provide business owners and managers with a safety net that enables their organizations to continue to operate. Regardless of the cause of the business interruption, a business continuity plan provides businesses with the assurance that they need to stay competitive in today's markets.

The data backup method for most companies has been to backup vital information on a data tape and let an employee such as an IT manager take it home for safe keeping. It's a simple and cheap plan. But you get exactly what you pay for.

The problems with tape backup are well known; companies have been dealing with them for decades.

Tape backup requires a significant investment. Tape hardware and backup software are expensive, as is the labor required to set up and maintain them.

Tape is physically delicate and easily compromised by environmental factors such as heat, humidity and magnetic interference, and tape cartridges must be replaced every 6 to 12 months.

Tape sensitivity contributes to high failure rates; with analysts estimating that 40 percent of tape restores fail.

Tapes are subject to loss or theft, and may be in the possession of an employee or vendor unable to reach a recovery site.

Tape is seldom encrypted, compounding the destructive impact of tape theft. Very few people encrypt backup tapes

The backup process is inconvenient. Tape backup can involve downtime, known as 'backup windows', since the system being backed up cannot be used during the process

The backup and restore process is inconsistent. The odds are high that neither the tape backup nor the restore would work at the critical moment

Tape backup is unable to achieve an acceptable recovery point objective (RPO) - the point in time to which system data can be recovered should disaster strike. Periodic tape backup guarantees hours of lost data in the event of a disaster. Suppose, for example, that a critical system fails anytime today; the most recent data that can be recovered is yesterday's data, which will be at least twelve hours old.

Traditional tape-based backup solutions have fallen behind and are no longer meeting backup/restore requirements.

Organizations have performed their backups to tape and carried a copy of these tapes off-site. However, installed disk capacity has grown faster than tape performance. There was a time when tape-based backup was widely believed to be the only feasible backup solution for small to medium businesses, but when evaluated on such criteria as total cost of ownership, scalability, data security, automation, reliability, ease of data restoration, required length of backup window, and server virtualization, it becomes obvious that alternate solutions have much to offer.