09 March 2011
Automated backup has a number of advantages over its manual counterpart but is not in any way perfect or fail proof. Consider the following facts.
Tapes are not fail-proof. It is a rather frustrating fact that many expensive tape backups fail just when the need for them arises. The tape media may simply have undergone normal wear-and-tear or they may have become dirty and badly needed cleaning. A case in point is how the tape backups of Alaska’s Department of Revenue became unreadable, endangering the $38-million oil account and the 800,000 electronic images therein. It had to be rebuilt by 75 employees and a number of data recovery specialists.
Aside from tape media being prone to wear and tear, maintenance of them is tedious and labour intensive.
Tape Maintenance is Tedious
Aside from tape media being prone to wear and tear, maintenance of them is tedious and labour intensive. Many employees are needed to rotate the tapes at a schedule. Insertion of the wrong day’s tape and switching of the recovery sets can render the backup system worthless. Manpower is required to monitor and track the schedule of backup.
Data May be Transferred
Databases, email accounts and other data may be transferred across many departments in one institution (example: from the Public Relations Department to the Marketing Department). If the backup operations are not updated to keep up with this location change, critical data may be misplaced. A simple cut and paste of an important folder can result in it not being backed up, always check with your network or systems administrators.
Backups Should be Tested
Power outages, thunderstorms, media getting dirty, media getting filled up or systems freezing would derail backups. As such, backups should be routinely tested by restoring a few selected files on a regular basis.
Backups Should Have Duplicates
Maintaining many backup sets gives the company several options for recovering data which may have been accidentally deleted, a usual occurrence in a company with many users. Think belt and braces when planning your back up strategy.
Databases and Exchange Servers Require Complex Backups
Some applications store vital information within many database files (such as SQL or Oracle databases) and the complex links between those files also have to be backed up. E-mail exchange servers are just as complex.
Data Should be Guarded
There are stories abound about data being stolen or lost and this is made so much easier with the use of very portable back up tapes and drives which can simply be lifted and removed from site. Unsecured back up devices offer competitors, hackers or other unscrupulous people an up to date, carbon copy of your entire company data, so keep them in a secure, locked (ideally fireproof) safe.
