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Oct 17 2007

Backup Strategy

Posted by: admin in Hints and Howto

About ten years ago, I was implementing document imaging systems at a previous job.  I had just finished an install of our product and was giving the client an update on the project when a Vice President inquired about the data backups.  I informed him that the data was being backed up every night and explained the tape rotation I had documented.  He thanked me and then politely asked me “How do I know that we can get the data back?”  I referred to my documentation and showed him the verification step with a process for performing a restore.  He asked me if I had ever had to perform a restore on the system.  I knew where he was going and had to admit that I had not.  I had to prove that the strategy I was implementing was going to work.   I realized the best time to test  data recovery is when there is no data to recover. 

What is meant by this is that the best time to validate the disaster recovery process is to perform the exercise while you have time and no data to lose.  If you are implementing a system, (and have no test environment) test and document your backup strategy by rebuilding the system.  This provides not only a way to document the process, but also allows time estimates and training on the process.  Since no data is on the system there is limited exposure if the process fails.  I always hope that the disaster recovery process is never used, but it is the one process I want to make sure that I know because it is likely the most important one you will have.    

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 11:17 am and is filed under Hints and Howto. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Backup Strategy”

  1. Best Data Recovery says:
    March 21st, 2009 at 10:30 pm

    Disasters are common in the world today, from nature to car wrecks. In the computer industry, disasters aren’t any different. They can come in the form of an office fire, computer crashes, hard drive failure, missing IT documents, stolen hardware, and many other forms. Even though disasters can occur at any time, recovery planning doesn’t cross the mind of business owners or individuals. Most just carry out their normal day to day routines, never aware of what could result from a disaster. If you are prepared for a disaster or hard drive failure, then your business will be able to deal with anything that happens. The first step in planning and preparing for disaster is to analyze your business or operations. Something else you’ll need to do is identify the risks of possible disaster. In the event of disaster, you should always have a dedicated team that will work on fixing any problems. Then, if disaster should strike, your team should be well enough prepared to take care of anything that comes your way.

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