Backups are not necessarily a glamorous function but they are definitely needed – without a good backup, your company will be lost if a failure, data breach, or other issue occurs. Companies need backups, and they need them to work. A blank backup is useless, after all!
The first step to generating a good backup system is to make sure you have all of the pertinent information about what you are backing up and why. Make this a team effort – different people will have varying perspectives on what data is important enough to be backed up, so this should be taken into consideration. Map out your systems carefully and take your time.
Once you know what you are backing up, prioritize it. Some of your data is likely less important than other systems. For instance, most companies will want – and need – their email system to be up and running at all times. By establishing what recovery times are acceptable for what features, you will be able to keep your business functioning in the event of a problem requiring backup.
A lot of companies have relied on file-level backup, which enables the backup server to retrieve files from certain specified directories. In this case, recovery time can be prolonged as the operating system and applications have to be reinstalled before actual data recovery can start. The more data that has to be recovered, the longer it will take, losing you time and money.
Incremental backup can be a much better choice for lots of companies. The entire environment, from operating system to files and applications, is backed up, so in the event of a crash, the restore will bring your data back to what it was before the problem took place, making for a much quicker recovery time.
Incremental backup is one of the best things you can do to keep your company functioning well, so as you are setting up your backup system, keep it in mind as a viable option for handling data.