The laws of the universe dictate that your laptop will only crash at the precise moment when you’ve finished a document you’ve worked on for weeks but only have saved to your desktop. Most of us have felt this panic and know that pretty much any kind of data we generate is too important to lose.
This is why the value of backups cannot be overstated. Data loss is an age-old problem, but with natural disasters, ransomware, and other cyberattacks dramatically increasing in frequency and severity, failing to prepare is riskier than ever. During a data loss crisis, having a comprehensive IT backup plan will make an otherwise devastating situation a non-issue.
Let’s dig into five of the best practices for backup and recovery strategies.
Best Practices for Backing Up Data
Your ideal approach will depend on your risk tolerance, the financial value of your data, and the details of your data infrastructure. But, regardless of the details of your environment, start by asking yourself, “what would it cost to lose this data?” These are the best practices to support a secure, efficient, and effective server backup strategy.
1. Cloud Servers
If your server exists in the cloud, you need to ensure that it gets backed up as you would with a privately managed server. Even though your data might not be stored at your physical location, you still need to make sure it’s backed up and secured by your cloud provider or IT team or managed service provider.
2. Recover Data Without Adding Downtime
In the event you’ll have to recover data from your backups, you’ll want to have to deal with as little downtime as possible. By implementing the right solution, you can make sure that your IT team is able address the most critical requests first. Afterwards, employees can continue to work while IT moves forward with the rest of the process.
3. Encrypt All Backups
Make sure your data security policies extend to the information after it’s backed up. Encrypt your backups. This goes double for industries like healthcare and finance that have to abide by compliance regulations. By encrypting your backups, you’re ensuring that no unauthorized users can make any changes to the data you’ve stored. You’ll also want to make sure that the backups are physical security in the facility housing your backup servers.
4. Consistently Monitor Backups
While set-it-and-forget-it backups are a nice idea, you need to check in to ensure that everything’s running smoothly. Some things to check for are if your backups are running at the right times and at the right frequency. You should also keep an eye on the available disk space to avoid any problems from sneaking up on you in the future.
5. Use Multiple Types of Backups
Make sure you’re protected from all angles by backing up data to multiple sources and media. A comprehensive backup strategy includes maintaining at least three copies of your data. In a server environment, these are:
Your production server
A primary backup to a physically separate but local device—these backups are readily available and can be restored quickly in the event the production server is no longer available.
A secondary backup to an offsite location, ideally in another city, state, or even continent to account for widespread, regional infrastructure damage (many such services can automatically mirror data among server farms in different regions, creating a fourth copy).
Your Partner in IT Backup
When it comes to developing an IT backup plan, Kinetix is proud to be a trusted partner with expertise in startup businesses. We take the nuances of your unique operation and translate them into security measures that help keep your data safe, even as your business grows. To learn more about improving your backup strategy, reach out to us today!
