There’s a lot more to backing up your data than simply putting it in the cloud. We aren’t talking about Dropbox here, or Google Drive. We’re talking about a real strategy that includes backing up all of your data to a cloud server, and using a real solution to make sure it’s safe, secure, and encrypted. This means that your company can choose from a variety of different back-up strategies and choose one that’s best for your company. (If you choose to work with Echopath, we’ll help advise on what you need.)
That said: it’s important to not look over the other aspects of backup past the initial backup stage. There’s also recovery, and business continuity (or disaster recovery). It’s great to have your important data backed up, but if it’s difficult to recover or access during a disaster, then your backed up data isn’t doing as much good as it could.
There are countless ways you can back up your data. Incremental, differential, full system, continuous…the list goes on. Each strategy has advantages to specific businesses. If you have files that are being constantly updated, for example, a continuous plan—which monitors changes and backs them up as they’re being changed—makes a lot of sense. If you have a lot of files that don’t change all that often, then differential—which only backs up data that has been changed since the last backup—might work for you. In any case, you’ll want a solution that can do what you need it to do, and do it securely. Any solution you implement should have a specific level of security associated with it, and encryption at multiple levels.
Minor things happen sometimes. Someone hits “delete” accidentally on their computer, a file gets flushed, or something—anything—happens to a file and it gets damaged somehow. It doesn’t matter what happens: you need that file back. Your backup solution needs to function in a way that you can find and restore that file quickly and seamlessly. Our solution, for example, keeps a copy local, so that when you need it “now,” you can get it “now.”
Some businesses think of it as an insurance policy—something you hope you never have to use. A disaster recovery plan is a necessity if you plan to get the business back up and running as quickly as possible after a disaster. Your backup solution should include some form of disaster recovery in the off chance that your building disappears overnight. For example, our solution implements both local and remote Virtual Data Recovery that allows you to get your data back to you faster. At the same time, data is constantly verified to ensure it’s healthy. If it’s not, it gets fixed. The last thing you want to struggle with when you experience a disaster is getting your data back.