President John F. Kennedy once said about planning that, "The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining."
Businesses small and large can take a cue from that line in regards to their data backup recovery plans. For example, if many businesses affected by the Hurricane Katrina disaster last year had planned a remote data backup recovery strategy well beforehand, they might still be in business or well back on track.
To take Kennedy's quote one step further, businesses need to "repair the roof" with the right materials, not unreliable tools that do not make sense logistically or financially.
A backup service provider offers a fully managed offsite backup service that allows you to store a copy of your backup locally on your LAN for added efficiency. This type of managed backup is the answer to the needs of all businesses that require fast and effective restores of data when the sun is not shining.
You may ask: Why not use tapes? After all, they've been around about as long as data backup.
Studies show that tape-based recovery methods are not cost-effective and are prone to complications or outright failure. Remote data backup recovery services, on the other hand, have proven to be faster, more cost worthy, secure, flexible and reliable
Another reason for not using tape-backup is the probability for human error in the rotation and transportation of the tapes.
Consider the following horror story involving a Connecticut bank that occurred in January.
A tape containing personal data about 90,000 customers of People's Bank in Bridgeport, Conn., was lost in transit. The tape contained information such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers and checking account numbers. It was bound for a credit reporting bureau in Pennsylvania via the United Parcel Service. Such an event can have devastating consequences for not only the company, but for all of the innocent customers whose information was lost.
As another example, The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, based in San Diego, reports that the loss of computer data backup tapes by Bank of America in 2005 affected 1.2 million customers.
Service providers offer a multi-faceted secure data protection solution. Their remote data backup recovery service which helps prevent risks of loss from theft, misplacement, hardware failure, malicious attacks or human error. Through a remote data backup recovery provider, the data is automatically compressed, encrypted and transmitted to a highly secure data center.
The total cost of ownership (TCO) of tapes vs. a remote data backup recovery service provider is another factor that can be very telling for business of all sizes.
Using a large enterprise model, overall tape backup costs are affected by hardware, software, support, staffing, media, and shelved media at the headquarters. A second-site location, which would house the data tapes, requires hardware, software, support, staffing and communications, as well. All of these factors equate to a very large TCO for a company trying to implement a tape backup solution.
The remote backup service provider eliminates the need for media and shelved media, and greatly reduces staffing costs. No longer does a business have to hire personnel (typically non-Information Technology people) to maintain and operate the media and transport the tapes.
These cutbacks can save businesses up to 70 percent of its costs, according to some market studies, and eliminate the probability of human error.
Another consideration is longevity of tape backup. Tapes have a definite limited lifespan, whereas a remote data backup recovery provider lasts as long as you want. A tape itself has an average cost of $50, and depending on its frequency of use, it can have a lifespan anywhere from three months to three years. And don't forget the tape drive must be replaced after extended use. That's another $5,000 or so for a non-permanent backup solution.
Time is money, and the timeliness of the remote data backup recovery service provides will save any business money. The need to wait for tapes stored off-site, or even for tapes to be retrieved and be manageable on-site, will be eliminated.
By using a remote data backup recovery provider, businesses will be afforded considerable recovery advantages such as simultaneous multiple operations like reads and writes, faster access and granular recovery options instead of scanning through tapes.
This leads to another issue which businesses must again plan for when the sun is shining. In the case of databases with high availability - meaning any number of employees can access them - it is incumbent of any business to plan for the possibility of the data becoming corrupted because of human error or, unfortunately, a potentially disgruntled employee.
If the database must be restored from an earlier day or two, it will be faster and more efficient using a remote data backup recovery provider rather than the slower process of tape retrieval.
Some of the other tangible benefits provided by a secure automated data backup recovery plan include the availability of experts who monitor the sophisticated software, technology that supports many operating systems and platforms, payment based on usage (not a set fee), and disaster recovery assistance.
In summary, the time is definitely when the sun is shining on any business - large or small - to have a sound backup and recovery plan. For almost any business, that time is right now. If the sun is not shining, it is best to have the umbrella of remote data backup service provider to return to normal business operations. Using tapes as a recovery plan will make it more difficult and expensive for any business to get through a rainy day.
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Mike Colesante is a writer at Terian Solutions and can be reached at 713-482-6900. For more information about Terian Solutionsรขโ�ฌโ�ข Secure Backup fully automated remote data protection service call 713-482-6900 or visit http://www.terian.com |
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