In today’s world computers are a necessity.  They are evident in many aspects of our everyday life, from handling spreadsheets and databases to word processing and worldwide communication.   Your data is valuable and for many it is your company’s life’s blood.   What would happen if your computer network or the data it holds were suddenly unavailable to you tomorrow?  How much would it cost you in profit and would your company even be able to survive in such a scenario. 

     There are a number of ways in which your data may be lost whether it is due to a virus, software bug, human    error, natural disasters or hardware failure.  The last, hardware failure, is guaranteed to happen.
All computers will fail due to the nature of the components that make up a modern computer system.  Hard Drives, CPU’s, Memory, Power Supplies, Motherboards… eventually all of these will fail given time. 
It’s not a question of “if” but “when”.  
The largest threat that you will face when this happens is the possibility of data loss or corruption.
That or your company faces a scenario that involves flood, fire, or other disaster that destroys the entire computer.  Is your company prepared?  Do you have a disaster recovery plan?  Have you tested it?

     If you answered “no” to the above questions, you should implement a plan immediately that includes backing up of all the critical data on your hard drives.  Ultimately these backups should be kept off-site in a safe location, in case anything should happen to the main building where the original data is located.  Having backups available will not only make restoring your operations go more quickly, it will do so in a way in which you will experience less frustration and monetary loss.

     There are multiple options available to you with regards to both the method and type of backups that you may, or hopefully already, employ.  We won’t be able to cover all of these in this article. The most common options available are tape drives and libraries.  Another option is to use Network Area Storage (NAS), Storage Area Networks (SAN), or remote backups over the internet using such services as LiveVault or eVault.  At the very least you should create a full backup once per week, preferably on Friday afternoon, and then daily incremental backups in between.

     As mentioned before, it’s a matter of time before you encounter a system failure and will need to rely upon your backup system.  Therefore it’s not enough to just have backups.  Your backup solution needs to be used on a regular basis to be effective.  You need to be diligent in checking that these backups are taking place and are reliable.  From time to time try restoring the files to a temporary directory to ensure that everything is readable.  If you don’t have a plan in place, consult with a systems administrator and draw up plans for you company as soon as possible.  Your company’s future will rely upon what you set in place today.

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