MicroScope

July 2, 2007

by Kevin Moreau

Acronis To SMBs: Backup Is Only Half the Data Protection Story; Data Recovery Is the Key

Many companies place too much importance on date back-up and too little emphasis on data retrieval and recovery strategies.

When resellers install a new network they should help their customers strike a sensible balance so that, should disaster strike, they can retrieve lost data in the shortest possible time and restore their business operations with minimal loss to their finances and reputation.

Here are a few suggestions that could help form the basis of this advice:

• Make sure your data recovery strategy allows you to restore data, applications and operating systems to different types of hardware.
• Draw up a list of all networked devices and assign a level of critically to each one.
• Back up to disk, not tape; it's much more reliable and resilient.
• Make two copies of all your backup media - and keep one of them offsite at all times.
• Consider migration to a virtual environment so there are fewer servers to manage.
• Test back-up and recovery strategies each time a new piece of equipment or software is installed.
• Don't let best practice get overshadowed by disasters. Make sure you get your antivirus software back up and running.
• Empower mobile employees to recover data by installing hidden partitions on laptops.