| | >> How do we backup our data? CLEAR LINK Networks operates approximately 35 servers at our company-owned datacenter (located at our corporate headquarters in Downtown West Palm Beach, FL).
Each server's data is replicated (mirrored) in real-time to redundant servers geographically seperated. Why? If we have a catastrophic server failure, we can simply use the mirrored data - it is accurate and up-to-date, eliminating ALL downtime.
In addition to real-time replication, a "snap-shot" of all the data on each server is taken every hour and replicated off-site. Why? If someone accidentially over-writes a file, or a server crashes and needs to be fully restored, we can restore it back to full operation from <60 minutes before it crashed.
Finally, any of our servers which house critical data/information are encrypted and backed-up nightly through and stored off-site at a third-party datacenter (not inside of our logical/physical network topology).Why? If our network/physioal security were to be compromised at each site we replicate to (highly unlikely) and there was deliberate, wide-spread corruption of real-time backup data, we would be able to decrypt and restore vital systems to a working state with data <24 hours old.
| | If you are a new computer user or seasoned business professional, you should learn about the importance and need of protecting important documents/data and ensuring that it CAN be recovered if something ever happens. Without a backup plan, you expose yourself and/or your company to lose data at anytime due to a virus, power surge/failure, hardware failure or disaster (such as a hurricane, fire or theft of equipment). Computers are becoming more reliable; this creates a false sense of security - we begin to think all of our data is safe and secure and will never go away - THIS IS NOT TRUE. Every computer will eventually crash at some point in time. Implementing the simplest backup solution can avoid losing hundreds of irreplaceable photos, financial data and important business documents. - My Documents - Microsoft Windows creates a "common storage place" for photos, documents and user-created files to be stored (including Word, Excel, Powerpoint files) - this should be a good place to look for important files to backup.
- Outlook Backup - Microsoft Outlook hides a file called a .PST pretty well - making sure this file is backed up will make sure that you can retreive your historical sent/received email, calendar appointments, tasks, etc).
- Program-specific data - Every computer program is different and may store important data (that should be backed up) in folders not easily found by novice/intermediate computer users. A great example is Quickbooks; Older versions of this popular accounting program store financial and transactional data in a place not easy to backup.
- Registry Backup - Windows registry is like the "instruction manual" for telling your computer where to find information about how to run programs. The registry is group of files you'll most likely never directly-modify, however not backing this up can [ultimately] cause you to have to re-load your entire Windows Operating system (a timeconsuming and costly effort).
- DO NOT WAIT - Too often, users get complacent and "don't believe it'll ever happen to them" - Back up your data today, in fact, do it right now!
- Back up your data EVERY DAY - Manual backups (initiated by a human) are not good enough - use an automated software that will do it's job every day, (and will never forget or call in sick). TIP: Find a software that will alert you if there are problems with the backup (ex: Disk full, Error on the Tape, Backup Failed, etc).
- If you use an on-line backup service, realize that file transfers over the internet on typical residential/business internet connections take a while (some initial backups can take days and/or weeks if running 24x7). Plan for the worst case scenario now! Starting an on-line backup when a hurricane is heading towards you will not cut-it.
- Keep several copies of the same backup - Rotate USB disks/External hard drives in a rotation to ensure that if your backup device fails, you don't find out when you're trying to do a restore.
CLEAR LINK Networks is a full service IT consulting firm with two South Florida offices to serve residential and business customers. Our staff is fully trained on the latest backup technologies and methodologies to protect the data of smallest residential user to Fortune 500 corporations with hundreds of servers. Our backup solutions are AFFORDABLE for every single person (starting around $50/year). |
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