Choose the wrong approach to backing up your data and you could seriously damage your business: you could even end up in gaol! This is a true story, but has been suitably anonymised. It serves to demonstrate the importance of choosing your back up strategy carefully. Background The story involves a very large privately owned…
It’s pointless storing all that data on your backup tapes if you can’t restore them later. Many organisations continue to store their backup data on magnetic tape. This is mainly because of volume versus cost and/or portability issues: the ability to transport tapes off-site for safe keeping. In any complex electro-mechnical environment it is usually…
Archives exist to hold the long term memory of an organisation. They need to be managed properly and in accordance with defined processes. There seems to be a lot of confusion about the term Archiving, particularly in the digital world, where it gets confused with Backup. I hope this post will clarify matters. Archived Records…
Backup systems are not the right place to store data for long periods of time There is a lot of confusion in the business community when it comes to protecting data. The problem is that few businesses understand the difference between short term backups and long term archives. This confusion has arisen because backup has…
Data Protection is a topic that needs to be taken seriously by all businesses Do you, or one of your subcontractors, hold personal data about your customers? Then this piece of news should be of interest to you. Last month, The Isle of Anglesey County Council (Cyngor Sir Ynys Mons) was rapped over the…
It is important that you Manage your archived data actively so you can use it at a later date An interesting article in the Northern Colorado Business Report, which itself refers to an article in the magazine Rolling Stone, makes a very good case for why it is important to manage archived data as much…
The Universe is out to destroy your data. Make sure your shields are up! In this post I hope to demonstrate the importance of thinking carefully about how you do your backups rather than just installing some software and doing them. I also hope to help you understand why archives need to be treated differently…
Implementing a bare metal backup system as part of your Disaster Recovery Planning can reduce your downtime by a day and half when you suffer a server failure. Summary Restoring a failed server is faster if you have implemented a backup system that allows you to restore directly from a recovery CD. A simple calculation…
Archive old data and tidy up your filesystem so that your backups run faster A belated Happy New Year. Here is an equally belated Monday Tip to start the new year off. One of the consequences of living a digital life is the accumulation of heaps of digital data. Now, whilst disk space is now…
Care for your business data as if it were your treasured family memories Loss of your business information could be as painful as losing all those digital photos and videos you have of your children and family. Make sure they are safely backed up or archived. Do you take as much care over the protection…
