Backups? Who Needs Backups?
I have a confession to make. I’m kind of a hypocrite. I’ve been writing this newsletter for over a year now and blogging about data center services, colocation and data backups and I can’t even back up my own data. That’s not to say that SolutionPro doesn’t back up its data. SolutionPro safeguards all its data on several different levels. This isn’t about SolutionPro, it’s about me- the author of this article- Me, a SolutionPro employee. The person who creates all the newsletter and blog content, saves it on a usb drive and thought he was adequately backing up all his files. Until…..my laptop hard drive crashed. That’s right- it wasn’t even the USB drive that crashed.
During the recovery process I learned that I was woefully remiss in my duties to protect my data. Not from lack of desire but from a lack of knowledge of just what a backup should be. I had configured a backup routine for my USB drive and local laptop files. The problem is that the backup routine didn’t run often enough and I had unknowingly excluded some files.
I was lucky. I didn’t lose any work files but I did lose about 30 days of Quicken data and had to reconstruct that manually. This cost me about 2 hours of my time. My usb drive did not crash but it is not immune. It’s about 6 years old and I’m surprised it has lasted this long. It gets backed up daily.
Now I can say that I’m truly practicing what I’ve been preaching because I’m on the SolutionPro AhSay backup server. All my files are backed up regularly and they are completely recoverable.
What lessons did I learn?
1. Always Always Always- Back up your files OFF-Site to a commercial backup service. This greatly increases your chances of a successful recovery. Commercial backup services run industrial-grade storage networks that have multiple levels of redundancy built into them that the average user wouldn’t even want to try to provide at home- It just wouldn’t make sense to do that.
2. Schedule your backups to run automatically and Daily – If you are using SolutionPro backup services, ask us about making a recommendation here- we’d be glad to help.
3. Many software applications contain data files AND backup files. Don’t just backup the backup files. Backup the working data files too. One example is Intuit’s Quicken. Quicken generates a backup file from its working file. The backup file isn’t always backed up daily. If you back up both the backup and the working files, you have access to the latest data and also increase your odds of a successful recovery in the event of data corruption.
4. Don’t Try to Save a Buck Here. Backup services, whether you purchase them from SolutionPro or somewhere else are too affordable not to have. If you are not backing up your data you are waiting for a disaster.
What If Scenarios:
My data needs are insignificant compared to (Insert your company’s name here). My revenue stream is not dependent on having my Quicken data accessible. Lucky for me, my usb drive did not crash or I could have lost the work I completed while on the road.
What if you own a law firm with a team of staff attorneys and legal assistants….
What’s a week’s worth of outstanding billable hours worth?
What’s a weeks worth of your companies internal notes and briefs worth?
What if you are an IT manager in an accounting firm…..
What’s a weeks worth of data worth to you during tax season?
How much time do you have allotted to recovering data during tax season?
Here’s the full-blown rant for those who might be interested……
