What Is Flat Backup and How Can It Benefit Your Data?

Backup and Recovery, data recovery, flat backup, ,
21
Dec 2017

There’s a new kid in town when it comes to data storage and it’s called flat backup, but it’s so new that not many people are aware of its benefits.

We’re all used to local backups and the popularity of cloud backups has skyrocketed over the last couple of years, but the data storage industry is now so huge that it’s constantly looking to improve and raise the bar. No form of backup, of course, will ever be perfect but the developers behind flat backup believe that they can eradicate some of the common problems associated with the current backup methods.

To help you understand exactly what flat backup is and what it can do for your organization, I’m going to shine the spotlight on this exciting development.

The Concept Behind Flat Backup

The backbone of flat backups is provided by snapshots of your data which copy the entire status of your data at any given moment. This sounds fine in principle, but how does this differ from any other form of backup? Well, with local and cloud backups, if you want to create a new backup you have to go through the process of creating a whole new backup, but a flat backup simply updates the existing backup. Changes to the data and any deletions are quickly flagged in the snapshot, so there’s no need to create a series of duplicate backups to highlight any changes.

These snapshots can then be stored and, if required, simply mounted to the application which requires data to be restored. There are no format changes required, simply a seamless transition of data. Flat backups, however, come with many more benefits which could encourage significant changes to your organization’s backup practices.

Flat Backup Benefits

The new approach of flat backups can deliver the following benefits:

  • Reduced Storage Space– The need for only one snapshot per application not only simplifies matters, but it will also lead to a dramatic reduction in storage space required for your organization. And, with this reduction in digital real estate needed, you’ll find that you start making savings as storage media can be downgraded.
  • Quicker Restores– One of the major problems with traditional backups is that restoring the data can be a time consuming affair. With flat backups, however, the recovery process can be implemented almost instantly which ensures your organization can get back to its normal operations as quickly as possible following a data disaster.
  • No Impact on Application Performance – Snapshots don’t affect application performance as dramatically as traditional backup methods, so this opens up the possibility of carrying out more flat backups throughout the day (every minute if required). This approach allows your business to archive more and more incremental changes to your data and improve the amount of data that can be recovered.

Final Thoughts

Flat backup is still in its infancy – even more so than the recent phenomenon of cloud backups – but it represents an intriguing evolution of backup methods. As with all backup methods, though, flat backup doesn’t avoid the need for multiple storage locations – if your flat backup snapshots are only stored in one location then they are at risk of being completely lost. Nonetheless, flat backups are something to consider for the future.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

Read More

The Essential Local Backup Checklist

Backup and Recovery, data recovery, Local Backups, ,
05
Dec 2017

localbackup

Local backups are fantastic for ensuring backed up data is kept close to hand, but to make sure the most crucial data is there you need a good checklist.

You see, as with all backups, preparation is essential to ensure your local backup can help keep your organization functioning in the case of a data emergency. A good checklist avoids any disasters by making sure the right data is available and ready, but with so much data where do you start?

Well, let’s get started by showing you the essential points you need on your checklist.

Checklist

  • Up to Date? Whilst it’s important to have data available which goes back months (or even years in some cases), it’s just as vital that current documents are also backed up. Therefore, pick a document at random from your ‘Recent Documents’ history and verify that this document is available in your local backup – the last thing you want in the case of a data disaster is to have all of your most pressing work missing. 
  • How Many Versions? One version of a backed up document is great, but what’s even better is to have multiple versions of the same document backed up. Changes can be made to documents used over a long period of time and it’s always useful to keep the changes recorded in case of future queries. Keeping an archive of your local backups is important as it allows you to verify any changes that have been made when, in the case of data loss, this may be incredibly difficult to trace. 
  • Is Your Data Easily Accessible? A local backup provides quick access to your data when you need it most, but this is only of use if you know you have the facility to access it. For example, if your entire network goes down, do you know that you can access it with technology not connected to your network? It’s easy for data to be protected and not work on every backup laptop/PC so make sure you regularly check your backup technology to check it can read your optical drives and run any flash drives you use for storing data. 
  • Does the Recovery Process Work? As well as regularly checking that your backup hardware works, you also want to make sure that the recovery process works. Factor in a weekly check of your recovery process to confirm that folders can be rebuilt and files accessed with no problems. Eliminating any issues that could possibly occur when restoring your data will reduce the downtime your organization faces. 
  • Have You Automated What You Can? The nature of a local backup means that you can’t necessarily automate all aspects of your backup e.g. backing up data to a DVD requires plenty of human interaction. However, not only can you set yourself plenty of automatic reminders on your computer, you can also automate backups to external hard drives which are connected to your network. 

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

Read More

Never Forget These Business IT Continuity Basics

Backup and Recovery, IT Continuity, IT Plan, ,
28
Nov 2017

businesscontinuity

Any organization worth their weight in gold will have a business IT continuity in place, but will it have taken care of all the basics that are required?

It’s crucial that your business IT continuity plan addresses these basics or you’ll discover – when it’s far too late – that it’s not possible to get your business back on track as effectively or quickly as you could have. And, often, these basics are so simple that you’ll be kicking yourself that they weren’t covered in the first place.

Now, the last thing we want is for your business to go offline for longer than necessary, so we’re going to share some simple, but effective tips to make sure your IT continuity has a strong foundation and can get you up and running as quickly as possible.

network

  • Research and Prepare: If you want your IT continuity to be implemented as smoothly as possible then it’s essential that you plan, plan and plan some more. You need to understand exactly what your IT operations are and how they rank in importance to get a better picture of how your organization uses its technology. To achieve this, you must regularly liaise with department heads to discuss their needs and then link these all together to produce a plan which ensures the business as a whole can get back online as soon as possible.

 

  • Regularly Test Your Plan: You would be surprised by just how many organizations fail to test their IT continuity plan. And the potential for disaster is greatly increased when you neglect testing your plan. You see, no IT continuity plan is perfect, so it needs regularly testing to iron out any creases and maximize its speed and efficiency. Once you know that it’s as perfect as it can be, you’ll find that you can sleep a whole lot easier.

 

  • Responsibility Needs Identifying: In the case of an IT disaster, it’s common for panic to spread throughout a business. As a result, it’s vital that those in charge of implementing an IT continuity plan can be identified quickly. Creating a responsibility chart should allow your organization to see who is in charge of what when it comes to an IT disaster, so make sure this has been circulated to all staff. And you must ensure that paper copies are also available as an IT disaster means no access to PowerPoint!

 

  • Align Technology Accordingly: Downtime is inevitable in all IT disasters, but the ability to minimize this can depend on the technology at your disposal. Larger organizations are likely to have more complex IT capabilities and, as such, the time required to rebuild this will be greater than a smaller organization. And the power of your backup technology can make a real difference in the speed that an IT continuity plan can be executed and completed. Therefore, it’s crucial that you understand the time taken to restore your IT capabilities and the technology which can achieve this most quickly.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

Read More

5 Mistakes to Avoid when Backing Up Data

Backup and Recovery, Cloud, External Hard Drive, Flash Drive, Security, , ,
14
Nov 2017

 

backup_banner_resized

Backups are crucial for keeping your organization’s data safe and readily available in the case of any data emergencies, but you need to backup correctly.

Your data holds an untold amount of value for your organization, so you need to ensure it’s looked after and handled correctly. Backing this data up should be one of your organization’s primary objectives and, in truth, you’re probably already doing this to some degree. However, are you doing it correctly and to the best of your abilities?

There are so many different methods and techniques used for backing up data that it’s possible you’re not utilizing them all correctly. Let’s take a look at 5 of the biggest mistakes you’re making and how you can avoid them.

cloud-computing-1990405_960_720

1. Not Backing Up What You Need

We use so much data now on a day-to-day basis that it’s difficult to keep track of exactly what we use and how much value it has to our operations. And this is why so many organizations fail to back up their data effectively. It’s vital that you carry out a rigorous analysis in order to prioritize the data which has to be backed up. Naturally, business objectives and operations change, so you need to regularly audit your data to maximize the value of your backup.

2. Only Backing Up Once

A backup can be the difference between your business being able to operate and being stranded in a scenario where there’s no data to operate with. However, what happens if your backup data is corrupted? Or if your storage options fail? Therefore, rather than relying on just one backup format, rely on several. Backup to optical drives, hard drives and cloud systems to guarantee you can retrieve your data when you need it most.

3. Not Testing Your Backup

It’s nice to have all your data backed up in case of an emergency, but do you know for sure that it actually works? And do you know how to fully retrieve your data? This knowledge is essential for ensuring you can reinstall your data, so you need to run regular tests to make sure that your backup routine works effectively and that you know how to execute it.

4. Running Out of Backup Space

You may have the most fantastic and effective backup system in place to take care of your data, but what happens when you run out of storage space? Well, you’ll find that you simply can’t store all the data you need to and this could be disastrous for your organization. This is why it’s very important that you assess your storage needs not just for the present, but also for the future as preparation is key when it comes to storing data.

5. Not Automating Your Backups

We live in such a busy age that it’s getting increasingly more difficult to stay on top of everything and backups are no different. Whilst manual backups may give you a sense of control, they’re also opening you up to failure as humans are more than capable of making mistakes or simply forgetting to start the backup process. Most backup systems have automatic capabilities, so don’t make the mistake of relying on your memory, automate the process.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

Read More

Why Do You Need to Backup Your Data?

Backup and Recovery, Office Network, Security, , ,
31
Oct 2017

 

Backup_festival

A good business needs good data and they need even better access to it. However, not all businesses understand just how crucial access to their data is.

One of the best ways to protect your data is by carrying out regular backups of your data to ensure that copies are kept in secure storage. This ensures that no matter what happens on individual PCs or individual sets of data, there should still be a copy of the lost data ready to fill in the gap. This form of pre-emptive action can really help your organization run smoothly without the need for laborious data duplication.

So, we’re agreed that data loss is bad, but how can your data go missing? And what can the knock on effects be? Let’s take a look at why you need to backup your data.

Systems Can and Do Get Hacked

Due to a combination of human error and the devious tactics of hackers, PCs can easily fall victim to malicious software which compromises entire networks and all the data on them. And, in the case of ransomware, this data can be encrypted and only released once a ransom has been paid. However, if your organization completes regular backups then the amount of data which can’t be retrieved will be significantly reduced. This leaves you in the enviable position of not having to give in and pay an extortionate amount of money for your data to be decrypted.

PCs Are Prone to Failure

When you consider the huge number of components that make up a PC, it’s no surprise that they’re prone to failure. Sometimes this can be due to age, sometimes it can be down to someone spilling their cup of coffee over the hard drive. And when components fail or become damaged, they’re sometimes left beyond repair and all the data on that PC is unable to be salvaged. With a backup to hand, the threat of permanent data loss is minimized. Even with a backup to hand, though, we still recommend keeping coffee away from your hard drive!

Data Transfer Hard Drive Backup Connection

Your Business Needs Data

If you suffer a catastrophic data loss event then your business is going to seriously struggle. Just imagine that all your customers and providers details had been accidentally deleted or compromised – operating in this scenario would be an absolute nightmare. And if you want to get a feel for the financial damage this can cause, this report estimates that around $1.7 trillion is lost in downtime every year thanks to data loss. Hopefully this should underline exactly why a regular backup is in your organization’s best interest. 

Your Network Needs Data

While your business certainly needs data to operate, your PC network cannot operate without data. So, for example, if a network driver suddenly becomes corrupted or accidentally deleted then that can spell the end of any PC activity within your organization. And, due to our reliance on PCs in almost every imaginable industry, this is the last thing your organization needs. However, by backing up your data you’re providing a safety net that could serve to be crucial in keeping your business trading.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

Read More
1 2 3