CREATING
YOUR OWN BACKUP PLAN |
Backup
is both an action – a daily action – and a philosophy.
The latter requires an enterprise-wide plan that defines clear
policies, data priorities, & schedules.
Some
elements to consider as part of your plan:
|
|
| Administration
of your data protection procedures needs to be centralized in
order to maintain consistency and control. This will ensure all
data at various locations, not just corporate headquarters, is
protected properly. The goal is to ensure that the business, as
a whole, has consistent data backup procedures, vendors/products,
and infrastructure. One "master" location will hold
the overall backup policy information (schedules, rotation practices,
etc.) and then push out the policies to remote operations. The
central location will also collect backup reports from all other
sites, but the actual data processing and backup will be done
independently at each site. |
|
| |
|
| All
data is not created equal. Different data may require different
levels of protection. All data should be backed up at least once
a day, and certain systems and databases might warrant even more
frequent protection. Decide what data is mission-critical. |
|
| |
COORDINATE
BACKUP WITH BUSINESS PROCEDURES |
| Synchronize
your data backup and archival tasks with operational milestones
(i.e., backing up data upon the acquisition of over 100 orders;
backing up data at the close of trading hours, etc.) As part of
operational best practices, it is also recommended that data protection
and restoration operations be included with annual financial audit
processes, to ensure that backup operations are run according
to sound principles. |
|
| |
|
Keep your
plan up-to-date by evaluating it at least annually. Part of
your plan should re-evaluate data volume and importance, adjusting
if necessary. Look at what was mission critical yesterday but
may be infrequently updated today and anything new that has
come online recently re-categorizing which data is mission critical
when necessary. Your plan should also take into account volume
growth, and forecast when new equipment or software will be
necessary.
|
|
| |
|
Schedule
buying backup media at regular intervals to ensure your supply
keeps up with the demands of frequent backups. Use our Media
Calculator to plan your tape requirements.
|
|
| |
CONSIDER
DESKTOPS & LAPTOPS |
What are
your policies for protecting knowledge and information assets
that exist on desktops, laptops, PDAs, and other mobile telecommuting
devices? Don't leave this responsibility in the hands of individuals
with little or no data protection knowledge! Backup individuals'
systems at least once per day, to a centralized location --
preferably automatically. Critical data, trade secrets, new
designs, corporate policies, etc. may be contained on individuals'
hard drives.
|
|
| |
ESTABLISH
COMMUNICATION CHANNELS |
Procedures
in the event of data loss, with the view toward providing the
swiftest possible restoration.
|
|
| |
|
Have a defined
set of archive tapes – logged weekly, monthly, quarterly,
or a subset of either – that are stored at least one year
off-site. It's critical to your business health and may be required
by law.
|
|
| |
