Businesses large and small cannot afford to ignore the importance of being prepared to recover from a disaster, be that the loss of your own PC’s hard drive or the loss of your entire office’s data.

Determine your backup requirement

There are a number of questions that must be asked when it comes to determining an appropriate backup solution for your business.

1. How much data do you have?

The volume of data dictates what media you can use to perform your backups be that DVD’s, tapes or external hard drives. In addition to calculating the volume of data that needs to be backed up you must also estimate the likely increase in that set of data over time.

2. How sensitive or important is the data?

Some data may be easily recovered or its loss will have no direct business impact. Other data is so important that the whole business may come to a standstill without it. It may also be important to consider how quickly you can retrieve the lost data.

3.How often does the data change?

Different sets of data change at different rates and at different times. These dictate how often you need to back up what. Some businesses do all their accounting at the end of each month requiring their Accounting package to be backed up monthly. High volume retail businesses may be updating inventory in real time requiring nightly backups to minimize the cost of recovering hundreds of transaction carried out during any business day. Your business processes and the routines of your staff often dictate your backup requirements.

4.Where is the data stored?

As organizations grow the need for a centralized data store and backup solution becomes essential. With two or three PC’s you can backup each one individually however the cost of backing up as little as 5 PCs can out way the cost of a centralized storage and backup solution.

Determine what backup type(s) are required

When considering a backup solution you should apply the information gathered from the questions above and establish a regime using one or both of the common back up types

1.Normal / Full Backups

All files are backed up regardless of their archive attribute.

2.Incremental Backups

Only data that has changed since the last backup is stored. This is dictated by their archive attribute.

Act now! It could save you a fortune

With this information at hand you are ready to select a backup solution that may consist of hardware software and media. If you need help identifying, selecting or setting up a system and processes to protect your businesses data do not hesitate to contact Alocasia Consulting today.