Why Do I Need a Backup and Recovery Plan?

Every organization needs to have an actionable data backup and recovery plan in place to ensure that critical data and applications are protected when disaster strikes. Underestimating the likelihood that adverse events will occur and impact operations, reputation, and revenue is a massive lurking threat to profitability and business continuity for organizations across the globe.

Businesses that evaluate the risks to their data continuity, identify their critical data and applications and implement best practices and systems designed to mitigate the threats and ultimately safeguard their operations, customers, and profitability. A way to do this is to be ready with a data backup and recovery plan.

Risks to Critical Data Continuity

Natural Disasters and Power Outages
Hurricanes, fires, and floods are on the rise

Security and Compliance
Malware, ransomware, and internal data handling

Human Error
Deletion of data, theft, or sabotage

Hardware Failure
End-of-life equipment, gaps in infrastructure, and redundancy

Software Failure
Failed or corrupted application patches or upgrades

Corrupt Data
Damaged or otherwise compromised files and infrastructure

Identifying Critical Data and Applications

Backups of data and systems should be done at least nightly and depending on the criticality of the system and the amount of data generated, often more frequently. Modern backup systems will provide flexibility to do full backups periodically in combination with incremental backups to optimize backup windows and recovery speeds.

In addition to backups, archive requirements vary from business to business based on internal policies and retention requirements, but which promote long-term data protection. Your organization should also consider applicable local and global consumer and industry data regulations and compliance laws, the volume of data that your company generates, and best practices around retrieving and deleting information.

Critical and irreplaceable data can include:

• Email messages and attachments
• Address books, contacts
• Calendars
• Customer data
• Documentation
• Applications and settings
• Databases

Other considerations:

• What do you need to backup?
• How much disk space is needed to back up?
• Review of your Internet connection capacity (can it accommodate off-site file transfers?)
• How often should backups be performed (depends on how often your data changes)?
• How will you monitor your backup system(s)?
• Can you test your ability to restore data (restore a portion of your data on a scheduled basis)?

Systems and Best Practices – Thrive Can Help!

There is a wide range of options available to IT teams in choosing a backup strategy and system for their organization. At Thrive, we work to keep your environment protected and accessible. Our goal is to keep your organization open for business despite whatever adverse events come your way.

Thrive’s solutions and responsive support enable your in-house IT team to minimize disruptions and ensure smooth operations and business continuity, even in the face of disaster.

We make sure that your data and IT systems are available and ready to resume operations so that you can continue to provide uninterrupted service to your customers. Contact us to learn more.