Advice for Buyers of Data Backup Technology

A primer for those interested in considering their data back up options recently ran on Darwin Magazine’s Web site.

Written by Bud Stoddard, the president of server back up service firm AmeriVault Corp., the paper, entitled "You Are Your Data: Keep It Safe" (available here: http://www.darwinmag.com/read/030104/backup.html) provides a comprehensive set of recommendations for business owners or managers interested in comparing vendors and solutions.

“An essential component to any fail-safe disaster recovery or business continuity plan is having an effective and secure off-site backup and recovery solution,” says Stoddard. “Tapes become useless if they are left on-site and a fire burns down the company or if an employee takes the tapes home every night and is unable to retrieve them when necessary.”

The paper compares the advantages and disadvantages of differing backup systems like mirroring, online backup or e-vaulting and replication.

However, before choosing a vendor or a particular solution, Stoddard recommends following a series of steps:
Establish or re-visit a realistic recovery time objective.
Plan for the worst possible scenario.
Don’t think you need a single solution for all of your data needs. Consider multiple options for different aspects of your business.
Don’t be too narrow with your budget -- It is better to make financial sacrifices than go out of business because backup and disaster recovery failed, says Stoddard.

“It can become a common practice to put off long-term or strategic planning to fight daily fires instead,” warns Stoddard. “Foregoing the appropriate planning will only succeed in a company going up in flames.”