Backing up your company’s data is one of those tasks the IT staff just needs to get done. But, what analysis needs to be done before the backup process is implemented.

The first step is to change the belief that Data Backup /Recovery is merely copying the data to some other place so the data can be restored if it is lost. IT staffs are overloaded with mission critical day-today activities. It is understandable that Data Backup may be assigned to the newest member of the team and not deeply analyzed. However, it will become the most critical task the IT staff will undertake when that data needs to be recovered. And, there are many reasons that the data may need to be restored.

The design of the Data Backup process has multiple dimensions. These multiple dimensions must all be considered when designing the process, handling of exceptions and the physical network to support the backup and restore process.  And one dimension cannot be discussed without overlaying the other dimensions to develop a complete solution. The analysis must consider the function of the data, the medium the data is on, the physical location of the data in relation to the location of its backup site, to name just a few.

The first thing to consider is that the data is not only to be backed up, but it also needs to be able to be restored. This sounds simplistic, but restore times and methodology is often not considered. Like a backup not merely being a copy of the data to somewhere else, recovery is not merely the ability to copy the data back to its original location. Much more must go into this part of the analysis. For instance, a restore may not be needed just because a catastrophic event occurred. It may be needed because of regulatory requirements or a court order, for instance.

The industry that the company resides must also be considered. The analysis must take into consideration any regulatory requirements that must be met. These regulatory bodies may be industry, State, Federal or others. The regulatory body may require the ability to perform a restore within a certain length of time, just as an example.

Recovery time requirements are so very important. The business requirement may require a certain restore time. In other words, if it takes so long to restore the entire environment that the company is no longer able to remain in business, then what’s the point? A regulatory body requirement is not met, then financially damaging fees may be assessed to the company.

A major part of the backup and recovery process is the physical network. To name just a few of factors that impact the infrastructure design would be the frequency of the backups, the required time for the restore to be completed for effectiveness, the medium the data resides, the proximity of the backup location to the original site, etc. Networks may be under-powered to meet data backup and recovery requirements.

Another dimension of the Data Backup process is the medium the data resides. All considerations must be applied to each type of data that exists in the computer environment. This is true for the backup and the restore processes of the data.

Data backup and recovery is a discipline mastered by those that specialize in it. A data backup/recovery professional would not find the issue of Data Backup simplistic, because it is quite complex.

Data backup/recovery is a mission-critical process that requires the same attention as the most important ERP and CRM applications. Salvus Data Consultants specializes in data backup/recovery and disaster recovery planning. Salvus uses Tivoli Storage Management (TSM) remotely to manage your Data B/R plan for you.