Get Backups Right

When I tried to start the computer, I heard several beeps and then silence. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt my computer died. Thankfully, having been a computer technician for years I was able to diagnose the problem. Apparently, the hard drive crashed, resulting in permanent damage to the unit. I had to go to the nearest computer store and buy another hard drive.

Although, I lost some data, I was grateful for having kept backups. As soon as I got my system up and operational I restored my data from my backup disk and was back in business again. Which brings me to the main point of this article - make sure you backup your work often.

It is so embarrassing when you are working on an assignment for an editor and you lose your equipment. What do you tell him or her? You can say what happened and hope he or she can be sympathetic. But why go through that. Simply take the time to backup your work. But don't just make backups on your hard drive. Save your work on floppies, CDR's, Tapes, or Zip disks.

There are many reasons for making backups. With security threats looming, and the possibility of equipment failure, the danger of your business being out of service is greater than ever. Therefore, it is imperative that you backup your work often. Here are a few tips to ensure that your backup and restore systems are work properly, so you can use them at a moment's notice.

Communications

Maybe the most overlooked issue in backup and recovery is simple communication. You should have a procedure for notifying businesses about network failure. For example, suppose you have a business with a network in Orlando, FL. You also have an office in Philadelphia, PA. Both offices use the same network through a dial-up procedure. What happens if your office in Orlando goes down. The people in your Philadelphia office may not have a clue unless you tell them. For big failures, you need to make sure that the entire company knows.

The same is true for a restore; everyone who will be affected by it needs to know what was restored successfully and what was lost. Will transactions be lost? Will the local offices need to resynchronize with master information at the data center? You need to keep everyone in the loop. And you need to test these communication procedures to make sure they'll actually work.

Test different recovery situations

You have a procedure in place, but have you tested it in a real-world recovery situation? If one site is completely lost, can you restore that site's data at another site? Have you tested it? Yes, it will take up almost the entire weekend for the IT staff, but these days, you need to be prepared. You don't want to leave it to chance and hope your procedures work.

Keep backups

If you have major servers, you need more than just a RAID disk pack; you need to have a local backup system that will replicate the data in real time. Again, it's not enough just to have these; you need to test them to make sure they work. At the end of a Friday, after everyone is gone for the weekend, turn off the switch to your main server and see if the secondary server actually kicks in with current data. If it fails, you better replace it now.

Keep local backups

Finally, you should consider duplicating your most current and critical data locally. Reliance on the one big mainframe or server at the central office may be cheaper, but you should keep copies of enough data locally to be able to maintain normal business in case of a critical failure.

Never assume that making multiple continuos backups is safer than making one master backup and replicating it. I've made this mistake more times than I care to think. Having multiple continuos backups will lead to confusion over which data files are truly the most current, which may result in a loss of data if you use the wrong backup. One master copy and many replicas is the way to go.

Test and retest

I know this is a lot of work. I also know that no one will really wants to perform tests. People don't like spending time backing up and restoring data. They want the backup and restore process to magically save them. It doesn't work that way. You need to bite the bullet and test your systems and your procedures. It's the only way to be sure.

Harry is a freelance writer, computer consultant, and Internet marketer. His writing projects include ghostwriting, copywriting, web site content, DTP, editing, and technical writing. His computer consulting work includes installation, setup, and troubleshooting computer systems. His credits include articles for Internet Day, Internet World, Advertising Today, Advertising Age, L-Advertising, Computer Edge, and a host of others. Harry recently published a book on computer repair and copywriting. You can check out his samples and what he offers at his site by going to http://www.writeformedia.com/portfolio.htm.

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