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Data Loss - Managing the risk
by Keith Biddle

Know the risks

Start by answering the following questions:

• Do you store data on a computer, such as: email, contacts, product data or accounts & billing information?
• How valuable is this data to your business?
• How much disruption & rework would it require if you lost that data?

For most companies losing their business data is a serious risk to the operation of the business.

As a senior business manager or owner, you should be aware of the risks that your business faces, & put systems in place to protect the company.

There are nine risks to your business data.

1. Hardware failure
2. Backup system failure
3. Theft of equipment
4. Viruses
5. File corruption
6. Fire & flood
7. Disasters to the building
8. Sabotage (internal or external)
9. Accidental deletion

The live computer system & environment should minimise the risks e.g. physical building security, anti-virus software, fire prevention, etc.

The computer backup system should also address all 9 risks.

How to protect your data

Protecting the live data

Firstly I would recommend any company to take stock of where your live data is being stored?
Is it spread over several workstations, or on a central file server?

I recommend any company over 3 employees to use a dedicated computer to store their files, this is called a 'file server'. This machine should not be used for day to day work, as it makes it more likely to be infected with viruses or become corrupted. The disk drive on the file server should be protected with a system called RAID, this can mirror the data to a second disk drive, thus providing protection against disk failure.

Creating backups

The next step is to create backups of your data. Which ever backup method you chose, you should aim to keep a daily, weekly & monthly backup, & possible some ad-hoc backups of the whole server too.

Which backup method you use depends on a number of factors:

• How valuable you think your data is
• In-house expertise
• Amount of data to backup
• Time you are willing to spend creating backups, & checking the error reports after each backup
• Amount of money you are willing to invest
• How fast you want the data restored
• Whether you want cover from all the 9 risks, or only some of them
  

Backup methods

Each backup method has pro's & con's. Here is a summary of your options.

Pen drives
Pros: Easy to install & copy data. Can be reused indefinately. Small & portable.
Cons: Easy to lose or get stolen. Limited space. May run out of usb ports (buy usb hub).
Advice: Use to move files around, & for easy backups. Make sure important data is stored offsite as well.

Backup over the Internet
Pros: Offsite (so your data won't be stolen with your laptop). Flexible space. Easy. Can access your data from anywhere. Secure (data can be encrypted). Easy to automate nightly backups. Will be virus scanned on the Internet server.
Cons: Need internet access, ideally adsl. Uploads of large amounts of data can be slow, however once stored, the nightly backups will be fast, as only files changed will be uploaded. Monthly fee.
Advice: Use for important data backups. Use HandyBackup software to schedule a backup every night or week.

Burn to CD
Pros: Cheap. Can store CD's offsite.
Cons: Not easy to use, can be slow.
Advice: Use for data you don't change much eg photos. Or monthly backups.

Burn to DVD
Pros: Cheap. Can store DVD's offsite.
Cons: Not easy to use, can be slow.
Advice: Use for data you don't change much eg photos & videos. Or monthly backups.

Copy to external disk drive
Pros: Very fast, huge space, easy.
Cons: Expensive, bulky, could be stolen.
Advice: Use for very large backups of data that change often. Use HandyBackup software to schedule a backup daily. Make sure important data is stored offsite as well.

Tape Backups
Pros: Traditional method of backups, tapes can go offsite.
Cons: Slow, expensive, error logs must be checked daily & troubleshooting is difficult.
Advice: If you are using tapes, then make sure test restores are done, tapes go offsite & the error logs are checked.

Backup Tower local-store
Pros: Meets all 9 risks, easy to setup & check, expandable disk.
Cons: Needs to use the offsite service to cover all 9 risks.
Advice: Good for a single PC or a small file server.

Backup Tower network-store
Pros: Meets all 9 risks, easy to setup & check, expandable disk system.
Cons: Needs to use the offsite service to cover all 9 risks.
Advice: Good for a companies with 10 to 100 staff.

For more information visit www.backupresearch.co.uk