Having a backup copy of all your data stored securely is important, though that is not the only thing to consider when designing a mission critical backup solution.
How quickly one can restore systems from backups and onto what hardware it can be restored to are equally important.
Ask yourself how long can you afford to have that server, workstation or stored data unavailable before it begins to impact on your business performance? 1 month, 1 week, 1 day, 1 hour?
How long will it take to get your backups and systems up running again? 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month?
Many businesses rely on the built-in Microsoft Backup software to backup their servers and workstations without fully understanding what using this software means for “recovery options”.
There are some limiting factors to consider when using built-in Microsoft Backup options, which most people are unaware of:
1. If you need to do a “bare metal” restore of the complete system, including the operating system and all installed software and databases, you must do so to “identical hardware”. This means if your Server or Workstation is stolen or damaged severely, you will not be able to recover the full working system without additional time and expense; unless you have an exact duplicate of the system to restore to. Having a system with “same specifications” is not the same as “identical hardware”.
2. Microsoft Backups are only protection against component failure such as Hard Disks, software failure or if you need to re-load data from a previous date. It will NOT protect you from severe hardware failure, fire, theft or vandalism – as in many cases you will not be able to restore the full system backup to different / newer hardware.
3. Instead, one will have to convert the backup data or manually extract data from the backup using 3rd party software + re-install everything manually onto the new system. This can cost you days or even weeks in business down-time depending on what you are restoring and how much data there is to restore.
A proper backup system will give you a variety of options for recovering your data and getting your system backup up and running as quickly as possible.
Contact us for a comprehensive review of your current backup systems or to have us design a backup system for your business.