Relatively offsite

I just heard about a business that was storing their offsite backup data in the basement of their building. I guess offsite is a relative term. The backup tapes were out of the data center which is on the fourth floor. This is definitely better than storing the tapes in the data center, but it falls short of storing the tapes in another building in a different location.

The degree of offsite that you need depends on several factors. In general, further away from the data center offers more protection. But, even that is not always true. Just imagine a data center in a valley near a river. If your offsite backup location is 50 miles away, but in the same valley near the same river, then the same flood may make your data and your backup in accessible. On the other hand if your backup location was just a mile away in a building on higher ground, you may have more protection from that type of disaster. It is best to think about the types of events that you want to protect against. An offsite backup across town in New Orleans is probably not very useful in a Katrina type event. You could have the same kind of problem in places that are susceptible to earthquakes, or blizzards.

Storing data in the same building is not likely to protect your data from a wide range of problems. However, it may be convenient if you need get your offsite data in a hurry. That brings up another interesting factor. If you are shipping your backup data across the country, how long will it take to get your backup data when you need it.

One great suggestion worth looking into is online backup over the internet. Your data can be stored a reasonable distance away to protect against most disasters, but can also be retrieved relatively quickly when needed.

The Dog Ate My Backup, What's Your Excuse?

The teacher wasn't impressed when Johnny said the dog ate his homework, but the rest of the class got a laugh out of it. It was as if Johnny didn't expect anyone to ask for his homework assignment. What is an IT person supposed to say when asked to restore data and can't because of a problem with the backup. Maybe he can say the tape is corrupt, or maybe he can blame someone else. Perhaps he thought the backup was happening but it wasn't. The excuses become obviously lame when he can't even restore data from the day before yesterday, or last week, or last month. You might as well say; "The Dog Ate My Backup" because nobody cares about your excuse. Lost data isn't very funny.

So you are not an IT person... If you have important data on your computer, or if you are responsible for computers in your office or department, then you may just be the IT person or the closest thing to one. The results are the same, data is lost and you can't help. How smart does that make you look?

Avoid the loss of data and the embarrassment. Protect your data with real backups that work. Just little extra effort and you can avoid critical mistakes. Online backup is a safe and simple way to get good reliable backups.

Unencrypted Backup Data Leads to Identity Theft!

The University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics is in the process of warning about 2.2 million patients that their personal information may have been exposed to identity thieves. Backup tapes of billing information was stolen from a car owned by a driver for an off site storage company. Just three months earlier, the University of Miami had backup tapes stolen from a van containing patient records.

If these backup tapes were properly encrypted, then lost or stolen tapes have far less impact. In fact, I think it is incompetent to store sensitive data on any portable media that is not encrypted. Any backup software worth using has the capability to encrypt the backup data. One of the simplest ways to secure backup data is to use a secure online backup service. If you are going to use an online service, you will want to make sure the service is using good security technology.

Many businesses should take data security to whole new level and encrypt the data on workstations and portable computers. It's not just backup tapes that get stolen. Computers, especially portable computers, are often stolen. It is not feasible to stop all thefts of computers, hard disks, and backup media, but it is not very difficult to protect the data by using encryption.

Worst Practices for Data Backup

Here are some of the worst practices in backing up data:

1. Doing no data backup at all. This seems like a no-brainer but it is a common mistake. In many cases it is an unintentional mistake. Backup jobs are neglected and don't backup all important data.
   


2. Failing to keep offsite backup copies of data. This is one of the most common problems. Storing backup copies in the same building as the computers your are backing up does not protect against many disasters.
   


3. Failing to monitor your backup jobs effectively. Don't assume that no news is good news. Backup jobs often fail, don't run, or skip files. Check your backup jobs and logs often and correct any problems as soon as possible.
   


4. Using manual procedures. Manual procedures are often forgotten, postponed, neglected and just not performed. Use automated procedures to make your data backup reliable.
   


5. Not encrypting backup data. Most backups contain some sensitive data. Backup media, including portable disk drives, can be lost or stolen and fall into the wrong hands. An old tape or disk drive that you may have erased, may end up being salvaged and data scavenged by identity thieves long after you have discarded them.
   


6. Not performing test restores of your data. Just because a backup job finished without errors doesn't guarantee that you can restore your data. The only way you can be sure is to periodically test the restore procedure.
   

Data Backup and Recovery