Data Backup Solutions Auburn

What do you need to know about data backup solutions in Auburn?

While modern technology has opened up many exciting opportunities for business, a lot of everyday IT is basically about organizing practicalities such as data backups. They may not be glamorous but if you get them right, you have the reassurance of knowing that your business is never going to suffer from the loss of critical data. With that in mind, here is a quick guide to what you need to know about data backup solutions in Auburn.

The days of hardware-based data backups are (almost) over

In principle, you can use a hardware-based data backup solution to backup your data to physical storage media, some of which you would keep on-site and some of which you would move off-site for safekeeping. In practice, the only situation in which hardware-based data backups are a reasonable option is when a company is still running a data center and prefers to store a local copy of their data on a physical device.

Even then, the off-site copy would typically be managed through the cloud as it is often both easier and more affordable than dealing with transporting tapes to an off-site storage facility and bringing them back if they are needed. It certainly makes for quicker restores which is often a significant consideration.

You can manage the backup process with standalone software or a cloud-based solution

If you’re working in the public cloud, you will need to check that any standalone software you use will run on virtual servers as well as physical ones. The popularity of the public cloud means that quite a lot does, so you should still have a decent range of options, however, it’s still worth double-checking just to be on the safe side.

Standalone software doesn’t need a cloud connection and, in principle, can be used to manage data backups to physical media, although, in practice, these days, that’s hardly ever the case. Its main selling point is that it can offer companies the maximum degree of control and, possibly, more importantly, flexibility about the infrastructure they use. This is particularly helpful if you want to implement different recovery point objectives and/or recovery time objectives. It can also be very useful if you want to have maximum control over costs.

Cloud-based solutions obviously need an internet connection, but that is highly unlikely to be an issue in Auburn. In fact, these days, the majority of vast SMBs in Auburn are likely to be at least cloud-first if not cloud-native in any case meaning that data backups are essentially going to involve copying data from one cloud to another. Cloud-based solutions (more commonly known as Backup-as-a-Service) do not necessarily offer the same degree of flexibility as standalone software solutions, but they can be simple and convenient.

Astute management can go a long way towards keeping costs down

Assuming you are going to be backing up to the cloud, literally every byte is going to count towards your bill. While there will be various factors involved in determining how much you will ultimately pay, the main ones are generally storage, bandwidth and the number of times the data is accessed. You should have a large degree of control over these.

Storage

You should only be backing up production data i.e. data that is in active use. Dormant data should be either archived (put into slow, more affordable, storage and left until it is either needed or can be legally deleted) or deleted. If you have a mound of “legacy” data which nobody seems to be using but nobody is prepared to delete, then archive it and see if anyone complains. Going forward, make sure you exercise robust data governance on all your data, not just your sensitive data.

Bandwidth

Similar comments apply, but you can also use technical strategies to reduce the amount of bandwidth you need. The main ones are compression and interspersing full backups (which backup all data) with incremental backups (which only backup data which has changed since the last backup) and differential backups (which only backup data which has changed since the last full backup). Obviously, you will need to apply common sense with both of these since you will need your data still to be quickly recoverable when you need it.

Frequency of access

In simple terms, the better your systems run (and the better data security you implement) the less likely you are to need to restore from a data backup. Even if you are working in the public cloud, getting managed IT services on your side, could be a cost-effective way to getting the most out of your infrastructure and reducing the need to restore from data backups.

If you’d like to speak to a reputable and experienced data backup solutions provider in Auburn please click here now to contact Aperio.IT.

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