Both individuals and companies using computers should make regular backups to prevent catastrophic data loss. If no backups are made at a specific time, then you should consider that data may be lost at any time. This can range from a minor annoyance for someone who lost his shopping list, to a huge loss of earnings for a large company or small business.
Aside from the money spent on data retrieval, the time devoted to recovery can reach thousands in lost sales and customers that are due to interruption of service.
There are several ways to do backups, and is used depends on the use of computers. For a person at home who want to back up your documents, pictures and other personal files, using a USB flash drive or a DVD recorder for copying the second will work well.
One way that has become more popular recently with the arrival of broadband in most homes, is using an online backup service to back up key files. These servers use SSL encryption to ensure that the data transferred is secure. Using an online service like this is advantageous to have hard copies around the house because there is nothing to lose, nothing to damage, and in case of a disaster, data is still safe somewhere else.
While simple methods such as DVD and file servers work well for the average home user, a company with more use of data also needs serious solutions to serious backup. Copies on DVD and online servers can still be used, but a regular schedule should be created to ensure that all files are safe. Also a place off-site storage should be chosen to avoid the loss of all equipment and backups at the same time.
To prevent single disk failures cause a catastrophe, RAID can be used. RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, and can be used to make instant copies mirror hard drives, ensuring that if the recovery tank is as simple as possible.
A final solution that can be used by some larger firms is a backup server independently owned and controlled 100% by the company. This allows a complete copy of all hard drives, which makes cleaning as simple as a ghost of the image on the new hard disk into a new unit. This means that a company can start very quickly after a disaster.
The decision to perform backups is simple. If no backups are made, the disaster may occur, dealing a devastating blow to any company or individual due to the loss of customer contact information, school reports, and financial records. Once lost, these data can be extremely expensive to recover. By using any backup method, the risk of data loss is greatly reduced. With a backup plan complete, even the most horrible incident can leave a business with all well intact.
