Protecting Your Business

This is probably the one element that a backup system and disaster recovery program have in common. Both options are designed to help protect your business from different problems that arise during this technological age.

But, the two programs are not the same even though some people use the terms interchangeably. To learn the difference between the two and why it is important for your business to implement both strategies, just continue reading our article.

It gives you that information and more.

What Is The Difference Between Backup And Disaster Recovery?

You may not think there is a difference as any loss of data can be considered a disaster. But there is a big difference between the two systems. They also handle different duties so that your business remains protected in times when things go wrong.

1. Back-Up System- This option is merely a duplicate of your current files and other data. This system creates duplicate copies of those files and can be used to restore lost information or documents when there was an accidental deletion, your database got corrupted, or an upgrade did not go smoothly and files were lost or destroyed.

2. Disaster Recovery- This is a totally different strategy altogether. While the backup system uses your primary servers, etc., the disaster recovery program allows your IT systems to use a secondary set of servers or even a secondary data center.

This option allows those businesses that rely on their IT network to function, to continue with business-as-usual access to important data, etc. This plan is used when a business has a catastrophic disaster and not merely corrupted files or missing documents from their computers.

Simply put, a backup system merely restores documents and other important information. The disaster recovery option replicates data, configuration, and applications.

Both options are backup systems, it is just that the disaster recovery plan handles more responsibilities and more serious details needed to keep a business functioning.

The Importance Of Planning For Trouble

If this world was a perfect place to live, no one would need security systems, backup plans, or disaster recovery programs. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world, and those security systems and backup plans are needed on a daily basis.

Hackers, industrial spies, and simply power failures wreak havoc on IT systems. it is important to have some type of plan in place in order for your business to recover important data as well as applications, etc., to function normally again.

The downtime a disaster or file deletion can bring can cost a business a lot of money. That is if there is no backup plan in place to make that recovery quicker. Both of these reasons are great motivators for businesses to protect their vital information.

Getting back to business as usual is important for the company’s bottom line and reputation. These two options protect that reputation as a business can recover quickly and meet customer demands faster.

Some Key Terminology That Helps Planning

One thing that advancing technology has done is broaden an industry’s vocabulary. New terms are added to English and other languages on a weekly or monthly basis. Here are some key terms you need to know in order to help formulate your disaster recovery plan:

1. Recovery Time Objective Or RTO- This lets you know the amount of time it will take to recover all lost data, etc., and return to normal business operation. You will have to determine how much time you are willing to lose and how much of an impact on your business that lost time will have.

2. Recovery Point Objective Or RPO- This term refers to the amount of data you can afford to lose and not harm your business or its operation. You can opt for a zero(0) loss strategy if you want to or you can go with 5 or 10 minutes or longer. It is up to you how much data you can afford to lose.

3. Failover- This is a term that describes the handing off of tasks to secondary systems to make sure that users do not know there is a problem. This is done automatically and you can set it up so that backup servers can pass the tasks back to your primary servers seamlessly.

4. Restore- This is exactly what it means. Your systems are brought back up to speed with the lost data put back into place. This is a duty for your backup system to handle.

Why Do You Need A Disaster Recovery Strategy

Think of this plan as almost free insurance. While you have traditional insurance coverage for every physical aspect of running your business, this strategy is data insurance. This is something traditional insurance companies cannot help you with protecting.

You need a good disaster recovery plan to make sure you have your data backed up and ready to be implemented when trouble strikes. Here are some more reasons to show you why this plan is so important and why you need one.

1. Your Business Is Damaged By Natural Disasters- Fires, earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters have a way of ruining a business. These disasters knock out power for days, damage servers and your building, interrupt electronic processing, and so on.

It is important to have a plan in place to make sure your business does not fold when these disasters strike.

2. Power Surges- These can take place without warning. When they do happen, they will cause your hardware to fail and take all your data with them. Even with hardware cooling, power surge protectors, and other protection devices, it is always a smart idea to have a backup plan ready to go, just in case.

3. Human Error Is Always A Factor- Even though you hire the best people to work for you, mistakes and accidents happen. These mistakes range from forgetting to save changes to a document, flipping the wrong switch, pushing the wrong button, and so on.

No matter how good your employees are, they will make a mistake at some point, and usually, it is at the worst time possible.

4. Hackers & Cyber Crimes- Industrial espionage is out of control and you never know when your IT systems will be hacked or held for ransom. These events can ruin a business if they are not prepared with a disaster recovery plan in place.

You need something to protect your data and make sure you do not lose any business or time and money.

5. Provide Good Customer Service- This is probably the most important reason. A good disaster recovery plan will help you keep your customers happy. You can continue to provide the best service possible ensuring that your customers do not flee to a competitor.

One Or The Other 

You could go with only a backup system or opt for only a disaster recovery plan. But the former is not capable of handling all the duties that come with natural or other disasters. It only preserves data or documents, etc., and cannot automatically switch you to backup servers, etc.

The latter would be overkill for the duties the former needs to provide. Since simple mistakes do not need a complicated plan, it is best to have both a backup and a disaster recovery plan in place. The right tools for the job.

That way you can get back to business as usual as quickly as possible without losing your customers or your reputation. Making sure you have a good backup plan will be necessary when you have accidents and mistakes taking place.

A disaster recovery plan is needed when your issues are more severe and serious than forgetting to save changes to a document or an accidental deletion.

The disaster recovery can spare you from paying a ransom for kidnapped files, etc. while a backup may not be able to do that.

Some Backup And Disaster Recovery Options

The main issue when you develop either plan is to decide which way you want to go. There are several good options that are available for you to research and decide between. Those options include the following formats:

1. Cloud-Based- This option allows you to save important resources as it does not cost a lot to implement this style of backup or disaster recovery plan. The infrastructure is already built into these systems making it easier for your company to store its important data and documents.

Plus, it is fairly flexible as you can have a cloud-based system and an on-site system working together. You decide what you want to store, where you want it, with this format.

2. On-Site- This option may cost you a little more to set up but it is a quicker method to use when time is of the essence. You can retrieve data far easier with this format and you can meet strict privacy regulations by storing sensitive data on-site instead of risking it in a cloud.

The drawback to this option is that the same disaster that destroyed your primary systems may also destroy your secondary ones as well.

3. Traditional Tape- There are other technologies that can help you construct and implement a nice backup or disaster recovery plan. Traditional magnetic tape storage can be of vital service to you and your company and with its large storage capacity, you can preserve a lot of data for a great backup plan.

The drawback is that it is a bit slower than disk storage and if the tape is off-site, it may take a few hours or more to retrieve and get working.

4. Snapshot-Based Replication- This is a storage-saving system that makes sure you have plenty of room for all the data, etc., you want to preserve and use as a backup system or disaster recovery plan.

The drawback is that your information will only go back as far as your most recent snapshot. Plus, on an hourly snapshot schedule, you may lose an hour of data. More if your snapshots have longer interludes.

5. Continuous Replication- This is the new trend that seems to be catching on with some businesses. The format works all the time as indicated by its label and sends the data continuously to a cloud or an off-site storage server.

The advantage of this system is that it minimizes downtime and provides more granular recovery points so you do not lose a lot of data. This is faster and probably more accurate than other systems.

The key to all of this information is that you do not wait for a disaster to find out that you need a backup or disaster recovery plan. This is something you should budget for and design long before a disaster or loss of data occurs.

Planning ahead is the best way to protect your business and stay in business when your competitors are losing theirs. 

Some Final Words

Having both systems in place and constructed by IT experts is the smart business move. That way not only do you get the right tools for the job, you also can meet any emergency that comes your business’s way.

Being prepared is always smart business and it is always better to have these plans and not need them than to not have them and need them. Talk to your IT people or find an IT expert that will help you set up both plans.

That way you can have a little more peace of mind every time your business opens its door to its customers. Get expert help so that you can defeat those hackers and cybercriminals every time they attack.

Your data and business are worth protecting so take the right steps and get these plans in place asap. One day you will be glad you did and spent the money to make sure you and your business are safe. Talk to your IT people to see what kind of backup and disaster recovery plan they can come up with for your company.