Save Your Data, Save Your Business!

I know the title of my white paper sounds a bit like the television show Heroes and the first season slogan, "Save the cheerleader, save the world," but I wanted to express how important proper and adequate data backup and a disaster recovery plan is to the success and sustainability of your business. Every day I speak with small and mid-sized business owners and technology decision makers that have antiquated or non-existent data backup plans. Some memorable examples include an organization that was backing their network data to tape only to realize their "tape" was really the head cleaner; and a manufacturer who had all their critical data stored in a networked PC that was sitting on the floor, and then a flood swept three feet of water through their facility. In both examples the organizations lost vast amounts of irreplaceable data.

These are just two examples of dozens that I've encountered in the last decade as a consultant. The proliferation of data has made it more crucial than ever to protect it. In 2007, Jeremy Kirk estimated that the amount of data generated from devices of all kinds, including digital cameras as well as IT systems, was comparable to the number of grains of sand on all the world's beaches. A staggering concept made even more incredible in the fact that 60% of that data was flowing through corporate and business networks. Small businesses would be hard pressed to keep up with that tidal wave, let alone safeguard it.

Data is increasingly taking up space on local machines as well as servers, and some of it is crucial to the day-to-day operation of many SMBs. But as shown above, many businesses aren't aware of this criticality, or may even be stubbornly set in the "it can't happen to my business" mindset. The example I spoke of in the first paragraph really happened, and for a business owner or technology decision makers to bury their heads in the sand is incredibly shortsighted and unnecessarily risky. There are specific ways for an SMB organization to take stock of what they are doing, and it then becomes critical to create a solid disaster recovery plan around their scheduled backup policies.

Less than two years ago, AT&T did a comprehensive survey of the SMB space and found some startling results. According to the study, while 9 out of 10 small businesses said they did back up their data, only 7% took the extra precaution of sending the backups offsite. Of those that did employ onsite solutions, many were still relying on the antiquated tape drive method. In these situations, I always like to quiz a decision maker who swears by his tape backups. I ask them if they have an 8-track player in their vehicle, and they often laugh and say of course not. They have a CD player. I then inquire whether they have a VCR as their main source to record and play television shows or movies. This elicits a similar guffaw and they explain that they in fact have a DVR and/or DVD player. That said, I ask them why they are using outdated technology to protect their business's greatest asset, its data! The reactions range from sheepish embarrassment to annoyed rebuttals.

Either way, I believe the point is a critical one. The SMB firm that takes the proper steps will avoid being a statistic. I allude to the fact that 94% of businesses that suffer a catastrophic loss of data will never survive. Even if backups are done, remember that 71% of tape backups fail when attempting a data restoration. So what can you do to strengthen your plan?

As you can see from the preceding, I'm not a fan of the tape solutions as the main source of backing up critical information. However, I do see value in tape as a second line of defense, such as for archival purposes. There are more efficient and reliable methods of securing company information, both short and long term. Many SMBs have invested in CD or DVD burners to permanently seal the data on physical media. Others have gone to an external hard drive directly connected to the company server. Both are surely improvements over the tape method, but are limited in their ability in terms of quick restore. Not to mention they fall short in geographical diversity, since they are directly attached to the network. Nor do they have the ability to add data from individual PCs attached to the network.

The headliner would be a solution that utilizes the organization's Internet bandwidth and an offsite receptacle for the data store. Continuous Data Protection, or CDP, is the premier method of this type. It started out much like the external hard drive, with wire-speed transfer of all data as it is being generated. This data was shipped to an appliance connected directly to the corporate network. In this way, you can obtain nearly instantaneous recovery of lost files and information. Have you have ever been working on a document, spreadsheet or other project, and suddenly experienced a program failure that cost you the entire body of work? If the corporate backups occur the night before, there's no backup file that can save you. However, the CDP solution mitigates the loss by offering as close to real-time backup as you can get, so that program crash doesn't cost you hours of work. In many cases, the recovery is as simple as point and click.

The deployment of CDP and related solutions evolved to a more secure remote backup scenario. By performing the same backups over the Internet to a remote appliance or array, you gain the added security of not storing the data onsite in case of a disaster or theft. The SonicWALL CDP device in its initial form had this option, sending the data to their datacenter in San Francisco, as well as an agent that can do a full "bare-metal" backup of a server or PC's full contents, including programs and operating systems. In addition, there are software solutions such as CA's ArcServe line. Many IT businesses have started to offer it as a managed service offering, and in some cases as part of an entire Managed Environment offering as an essential module to the management of an SMB network by a trusted partner.

No matter what the decision is on hardware, software or services, the key must be planning and thought. No one likes to think about what could happen in an emergency, it's just not a comfortable happy place for many people. So many small business owners just keep going on their path, with fingers crossed behind their backs. This can be a fatal misstep. A brief article in August of 2008 by technology journalist Ed Bott really summarized the four crucial steps that must be put on paper and prepared for:

1. Know what your data is worth
2. Find a repair/recovery specialist you can trust
3. Have a data disaster plan
4. Do regular data recovery drills

This last step is the one I find most often overlooked or not even considered. So many decision makers just believe that if they have it, it will work. This sounds like the voice in the classic film "Field of Dreams," doesn't it? Many make the mistake of hoping some similar mystical overseer will ensure it all works. As I mentioned before, seven out of ten attempts to restore from the most used tape backup solution fail. There's an old proverb that states simply, "If you fail to plan you are planning to fail." In trying to find the unknown author for this wisdom, I ran across another that seems to fit. "A little risk management saves a lot of fan cleaning." So get fired up about your data, do what you have to do to protect it at all costs from all threats, seen and unseen. Your future just may depend on it, in more ways than one.

SecurElement delivers a comprehensive blend of essential hardware, software, technical personnel, support and maintenance through the innovative Managed Environment program. Offering unparalleled value at a controlled cost, businesses of any size are able to leverage leading-edge technologies and services that maximize productivity, drive bottom line success and solve critical business issues.