Data Backups: Why Reliability is so Important

Data is the lifeblood of any business.

Securely backing up this data is crucial for maintaining business continuity, especially in the face of unexpected events like system failures, cyber attacks, or natural disasters.

Unfortunately, as an IT provider, we see too often businesses operating with poor backups. Issues like irregular schedules, insecure storage methods or incomplete datasets threaten a business’s security and viability in the event of a disaster.

We’ve created this guide to emphasise the importance of reliable backups and show how you can ensure your backups really protect your data.

What is a ‘Reliable’ Data Backup?

A reliable data backup ensures data can be completely and accurately restored to its original state when needed. Reliability means more than just copying data on a regular schedule; the data must be accessible, intact, and functional if (or when) the primary data source fails.

Reliable backups protect against data loss, corruption, and unauthorised access, ensuring business operations can quickly resume with minimal disruption.

So, what does a reliable data backup look like?

Frequency: A crucial element of reliable backups is that they are carried out frequently, in line with the business’s data creation rate and criticality. For instance, a high-frequency backup schedule (daily or hourly) is necessary for those that generate significant amounts of data.

Integrity: Data needs to be error-free and uncorrupted. High integrity involves using checksums and other verification methods to validate the completeness and accuracy of the backup data.

Security: Security is paramount in safeguarding backups from unauthorised access and cyber threats. Encrypting backup data both in transit and at rest, using strong authentication mechanisms, and ensuring that access to backup data is restricted and monitored all help keep data secure.

Ensuring reliable data backups is critical, but what happens when backups fail or systems go down?

The Cost of Downtime

The cost of downtime can be staggering, affecting not only the financial bottom line but also a business’s reputation and operational efficiency. The leading five consequences are:

1. Data Loss: Unreliable backups can result in permanent loss of critical data, which often cripples operations and can threaten the business’s survival.
2. Operational Disruption: Incomplete or corrupted backups can halt business operations, causing significant workflow disruptions and delays.
3. Financial Loss: Downtime usually leads to direct financial losses from lost sales and missed opportunities, while permanent data loss can cause increased recovery costs.
4. Reputational Damage: Failing to protect and recover data erodes customer trust and loyalty, leading to long-term reputational damage.
5. Regulatory Penalties: Non-compliance with data protection regulations due to unreliable backups usually results in hefty fines and legal penalties.

Calculating the Cost of Downtime

The cost of downtime includes both direct and indirect expenses.

Direct costs encompass loss of revenue and penalties. For instance, a business might lose significant revenue if its online sales platform is down for several hours. If that business is non-compliant with regulations, the resulting fines add to the financial burden.

Indirect costs are harder to quantify but equally damaging. These include reputational damage, impact on team morale and loss of productivity. Downtime can diminish customer trust and damage the brand. Employees unable to perform their duties effectively during downtime reduces overall productivity and increases operational costs.

A Simple Way to Calculate Downtime

A simple way to estimate the cost of downtime is to divide your annual revenue by your annual operating hours – that should give you a rough idea of how each hour of downtime costs your business.

That’s without considering brand damage, lost productivity, lost customers, or possible fines. To summarise, reliable backups are necessary for sustaining business operations and protecting valuable data.

Avoiding Downtime: Data Backups in Disaster Recovery Plans

Businesses want to avoid downtime wherever possible. That’s why a robust disaster recovery plan is so important; it minimises downtime in the event of a cyber attack or another disaster. Reliable data backups form a crucial part of those recovery plans.

When creating a disaster recovery plan, you must define clear Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO). RTO is the maximum acceptable downtime, while RPO is the maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time. These objectives help guide the development of backup strategies and technologies.

For instance, if your RPO is 60 minutes, that means your objective is to lose a maximum of an hour’s worth of data i.e. you need to back up every 60 minutes.

The Best Practices for Reliable Data Backups

Implementing best practices is essential for ensuring the reliability of backups:

Adopting a Backup Strategy: Businesses should choose a backup strategy that fits their needs, whether full, incremental, or differential. Full backups are comprehensive but time-consuming, while incremental and differential backups are faster and more storage-efficient.

• Full Backup: A complete copy of all data, capturing everything in its entirety at a specific point in time.
• Incremental Backup: This method backs up only the data that has changed since the last backup (whether full or incremental), resulting in faster backups and less storage use.
• Differential Backup: Backs up all the data that has changed since the last full backup, which requires more storage than incremental backups but is faster to restore.

The 3-2-1 Backup Rule: The 3-2-1 backup rule is a widely recommended practice. Keep three copies of your data (the original and two backups), store them on two different types of media, and ensure one copy is off-site. This rule ensures data redundancy and geographic separation to protect against local disasters.

Regular Testing: Regularly testing backups is critical to ensure they can be successfully restored. You should periodically carry out restore drills and verify the integrity and completeness of the backup data.

Automation: Automating the backup process reduces the risk of human error and ensures consistency. Backup software schedules and performs backups automatically, monitors for issues, and alerts administrators if problems arise.

Concerned About Data Backups?

When running a business, you shouldn’t worry about data backup issues threatening your operations. If you’re beginning to feel concerned about the reliability of your data backups, ask your current provider these questions:

• How long will it take to complete a full system restore?
• Have your recovery processes been tested recently?
• Where is your data backed up?
• Do you have a copy of your data in a minimum of two separate locations?

If you’re unsatisfied with the data backup service you’re currently receiving, we’re here to help.

AAG offers a free independent consultation to determine the functionality of your backups and disaster recovery plans. We can also answer these critical questions for you.

Data security is too important to be left to chance. Take the time to ensure your data backups are reliable; you’ll be thankful should you ever need it.

Book a call with our team for your free independent consultation.