Let's think about backups
Recently I was asked by a client, a company of about 10 people, to join a conference call about backups. They were considering an Internet backup solution and wanted a discussion of the subject amongst people they trusted. They were pretty well informed but the discussion reminded me of some of the difficulties people have understanding what they want from a backup.
Who Cares?
Lets face it, you only really care about a backup when somethings gone wrong for instance, your laptops been stolen, you've deleted a file accidentally or some files have become corrupted. Most people only think about backups after the horse has already bolted, and most people I meet that are fastidious about backups normally suffered some great loss in the past and understand the pain of permanently losing important and valuable data.
So in order for you not to become permanently scared by the loss of your data, here are some pointers on what to think about when you consider a backup solution.
The Five Backup Layers
Backups can be thought about in five layers with each layer depending on the previous one. How much you 'need' from each layer depends on how bad the failure you just had was.
Lets look at the layers. In order to understand them, I'll use some well known products to serve as an example;
1. Operating System
This is the software that runs the particular computer you are planning to backup.
Your copy of Windows XP for instance - you did run the software to create your disks when you got that laptop didn't you, and you remember where you put them don't you. In most catastrophic situations most people fall at the first hurdle and look at me blankly, 'surely' they say 'you've got a copy of that'. Wrong, there are so many different versions of Microsoft products that are produced for different hardware manufacturers, its unlikely the codes I will ask you for next will work (see below).
2. Operating System Configuration
This is all the stuff that was done to your computer so you could log on and use it. More obvious things like your username and password, less obvious things such as the activation code for your copy of Windows, it goes with disks you hopefully created above, and the code that is normally stuck to your computer. You did keep the activation code some where safe didn't you?
3. Application
These are the programs you are using, the most obvious being your word processor and office suite. You might have some Adobe programs installed or you might be a serial down-loader from the Internet. In any case you'll need the disks you installed from or a way to get these applications if you have a catastrophic failure.
4. Application Configuration
This is the work that was done to allow you to use the applications that you installed on your computer. You do have those Adobe Photoshop license keys and the MS Office activation codes don't you . Could be expensive if you haven't.
5. Application Data
And finally this is the bit that people think they have to backup. Its just the file from the particular application for example a Word Document or a PhotoShop file. In reality its the bit you care about the most because it's what you actually did work on and in a way its the probably of the most value to you. On a laptop typically this data is the files that you save in your documents folder.
Why am I doing this backup?
When considering a backup you have to think clearly about the failure against which you wish to protect yourself. If its just the deletion or corruption of a few files, then simply a copy of your application data is good enough (just layer 5). If its the loss of your laptop then you need to consider much more - In this case if the data from 1,2,3 and 4 is missing, it can normally be purchased again (ouch!) and re-installed, but will require time and money. You can't always purchase it again though - many years ago I had a client with data stored for a product that was no longer available, the company that produced it had disappeared, bought out by a competitor and closed down. My client didn't have the original disks they only had the application data - we had to recover and convert their data at great expense.
The other big thing to work out when thinking about your backup, is how quickly do you want to be able to start using your data after a failure?
The general rules are;
- The quicker the backup is to run, the longer it will take to recover your data from it.
- The cheaper the backup is to set up the more expensive it will be to use it for a recovery.
Yeap, even in the world of backups there is no such thing as a free lunch!
Good Planning
Nothing replaces good planning and a deep understanding of what will happen in certain failure circumstances, it keeps your mind focused and allows you to control the risk of potential data loss to your business.
Next time I'll talk a little about how often you need to backup, there is a lot more to this than meets the eye!