What exactly are good backups? We cover most every detail of this in our 3-2-1 Backup plan. But to put it simply, a good backup…
- Exists in at least 3 copies
- On 2 different types of media
- with at least 1 copy being offsite
We are of the opinion that you can never have too many backups of your data. However, it is considered reasonably safe to have a copy of data in 3 distinct locations and different types of media with one being at a different physical location from the primary, actively used copy.
So what does this mean?
Backups Can Fail
Backups fail all the time for hundreds of different reasons. Unfortunately, a lot of different things all have to happen exactly right for a backup to succeed. A backup is essentially copying data from one location to another. But if the source data is locked for use by a user or program and the backup software isn’t designed to be able to handle this occurrence, a backup can fail. It can also fail if the software does not have sufficient authority to make copies of the software, or if the source software isn’t available for whatever reason at the scheduled backup time. Maybe the backup software is suddenly damaged and can’t run. Or the destination storing the backups is suddenly out of room (a common occurrence). Maybe the destination storage isn’t even there because it was accidentally unplugged and no one knows about it.
One of the worst things is having backups that can’t be retrieved because something went wrong in the copy process and all that is being stored are junk files the computer can’t read. Or maybe a virus encrypted the backups so they are as useless as the regular encrypted data (we’ve seen this as well). You begin to see that countless things can cause a backup to fail. And unless a business has a dedicated and competent person or persons that are disciplined to regularly check and test backups for their validity, it is very likely that proper backups won’t be available to save the day when they are most needed! This is the single biggest gamble a company can make when deciding what services are needed. This practice, more than anything else, can make or break a company.