Backups are essential components of any data protection strategy. However, if your firm is fully reliant on backups for disaster recovery and business continuity, unanticipated backup failures might be fatal. When backups are routinely scheduled, you risk being a victim of media failure, software errors, cyberattacks, or even human error.
Fortunately, continuous monitoring and frequent testing can help you avoid backup failure to a significant extent. This will ensure proper data restoration in the event of a disaster.
In this post, we'll go over the steps involved in monitoring your backups, testing them, and ensuring effective restoration in the event of an unforeseeable disaster.
Backup status monitoring
Most businesses that rely on data for day-to-day operations have a consistent backup schedule in place. The timetable may vary from hourly to weekly or longer depending on the criticality of the data.
If your backup fails at some point, you may lose your data up to the point of the most recent successful backup. By recognising these flaws early on, you can reduce your overall losses and resolve the problems.
This is why backup status monitoring is so important. Failure to monitor your backups may result in a snowball effect that continues indefinitely until recognised.
The dilemma
It should be obvious by now that backup monitoring should be a component of your backup strategy. While monitoring is important, most organisations cannot afford to do it every day.
The solution
The frequency of monitoring can be determined by your recoverability goals. For example, if you deal with crucial data that is critical to your organisation, you could set up weekly monitoring. This will allow you to discover any problems immediately and solve them without compromising your backup goals.Backup monitoring for the scattered workforce
Implementing a backup system for all devices can be challenging when employees work from different locations. However, this doesn’t mean you can compromise on the safety of your data. This is where you need the cloud to be a part of your backup strategy.
A 3-2-1 method is recommended when you have at least three copies of your data – two on different platforms and one offsite (cloud). You may gain total access into your backup tasks and remotely monitor and validate them with a centralised remote monitoring and management solution.
Spot-checking for accuracy and quality
This is a straightforward technique to backup testing. After you've backed up everything in your environment, you can check the backup disc or cloud to see if the files or folders are still available. If you are unable to view any of the files, you may have a backup issue.
In this scenario, you should double-check your backup configuration and drives to confirm everything is working properly. Backups should be performed in multiple locations to ensure that everything goes well.
Full restore testing
This is a more advanced version of spot-checking that assesses your ability to recover from total data loss following a disaster. To accomplish this, prioritise crucial files critical to your immediate recovery and effectively test them.
Determine the testing approach
When evaluating your backups, there are several factors to consider. For example, you can design distinct virtual machine scenarios and assess their ability to recover a system. Consider a disaster recovery testing approach that focuses on recreating the full environment and completing multiple scenario-based recovery tests.
The final purpose of testing in this case is to ensure the integrity of the backups you've produced. You must select a testing strategy that is appropriate for your organisation and IT environment.
Frequency of testing
How frequently should you verify the integrity of your backups? To answer that question, you must evaluate numerous elements in your environment, such as workload, applications, systems, and so on, and devise a testing schedule that works for you.
You should also examine your Recovery Point Objective (RPO), which is the maximum time your company can survive following a calamity. If you want to stay inside business continuity boundaries, make sure your testing frequency is well within your RPO.
A backup solution that you can count on
Most importantly, you need to invest in the right backup solution that ensures the complete recoverability of your valuable data. Need help? Reach out to us today and let us help you find an enterprise-class and robust backup solution that is tailor-made for your business.
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