What's Your Backup Plan?
Regular and systematic, verified backup of your company's files is essential, yet this single component of the IT landscape is often the most misunderstood.
"Backing everything up, including planning for recovery, is an absolutely critical piece of technology, and it's the one with the most misconceptions and highest failure rates," said Howard Podgurski, DocuTech president.
No other component of your IT system is so vital, yet confusing. The array of variables is enormous: Should your backups be full, incremental or differential? Is your main goal disaster recovery or archiving? If it's disaster recovery, when and how quickly do you need things back on line - in a matter of minutes, hours or can it be days?
Then, how are the backups verified? Who is paying attention to the tapes or drives and monitoring the process? Or is everything automated, verified and stored off site using a hosted backup system?
Naturally, different companies will have different answers to these questions, and the costs involved vary greatly. Depending on factors such as type of company, type of operations, size of business and the company mindset or culture, each business will develop a unique plan of action.
When planning backup systems, Recovery Time Objective is most often overlooked, “which means it might take you days to recover even though all your data is properly backed up," Podgurski said. “Your data may be safe, but once you have a failure, who will restore your systems? How long will it take to get you back on line – hours or days? Finally, can your business sustain the cost of prolonged downtime?"
To determine appropriate backup and recovery processes from the realm of possibilities, DocuTech looks at your company's business drivers and needs, and then comes up with the best solution for your situation and ROI. "There are as many backup methods as there are companies. We follow best practices and guide you through the maze and avert potential nightmares," Podgurski said.
As a general, simplified rule:
- Back up every day, and perform a full backup at least once a week.
- Test your backup process and your ability to restore at least monthly or quarterly.
- Store one copy of your full backup away from your system and off-site for security. This can be via automated online hosting, or through removable data storage media.
Find out more about our hosted online backup services, and obtain the highest level of protection for your data. Special offer: Sign up to receive two months of online backup services for free, available only until May 31, 2010. Send an email to info@docutech.com or call our Philadelphia area office at 215.672.7060 or the Baltimore area office at 410.793.0301.
Proven Technology: Centralized Security and Threat Management
In recent months, DocuTech engineers have been focusing on network security, evaluating emerging technologies that address a wide range of security and threat management using a centrally managed solution.
Until now, attacks on operating systems, applications, viruses, and malwares have been addressed with separate components and processes. The new technology combines threat management into a single point of administration.
Our findings show the technology has proven itself, and we've determined its effectiveness and compatibility with existing applications and system configurations. At this point, we are narrowing in on a manufacturer to partner with in delivering this product to our customers. This centrally managed security and threat solution should cost less than $5.00 per user per month.
Find out more: send an email to info@docutech.com or call our Philadelphia area office at 215.672.7060 or the Baltimore area office at 410.793.0301.
Tech Tip: Versioning
In Word, versioning allows you can keep different versions of a document in the same file. You can extract any version and save it separately. To create a version, choose File > Versions and click Save Now to save the current document. Word records the author, time and date, and any comments you wish to add. By checking Automatically, Word will save a version each time you close the file.
To view your version history, go to File > Versions and click Open to see that particular version in a separate window. To save a version separately, choose File > Save As.
