External hard drives are further recommended if you are trying to back up a video or other large files since they tend to have a large amount of storage space. If you don't want to shell out cash for the hard drive, you can also look into compressing your files to keep them somewhere with less space.
Compression is a process that reduces the size of a file by removing bits or pixels. Compression is a useful and quick tool to use, but make sure you know what kind of compression you're putting on a file: certain types of compression are irreversible and you will lose those bits forever. Finally, your company may offer some form of cloud storage, which will let you store your information on the Internet while also opening up the ability to access files from multiple devices.
Cloud services tend to be fairly reliable, but still make sure to check the reputation of these services OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. Some cloud services don't run a very tight ship on keeping your files protected.
You should now have a good idea of both data backup definitions and the many types of backup you can use. For more information on sorting data and all things computers, check out more posts on our blog! Now enjoy never losing your files again! Subscribe Now. This business advisory guide will arm you with 21 Revealing Questions you should ask any computer consultant before giving them access to your network. NE Albuquerque, NM Instead, you need to implement multiple, disparate solutions — or better still — use a solution that backs up every device and system in your backup scope.
Once you decide on the scope of your backups, the next important decision is how often you need to back up and define a backup schedule. Your colleagues are constantly changing data, and in the event of a disaster, all the data created from the latest backup to the moment of failure will be lost.
This period is called the Recovery Point Objective RPO — the maximum period that you are willing to lose data on your systems because of an event. A shorter RPO means losing less data, but it requires more backups, more storage capacity, and more computing and network resources for backup to run.
A longer RPO is more affordable, but it means losing more data. Many small and medium-sized companies usually define an RPO of 24 hours, which means you need to back up daily. With modern backup solutions, you can implement RPOs as short as a few minutes. Another important variable is recovery time objective RTO — how fast you can recover from the moment of a disaster to the moment you return to normal operations.
When systems are down, your company loses money and you need to recover fast to minimize losses. For many companies, an RTO of few hours is the norm. Once these are defined, you can decide on your solutions and storage. There are multiple types of backup solutions and tools available on the market that deliver different RPOs, RTOs, and handle different scopes. Here are the most popular ones. The appliances are easy to install and configure.
In most cases, you do not need to provision a separate server, operating system, or install any software. The agents installed on your systems perform the backups, and you access the solution via a graphical interface provided with the appliance.
However, remember that if you have a hardware appliance and it fails, you lose your entire data backup solution. Even if you backed up to a secondary location, you need to re-provision the backup solution before you can recover, which increases your recovery times.
Software solutions are installed on your own systems and handle the backup process. Many solutions allow you to use existing systems, but some require dedicated servers provisioned just for backup.
For these, you need to install and configure the operating system and the backup software. In many cases, you can install the software on a virtual machine VM. Compared to hardware appliances, software solutions offer greater flexibility, especially if your infrastructure changes often. Also, software solutions can be less expensive than purchasing a hardware appliance bundle and they also allow you to choose and provision your own storage.
The BaaS is even simpler than software because there are no systems to provision and no operating systems to configure. Of course, if your organization deals with sensitive data or is subject to regulatory requirements, you will need to check if cloud backup with a BaaS solution is acceptable. For example, you may save several copies of a research paper on your hard drive as backup files in case you decide to use a previous revision.
Better yet, you could save the backups to a USB flash disk , which would also protect the files if the hard drive failed. Hard drives are meant to run for many years without crashing. But just like all electronic devices, they are not immune to problems. Because they are not solid state devices, hard drives rely on moving parts to access data, which can malfunction and cause your data to become unrecoverable. If you need proof of how fragile hard drives really are, go to your local computer store and have someone show you an open hard drive.
When you realize all your data is stored in such a small, delicate device, you may have a new understanding of why you need to backup your data. But it's not just hardware malfunctions you have to worry about.
Software corruption can also damage your files. Directory structures can become damaged and cause entire folders to disappear. Files can be mistakenly deleted or corrupted by viruses or other software attacks.
Program installation conflicts can make applications or files unusable. There are unfortunately many ways for your data to become damaged or disappear.
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