One of the many reasons why the move to digitization has been so good for so many businesses is because it makes it easier to protect your data. Instead of having to work out how to safeguard mounds of paper files (while still keeping them accessible if needed), you just have to organize an effective business data backup strategy. With that in mind, here is a quick guide to what you need to know about business data backup in Yuba City.
1. You need to have oversight of your data
In the old days of data centers, you always knew where your data was and who had access to it. It was either on your own servers, on physical storage devices kept on your own premises, or on physical storage devices that you had transported to an off-site storage location.
In the days of the cloud, by contrast, relatively few companies have their servers physically on-site anymore, especially not SMBs, not even if they’re running a private cloud. Regular commercial space is both too precious and often too vulnerable to be used for back-end IT infrastructure, such as cloud servers. This is particularly true in urban areas like Yuba City.
Even if they are, they will still generally need an off-site business data backup, and thanks to the internet, that data backup can, in principle, be stored anywhere in the world and managed by anyone they choose. In practice, the most prudent option by far is to stick with local facilities and local vendors so you have the highest degree of oversight of your data and the people with access to it.
2. You need to understand your data
In the old days of data centers, data were either active or dormant with nothing in between. In the days of the cloud, however, there is a spectrum of storage speeds to cover everything from data you need at the fastest possible speed to data you are only keeping for compliance reasons.
Similarly, back in the days of data centers, you would probably back up all your data at the same time. In the days of the cloud, by contrast, you have the option to back up different types of data according to different schedules.
It is well worth making the most of both of these options because it improves efficiency and reduces cost. This is particularly true of storage options because you can mirror these options across your production system and your business data backups (of which there will usually be two).
3. Choosing the right storage for your data
There are two parts to choosing the right storage for your data. The first is to identify what storage speed is needed when the data is active. The second is to be able to identify what storage speed is needed for data that has fallen dormant but still needs to be kept.
This implies that you need the ability to track your data through its life-cycle (or life-cycles) to know when it switches from one state to the other (and possibly back again), but that’s a separate issue.
Choosing the right speed for your data means working out how long a person can reasonably wait for it. The first point you need to consider is whether the data is used reactively or proactively. In other words, does the user know in advance that they’re going to need the data to be available at a certain time, and if so how far in advance? Data needed for scheduled tasks is a great candidate for slower storage.
If data is used reactively, then it is more likely to need faster storage. Does it, however, need the fastest storage you can find, or could the user reasonably wait a bit for an answer to their query? This is a bit of a finer line to tread and you should usually err on the side of faster storage, but it’s still worth at least considering.
When data falls dormant, the traditional approach is to put it into archival storage (if it needs to be kept at all) and then reactivate it or delete it as required. This is usually still the most practical and cost-effective approach.
4. Choosing your business data backup frequency
What matters here is not how quickly your data is needed but how often it is updated. Admittedly, there is likely to be a fair degree of crossover between data that is needed quickly and data that is regularly updated, but, in principle, they are still two separate points. The more frequently data is updated, the more frequently you should aim to back it up and vice versa.
If you’d like to speak to a reputable and experienced business data backup services provider in Yuba City, please click here now to contact Aperio.IT.
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