Data Backup Storage Davis

What you need to know about data backup storage in Davis

Although much of the skill of data backup management lies in knowing your data, you also need to know your data backup storage options. With that in mind, here is a quick guide to what you need to know about data backup storage in Davis.

Thinks To be Considered While Data Backup Storage

If you’re already in the cloud you usually want to use the cloud for data backup storage

If you’re already working in an online environment, then it makes sense to stick with an online environment for your data backup storage. You can take a “local” data backup to your usual cloud (public or private) and an “off-site” data backup to a second cloud. In principle, this could be either a public cloud or a private cloud. In practice, regardless of your standard working environment, it usually makes the most sense to use the public cloud for data backup storage.

It is usually more expensive than it’s worth to run a second private cloud full-time, which would be what was required to use it as a data backup storage location. This means that your options are either to use the public cloud purely as a data backup storage location and be able to transport your data to (and from) a second private cloud which you activate as/when/if needed or just to use the public cloud as both a data backup storage location and a business continuity/disaster recovery solution.

Even if you are in a regulated industry, it may be worth investigating the second option. The mainstream public clouds are increasingly likely to be able to comply with at least the major data protection laws and compliance programs (including international ones such as GDPR).

The basics of storage in the cloud

In the cloud, you pay for exactly what you use for exactly as long as you use it. This creates a very strong incentive to minimize your use of resources as far as you reasonably can (meaning without compromising your business goals). The most obvious way to minimize the cost of cloud storage is to minimize the amount of data you hold. This means being careful about what data you collect/generate and making sure that dormant data is moved swiftly out of your production systems, either by being deleted or by being archived.

The less obvious way to minimize your use of resources is to segment your data and assign it resources based on your business needs. For example, data which is in constant use at short notice will need the fastest storage in production and the shortest Recovery Time Objective, meaning the fastest data backup storage. By contrast, data that is only used occasionally and with notice can usually have slower storage in production and a slower Recovery Time Objective, meaning slower data backup storage.

The basics of storage on physical media

There are currently only two forms of physical storage media that make practical sense for SMBs. These are tapes and hard drives. Tapes are arguably a semi-legacy media. In short, they were once the only practical option for business data backups and so companies had little choice but to invest in the infrastructure needed to use them (for example tape drives). Companies that already have this infrastructure are likely to be happy to go on using it, but companies that don’t are likely to prefer hard drives.

Hard drives are much faster than tapes and it is much easier and more affordable to purchase, implement, and run the necessary hardware. In fact, you can even buy all-in-one solutions that take care of both business data backup management and business data backup storage. These are, however, probably best suited to smaller SMBs.

The problem with hard drives, however, is that they are notorious for failing, even when treated with the utmost gentleness. If they are treated at all roughly (as can happen by accident, especially during transport), their failure rate goes up even more.

For local data backups, this doesn’t have to spell disaster. There is usually some warning before a hard drive fails, which gives you a window of opportunity to remove the data. Even if this does not work, the failure will probably still be noticed, hence you can decide what you need to do about it. For example, you could send the hard drive to a data recovery vendor.

If, however, you’re using hard drives for off-site data backups, then you have to think about the risk of only discovering a failure once you pull the hard drive from storage. You can mitigate this risk by using the cloud (or tapes).

If you’d like to speak to a reputable and experienced data backup storage partner in Davis, please click here now to contact Aperio.IT.