Backup…and running!

Ankle-deep in rain, shivering and sneezing, norovirus and Swine Flu 2.0 on the way, could it get any worse?

It could. And yet while the above external variables are all out of our direct control, there are those we have direct control over yet we neglect at our peril.

Hence a word to the wise: only this very week, after two years of stalwart service 24/7, my trusty laptop (no names, no pack drill) died due to what appeared to be a shorted out 5v pin on the USB chip – which in its death throes, greedily took all the vital data thereon down with it into Dante’s digital inferno.

Posted by Paul Quigley 2nd September 2009

Ankle-deep in rain, shivering and sneezing, norovirus and Swine Flu 2.0 on the way, could it get any worse?

It could. And yet while the above external variables are all out of our direct control, there are those we have direct control over yet we neglect at our peril.

Hence a word to the wise: only this very week, after two years of stalwart service 24/7, my trusty laptop (no names, no pack drill) died due to what appeared to be a shorted out 5v pin on the USB chip – which in its death throes, greedily took all the vital data thereon down with it into Dante’s digital inferno.

It looks as though the SATA drive is actually salvageable, so a lucky escape, though the incident clearly demonstrates an abject lesson in the timeless ‘better safe than sorry’ boring backup routine that we all should perform regularly, whether in an SME or a large enterprise.

But the temptation is literally to tempt fate, and not to act beforehand. Whilst we all know that a stitch in time saves nine, in the case of this laptop, it could have saved over 90 gigabytes! It’s too easy to become complacent about caring for your content, because while everything is functioning normally, time spent taking backups seems to be some of the most boring, wastes of time.

Yet this couldn’t be further from the truth. The importance of taking backups – having a systemic disaster recovery plan – is paramount. It’s mission-critical. Even on a small scale, business processes should allow for it alongside any comprehensive ECM strategy.

However, without automated business processes, few of us take enough time to backup our important data, but data loss does happen, as my lifeless laptop in the corner proves. Despite mind-numbingly long MTBFs cited by drive vendors on their units, hard disk drives do die. What’s more, viruses, infections, dropped laptops, scratched CDs and DVDs, vital files and priceless digital assets get deleted or overwritten all the time. A host of other things can also happen to separate us from our documents, audio, digital images, configuration and preference files, videos, financial records, email, registration codes and even time-consuming desktop layout preferences.

As well as HDs dying suddenly, files can get deleted or corrupted or overwritten before being noticed, (or in the case of government, disappearing off-site without due safeguards being in place!), so longer-term backups can be vital too. And don’t forget other places that may hold your critical operational data: websites and webmail, netbooks, PDAs, phones, even some physical documents may be worth scanning or capturing if they’re irreplaceable, which they invariably are.

Even from a personal data perspective, it really is worth having a think about what might happen to your data, and how much you’d miss it. From the business continuity perspective, the disaster scenario doesn’t bear thinking of.

Yet there is no single ‘correct’ backup strategy. Some files may not be worth backing up at all, especially if they can be easily reinstalled from CD or downloaded. Others may be vital enough to justify backups over several years and stored off-site. You have to decide for yourself. But don’t just ask ‘how much time or money can I afford to spend?’ Perhaps more aptly, ask yourself ‘How much data can I afford to lose?’