Backup Guidelines

Importance of Backups

A backup is the only way to recover data from any sort of catastrophic data failure event on the server.  These events can manifest themselves in a variety of different shapes and ways.  Without a backup, the data is lost forever and often with dire consequences.  A business can be wiped out financially if data cannot be recovered.

When will I need to Restore from a Backup?

Hopefully, never!  Your backup is insurance protection for your data in the event that one of the following scenarios occurs at your office.

Customer Disaster Scenarios:

IMPORTANT:  You can recover from all of these scenarios if you maintain proper data backups and procedures.

• Natural Disasters – including lightning strike, fire, water

• System failure – including hard drive failure, file corruption through faulty software, electrical spikes, static electricity

• Man-made – including deleting files unintentionally, disgruntled employees changing data, viruses or outside hackers.

NDS Recommendations for Customer Backups

We recommend that you maintain the following backups for your system:

IMPORTANT:  If your backup process includes a local backup, it is important to have key personnel remove the encrypted backup media from your facility or office and store it off site in a secure location.  

1.  Off-site Backup - Northern Data Systems recommends using our secure Enterprise Backup Management Services (EBM).  This NDS service covers all four backup and recovery steps and combines them into one easy to use service.

2.  Local Backup - Maintain multiple copies of backup media (disks, tapes) using a Backup program with encryption.  
Recommended Media:  Recommended media includes RDX, LTO, and NAS storage.

• Monday through Friday (Normal Backup) – Back up all data files with a full verification using a separate, clearly labeled backup for each day that your office is open.  If you use the system on Saturday then you should maintain an additional backup for that day.
  

• Month End (Normal Backup) – Back up all data files on a media that is labelled and stored for only month end purposes.  
  Note:  NDS strongly recommends that all backups are maintained on separate media, labeled and stored off site.

Steps to Configure a Successful Backup Process

1.  Configure the backup program to back up and encrypt all needed files.

2.  Schedule backups to run at specific times each day.

3.  Configure Backup software to notify key personnel of backup status - Pass or Fail.

4.  Periodically restore data to ensure backup process is successful.