[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]3 BDR Myths That Can End in Disaster
Today’s technology environment requires advanced backup and disaster recovery (BDR) solutions that enable end users to ensure that their most valuable data will be protected.
Even the most basic user of technology can attest to that fact that things don’t always work as expected. When important business-related information and content is on the line, however, it’s not a good time to find out your backup system isn’t doing its job.
Surprisingly, this mission-critical technology is often ranked low on users’ to-do lists, and it’s virtually forgotten about once installed. General consensus seems to be that as long as some form of BDR solution is in use, that’s “good enough.”
Eventually, computers and servers will fail, and when this happens you don’t want to learn the hard way that you should have taken your backup strategy more seriously. To avoid becoming another data disaster statistic, avoid the following three common BDR myths.
Myth #1: All Backup Systems Are the Same
It can be overwhelming and difficult to decide which backup system would best fit your specific needs with the plethora of options on the market, and although similar, BDR solutions do have some important distinctions.
One distinction is the type of backup the BDR supports. For example, some solutions perform file-based backups, some perform physical image backups, and others perform virtual machine (VM) backups. Each has its advantages and drawbacks and oftentimes companies need more than just one option for complete protection.
Rather than trying to cobble multiple disparate backup programs together, it’s better to look for a solution that offers multiple types of backups and enables you to easily manage the different backups from a single pane of glass.
Myth #2: BDR Works Independently From Other Technologies
Backup technologies have come a long way from the early days of copying data from servers onto tape media and making a second copy that’s stored in an off-site vault. While these earlier data backups had little to no connection with a company’s business and compliance planning and strategies, things have changed.
Today’s BDR solutions enable companies to take advantage of disk and solid-state storage technologies along with cloud-based technologies and services, drastically shortening backup and recovery windows and requiring fewer manual steps along the way.
Additionally, modern BDR technologies enable companies to align their IT and business strategies. For example, today’s BDR solutions can be integrated with remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools and service-level agreements (SLAs) to provide users with greater visibility and automation of their backup and recovery processes.
Myth #3: Cloud Computing Eliminates the Need for BDR
We’ve witnessed the vast movement of data, applications and even computer infrastructures and platforms to the cloud over the past few years. Take the Microsoft Office suite, for example, where programs like Outlook, Word and Excel used to be installed on computers are now being replaced with Office 365 subscriptions, which feature these same apps operating in Microsoft’s cloud. Microsoft also includes cloud backup with Office 365 subscriptions.
While there’s some basic short-term data retention included with these and other cloud services, it most likely will not meet the needs of businesses that have compliance requirements or other data access or long-term protection requirements. Using a third-party BDR solution is still necessary to ensure data archiving policies are met as well as other key considerations such as RPO (recovery point objective) and RTO (recovery time objective) initiatives.
The reality is that having your data safely backed up and stored somewhere is only half the equation. The other half, which is equally important, is being able to get access to it in a timely fashion when you really need it most.
Adam Davis, CEO, Next Dimension Inc[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]