To back up? or not to backup?...
“I’m covered, we backup all of our key data to the cloud, covering us in the event of a disaster or system failure”
It’s an answer we hear a lot but we sometimes its best to re-ask the question:
“In the event of disaster or complete server(s) failure how long can your company be down for?”
The reason we ask this question is that the perception that backing up data to the cloud means it’s safe in the event of a disaster and its readily available if things go wrong. This is somewhat true, but, perceived timelines of when things are back up and running can be far from the truth.
Take this scenario for example; you have a single server (running 2 virtual machines – a file server and a SQL server for production) each server has a nightly backup job copying all company data and SQL data to the cloud (say 500GB in total). Then disaster strikes and the servers fails causing the company to come to a grinding halt.
The steps required to restore data and bring manufacturing back online:
|
Step required |
Estimated time (days) |
|
Purchase Hardware e.g. online |
1 |
|
Receive Hardware |
1 |
|
Installation of base system and configure |
1.5 |
|
Download cloud data (average speed) |
1.5 |
|
Install required applications for SQL data |
1 |
|
Total |
6 days |
So, going back to our question “In the event of disaster or complete server(s) failure how long can your company be down for?” it’s important to find a solution which meets YOUR expected recovery time.
At 5c Services we have a solution to fit a range of expected recovery times, from on-premise to cloud based system recovery (so no hardware procuring required).
Of course these products vary in price but if you take into consideration company down time (loss of income, employee wages etc) then its important to budget for the right solution.
Be sure to get in touch for an informal chat regarding your requirements.
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