Is “just the job” really good enough for Backup and DR?

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Information concept: Head With Padlock and Data Loss

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Welcome and hello to the first thinkS3 blog post. Over the coming weeks you will be able to get all kinds of information and ask questions on topics that matter to you. Please subscribe to receive the blog regularly and share your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom. Now without further delay lets jump into this week’s blog.

Originally I was going to kick off our blogs with a look at the results from recent surveys that thinkS3 conducted at events such as IPEXPO and The Charity IT leaders Annual Conference. Whilst exhibiting we took time to ask a few questions about how CIO’s and Network Managers really feel about their IT estates, virtualisation and the cloud. Although when sat down with thinkS3 CTO, Rob Galt, we noticed a statistic that we found rather worrisome!

ONLY 30% OF BACKUP & DR IN PLACE IS CONSIDERED TO DO MORE THAN “JUST THE JOB”

Backup and DR strategies are well documented as being critical to a business continuity plan, without a verified and stable backup solution a company could find itself in dire straits. Evidence suggests that every company at some point will have a requirement to restore data at some point. Accidents happen it’s the simple truth and being prepared to recover from an incident quickly will save significant numbers in lost revenues that down time can cause. Let’s not forget that someone is also going to be held responsible for the delays or losses, ultimately that person is going to have some difficult questions to answer. All of that can be avoided so simply with the right tools in place, not tools that “just do the job”. However, the perceived lack of time to deal with replacing or refreshing Backup is major factor in less than suitable deployments existing. Our technicians spend a lot of time working with IT departments helping them cope with the time pressures that modern IT has been put under for exactly this reason.

I will explain what I mean about avoiding “just the job” for Backup and Disaster Recovery. Given we know how critical a speedy disaster recovery process is to a business, why would you want to get tools that just scrape by when it comes to delivering on that process. Business Availability experts Veeam for example have adopted an approach of only the best is good enough.

96% of Veeam Recoveries meet RTO SLA’s vs 76% for legacy Backup

Veeam have spent their time becoming masters at what they do and with the pending launch of Veeam Availability Suite 9 just around the corner you can bet your bottom dollar they will be looking to improve again. The suite is a highly commended group of solutions designed to keep your data centre up, running and available. A large part of the suite is the Veeam Backup and Replication tools. These tools provide a fast, flexible and reliable recovery of virtualised applications and data in a simple to use management interface. Providing you with the kind of detail you actually need to monitor how well your backup strategy is working. The reporting features and testing features give you real control and say on how your backup works and what the recovery looks like. A lot of legacy equipment is assumed to be doing “just the job” and as a result some of the jobs that are made easy by Veeam become a painful task that frequently gets put to the bottom of the pile. These hard to manage legacy deployments are not doing anything other than increasing risk in your business.

Ask yourself:

When was the last time I tested recovery?

How often do I verify my data?

What would happen to the business if recovery failed?

Who is responsible when the proverbial hits the fan?

Can I afford not to look at Backup and DR?

If some of you are having difficulties with your Backup and are concerned that it is “just doing the job” thinkS3 technicians can be made available to assess your current solution and provide guidance on best practice and a structure development path for your needs.