A Complete Guide to Data Backup for Business

09 Jan A Complete Guide to Data Backup & Disaster Recovery

Posted at 18:32h in News by Chris Musselle

Data is the lifeblood of modern businesses. It holds critical information, customer details, financial records, and more. But what if one day you woke up to find all that data lost, irretrievable? This nightmare scenario is why data backup and disaster recovery strategies are crucial for businesses of all sizes. In this guide, we’ll delve into the world of data backup and disaster recovery, understanding how they work and the benefits they can bring.

What is Data Backup?

Data backup is the process of creating copies of your business data and storing them in a secure location. These copies act as a safety net, enabling you to recover your information in case of data loss due to human errors, cyber-attacks, hardware failures, or natural disasters.

How Does Data Backup Work?

There are several methods to perform data backup, including:

Full Backup: This method creates a complete copy of all your data, including files, databases, and system configurations. It can take longer to perform but offers comprehensive protection.
Incremental Backup: Instead of copying the entire data set, incremental backup only saves changes made since the last backup. This method reduces the time and storage space required for backups.
Differential Backup: Similar to incremental backup, differential backup only copies the changes made since the last full backup. It eliminates the need to back up every file incrementally, simplifying the restoration process.

The Benefits of Data Backup for Businesses

Data backup comes with numerous benefits for businesses, including:

Data Recovery: The ability to retrieve lost or corrupted data is vital for business continuity. With backups in place, you can quickly recover your information and resume operations.
Protection against Cyber Threats: As cyber-attacks become more sophisticated, businesses must be prepared. Data backup ensures that even if your organisation falls victim to ransomware or other malicious attacks, you have copies of your data to recover from.
Compliance with Legal Requirements: Data protection regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the UK, mandate businesses to protect personal data. Data backup plays a crucial role in meeting these compliance requirements.
Remote Working: Moving your data to the cloud for management and backup allows your business to facilitate remote working securely and effectively. This can increase productivity and provide great flexibility to staff members.

UK Legal Requirements for Data Backup

In the UK, the legal requirements for data backup are outlined in the GDPR. According to the regulation, businesses must implement measures to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of personal data. Regular data backups are considered a fundamental element of achieving these objectives.

GDPR, which stands for General Data Protection Regulation, is a regulation by the European Union (EU) that aims to protect the personal data and privacy of EU citizens. It was implemented on May 25, 2018 and applies to organisations that process the personal data of individuals in the EU, regardless of their location.

It is important to note that this is just a general overview of GDPR compliance and organisations may need to seek legal advice or consult official GDPR guidelines to ensure full compliance.

Can Data Backup Be Automated?

Yes, data backup can be automated. In fact, automating the backup process is highly recommended as it helps ensure regular and consistent backups without relying on manual intervention. Automated data backup reduces the risk of human error, improves efficiency, and provides better protection against data loss.

There are several ways to automate data backup:

Scheduled Backup: Backup software or backup tools often provide the option to schedule backups at specific intervals. You can configure the software to automatically run backups daily, weekly, or at any desired frequency. The backup process will then initiate automatically according to the scheduled time.

Continuous Data Protection (CDP): Some backup solutions offer Continuous Data Protection, which automatically captures and saves changes made to files in real-time. This ensures that the backup is always up-to-date and reduces the risk of data loss.

Incremental or Differential Backup: Backup software often provides options for performing incremental or differential backups. These backup types only capture and store changes made since the last backup, which significantly reduces the backup time and storage requirements. By scheduling these backup types, you can automate the process.

Cloud Backup Services: Cloud backup services often include automated backup functionality. Once you set up the service and configure the desired backup settings, it will automatically back up your data to the cloud based on the chosen schedule or triggers.

Network Attached Storage (NAS): NAS devices usually offer built-in backup features that can be automated. You can set up scheduled backups to copy data from your devices or servers to the NAS automatically.

Scripting and Command-Line Tools: For more advanced users or specific backup needs, scripting or command-line tools can be used to automate backup tasks. By creating scripts or utilising command-line tools, you can customise and schedule the backup process.

When setting up automated backups, it is important to consider factors such as storage capacity, retention policies, encryption, and the location of backups (on-premises or in the cloud). Regularly monitor backup processes, ensure backups are successfully completed, and periodically test the restoration process to verify data integrity and recoverability.

By automating data backup, you can establish a reliable and consistent backup routine, ensuring critical data is protected and readily available in case of data loss or disaster.

WTS Data Backup Options

As part of our managed data backup service, we can help you prevent the worst from happening in a number of ways:

MS Teams Backup:
Our MS Teams Backup provides a comprehensive solution for protecting and restoring critical data within Microsoft Teams. With a retention period of 7 years, it ensures long-term data availability and compliance adherence. Backups are run up to 6 times a day, ensuring frequent and up-to-date copies of the Channels messages in Teams. In the event of data loss or accidental deletion, the backup service allows for easy restoration from specific data and sessions. Users also have the flexibility to restore to a new location, enabling seamless recovery. All data processing and storage is kept regional, ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations.

Exchange Backup:
Our Exchange Backup offers reliable protection for the full content of mailboxes within Microsoft Exchange. With a retention period of 7 years, it ensures long-term data availability and compliance adherence. Backups are performed up to 6 times a day, ensuring frequent and up-to-date copies. The backup service also captures accepted event invitation emails, enabling the restoration of important calendar data. Users have the flexibility to restore from a specific data session and restore to three target locations: the auto-generated location, the original location, or a new location. All data processing and storage is kept regional, ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations.

OneDrive Backup:
Our OneDrive Backup provides a secure and reliable solution for protecting and restoring data stored within Microsoft OneDrive. With a retention period of 7 years, it ensures long-term data availability and compliance adherence. Backups are performed up to 4 times a day, ensuring regular and up-to-date copies of files and folders. Users can easily restore data from a specific date and session, allowing for granular recovery. The backup service also offers flexibility in restoring to three target locations: the auto-generated location, the original location, or a new location. All data processing and storage is kept regional, ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations.

SharePoint Backup:
Our SharePoint Backup provides robust protection for Microsoft SharePoint, ensuring the availability and recoverability of critical files and folders. With a retention period of 7 years, it allows for long-term data preservation and compliance adherence. Backups are performed up to 4 times a day, ensuring frequent copies of SharePoint data. Users can restore data from a specific date and session, enabling precise recovery. The backup service now includes protection for SharePoint Online permissions. Additionally, users have the flexibility to restore files and folders to their original state from a backup session and to two target locations: the original location or a new location. All data processing and storage is kept regional, ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations. SharePoint role definitions and metadata can be backed up and restored, further enhancing data recovery capabilities.

Data Backup & Cyber Security

Data backup is an essential part of your cyber security strategy because it helps organisations protect their digital information from loss, corruption, theft, or other forms of cyberattacks. Losing valuable data can have serious consequences, including compromising personal or corporate identities, erasing critical histories, and even bankrupting entire companies.

Backing up data offers several benefits, including enabling quick recovery and restoration of data in the event of a cyber attack, minimising downtime, and mitigating the risk of data loss. According to a report by the National Cyber Security Alliance, businesses that suffer data loss often go out of business within six months of the attack. Therefore, regular data backups not only ensure speedy recovery but also safeguard against irrevocable data loss that could harm the business’s reputation and growth.

Additionally, having multiple backups of data can protect against ransomware attacks. This type of cyberattack involves cybercriminals encrypting data and demanding payment to release a decryption key. Having multiple backups of data in different locations and formats can make it more challenging for the attackers to hold the data hostage.

What is a Disaster Recovery Strategy?

While data backup focuses on creating copies of your data, disaster recovery is the broader plan that outlines how your business will bounce back after a catastrophic event. It encompasses the processes, policies, and procedures required to restore your systems, infrastructure, and data to a functional state.

The Difference between Data Backup and Disaster Recovery

Data backup and disaster recovery go hand in hand, but they serve different purposes:

Data backup focuses on creating copies of your data to protect against loss or corruption.
Disaster recovery involves the entire business infrastructure, systems, and processes, aiming to restore normal operations in the event of a disaster.

What to Do If You Lose Your Data

If your business suffers data loss, it is essential to follow these steps:

Assess the Situation: Determine the cause and extent of the data loss to understand what actions are necessary.
Notify Relevant Parties: If personal data is involved, comply with legal obligations and notify the appropriate authorities if required.
Activate Your Data Backup: Restore your lost data from your backup copies. Ensure the backup is recent and test the data recovery process periodically to guarantee its effectiveness.
Investigate and Remediate: Analyse the cause of the data loss and take steps to prevent it from happening again. This might include strengthening cybersecurity measures, improving employee training, or upgrading hardware.

In conclusion, data backup and disaster recovery strategies are vital for businesses to protect their valuable data, ensure compliance with regulations, and maintain business continuity. Understanding the nuances of data backup, its benefits, and the difference from disaster recovery is crucial for developing an effective data protection plan.

By following best practices and implementing robust backup solutions, businesses can safeguard their data from unexpected events and minimise potential damage.

Glossary of Data Backup Key Terminology

The following glossary provides definitions for key terms related to data backup:

Disaster Recovery: The process of restoring systems, infrastructure, and data to a functional state after a catastrophic event.
Recovery Point Objective (RPO): The maximum acceptable amount of data loss that a business is willing to tolerate. It defines the point in time to which data needs to be restored.
Recovery Time Objective (RTO): The target time within which systems and operations should be restored after a disaster. It indicates how quickly the business needs to recover to minimie downtime.
Backup: The process of creating copies of data and storing them in a separate location to protect against data loss.
Restore: The act of retrieving and returning data or systems from a backup to their original state.
Failover: The process of switching from a primary system or infrastructure to a secondary or backup system to maintain continuity during a disaster.
Hot Site: A fully operational off-site facility that replicates the primary site’s infrastructure and systems. It allows for near-instantaneous failover and is suitable for minimising downtime.
Cold Site: An off-site facility that provides basic infrastructure (such as power and space) but requires additional setup and provisioning of hardware and systems during a disaster.
Warm Site: An off-site facility that includes partially configured infrastructure and systems. It requires additional setup and configuration to make it fully operational.
High Availability: A system or infrastructure design that ensures continuous availability and minimal downtime. It typically involves redundant components and failover mechanisms.
Snapshot: A point-in-time copy of a system or data that captures its state at a specific moment. Snapshots can be used for data recovery or to restore systems to a known state.
Business Continuity: The ability of a business to maintain essential functions and activities during and after a disaster, minimising the impact on operations.
Virtualisation: The process of creating virtual instances of physical systems, allowing multiple systems to run on a single physical server. Virtualisation enables easier backup, recovery, and migration of systems.
Replication: The process of duplicating data or systems in real-time or near-real-time to a secondary location. Replication ensures data is readily available for failover and recovery.
Data Centre: A centralised location that houses computer systems, servers, storage, network devices, and other infrastructure components. Data centres are critical for disaster recovery.
Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP): A documented set of procedures and policies that outline the steps to be taken during and after a disaster. It provides guidance for organising and executing a successful recovery.
Business Impact Analysis (BIA): The process of assessing the potential consequences of a disaster on business operations. A BIA helps determine RPO, RTO, and prioritise critical systems for recovery.
Data Replication: The process of copying data from one storage device to another in real-time or near-real-time. Replication ensures data availability and reduces the risk of data loss.
Downtime: The period during which systems and services are unavailable or inaccessible due to a disaster or other factors.
Point-in-Time Recovery: The process of restoring data to an exact point in time before a disaster or data loss occurs. It allows for precise recovery of data and systems.

Remember that some of these terms may have variations or additional technical details depending on the specific context and technology being used.