A recent article published by the Register from Marcus Schneider, board member from Storage Network Industry Association, makes a very interesting point: data backup revolves more around recovery than it actually revolves around backup!
The article details that data protection is about making data available when it is required and the version of the data required should be available to restore. This broken down into five key phases:
Detection: When a user notices a file is deleted, lost or corrupt, no matter what period of time has past.
Diagnosis: This is when the user must decide what version of the file to restore back when it was still consistent and error-free. This will depend on the company’s backup policy and retention period.
Restoration: This is when the file/folder/database is physically restored, but it is by no means the end of the process. Depending on the accident, before normal operations can be resumed, a restart of all applications, replay logs from a database, or from a journal for a file system might be required. This ensures data loss and down time is kept to bare minimum.
Test and Verification: All of the above is pointless if the file has not been tested and verified that it is correct and working how the user wants. It is only once this stage has been successfully completed that the data recovery process can be signed off.
With a reliable online backup solution in place, that is fully managed, backups can be monitored around the clock. Then, help is on hand when required to help with the recovery and by seeking the correct advice, file retention can ensure that the version of the file you want is available when required.
