This article presents successful principles in corporate data backup. For every company, reliability and the protection of critical information should be primary objectives.
Today it can be hard to tune out the management emphasis on more and more, while cybercriminals keep improving their attack strategies and getting ever more skilled at breaking through the defenses meant to keep them out. A practical way to protect your data is to make a well-functioning, prioritized data backup a core part of your operations.
Do we know what data to back up, and where?
Just as a business has a backup plan for every critical task, employees should have guidelines on how to back up their data. Regular backup not only provides continuity in the event of a system failure, but also keeps your data in a safe place around the clock.
Companies generally plan recurring backups on a fixed schedule. The standard backup process should cover three questions:
- What do we need to back up?
- Where should it be backed up to?
- Which tools will we use?
A common practice is to define guidelines for backing up the data the company considers important and meaningful. By best-in-class standards, using Google Drive is not a recognized backup practice.
Often, we are not sure whether a backup has been successfully uploaded to the cloud or to the corporate network.
Four successful principles in backup
Every employee can save time and protect valuable data by applying the following backup principles.
Optimize your database backups
As part of your IT defense approach, consult your system administrator about how your data should be backed up and with which tools. For example, choose among different backup methods. One option is active disk cloning; companies like Acronis provide such solutions.
Back up more than your database
Backups often include databases, but we collect data in many different systems, websites and platforms, and employees generally store and work with data in the cloud. Adding automatic mobile backups helps employees stay current. Another method is to copy only the data that has changed or been created since the previous backup. Make sure you also back up schedules and procedures, not just the database.
Automation + security = less time and money
Modern backup requires a new approach to comprehensive backup and protection. Today, backup is just one component of hardening your organization's IT against physical and cyber threats. That is why the focus should be not only on backup but also on its integration with security. There are three reasons for this:
- Integrated backup and security solutions save money.
- Integrated solutions reduce the risk of human error.
- Integrated solutions offer more thorough cybersecurity.
Follow the 3-2-1 backup rule
The 3-2-1 rule means creating one primary backup and two copies of the data, saving them on two different types of media, and keeping at least one backup file offsite.
How can data be backed up under optimal conditions?
Integrated backup and security solutions make sure that backups are complete. Keeping data in optimal condition to support business processes is also key for any company. Security operations centers (SOCs) provide 24/7/365 monitoring of the health and security of customers' systems: disk health, vulnerabilities, missing OS and application updates, malfunctioning local firewalls, blocking of access to malicious URLs, general hardware and software status, and early identification and notification of ransomware or other malicious attacks.
Additional points for each employee:
- Make sure everyone knows which backup platforms the company uses.
- Set up a backup guideline, and provide training where expertise is missing.
- Make sure every backup is complete, with nothing missing.
A well-documented backup standard operating procedure can limit adversary access and provide continuous data integrity.