We hear about data recovery nightmares all the time. Businesses either don’t have a data recovery plan in place or when they do need to recover the data, something goes horribly wrong.
We take data recovery seriously and never want a business to lose everything over something as simple as preventable data loss. That’s why it’s important for every business to understand common recovery issues and how to avoid them.
1. Failed Data Recovery Plan
Having a data recovery plan is never enough. We hear from clients all the time who had a plan in place, but when it came time to recover the data, the plan had failed. The truth is, a business never knows if their plan will work or not unless it’s tested.
From not checking if backups are viable to not accounting for changes in infrastructure, data recovery nightmares often stem from untested data recovery plans. It’s recommended to do a full-scale test at least once a year and to review your plan after any major changes.
2. Damaged Backup Media
Even the best hardware fails sometimes. We’ve heard the horror stories of businesses that tried to restore from a backup only to discover the drive or backup media was corrupted somehow. Of course, this also leads us to a related nightmare – not having a secondary backup.
Back in 2009, T-Mobile learned the importance of having redundant backups the hard way. After a server malfunction, all user data, including users’ irreplaceable photos, were lost forever.
We always advise businesses to set up a redundant backup strategy to avoid both of these data recovery nightmares.
3. No Recent Backups
While there isn’t a single set rule surrounding how often to back up data, businesses can and do lose large amounts of data by not performing backups often. Any time data isn’t backed up, there’s a chance it’ll be lost for good.
Doing only weekly backups isn’t enough for businesses that process large amounts of data daily. We suggest that businesses consider how much data could be lost between backups to determine how often to perform regular backups. Our recommendation is at least daily.
4. Lengthy Recovery Process
Even when a business has full access to their data, the data recovery nightmares aren’t over just yet. The longer it takes to get data back online, the more it costs the business. For instance, five minutes of downtime in a data center costs $2,600. Whether it’s on-site backups or cloud backups, ensure the data recovery occurs quickly to avoid costly downtime.
Want to do more to prevent data recovery nightmares? Start by contacting our expert team today.