Cloud backup and disaster recovery is easy to set up. But how can you be sure these provisions will actually work when the worst happens, and you encounter a genuine disaster?
As always, success is dependent on planning, the better your plan, the less risk of failure.
Audit your systems and data
Effective backup (and recovery) relies on having at least one copy of all of your data duplicated off-site to protect against loss of the original. As you begin designing a backup and DR plan, there are three questions to answer:
1. What data assets do we have?
2. Where is the data stored?
3. What tools do we need to backup that information to the cloud?
As your business adopts more cloud services, defining what you have and where it is located is the first step to defining a workable plan. As well as the on-premise file shares, you probably have information stored in several SaaS services, including Office 365 and OneDrive. You may also have hosted email (Outlook 365) – anything stored there will also need to be included in your provisions.
You will then need to assess the available technologies to find one that can backup all of your data from every location. Do you need to install local agents? Can backup and restore operations be completed from a single console? Are there any permissions issues you need to address when connecting to third-party services?
Once you have these answers, you are in a position to select a cloud backup provider and to begin backing up to their hosted service.
Prioritise your systems and data
During a disaster, your business must be able to resume skeleton operations as quickly as possible. This means prioritising applications and data so that they are recovered in order of importance to the running of your business.
You should also look to automate as much of the recovery process as possible, freeing your IT staff to focus on other tasks (there will be plenty during a show-stopping outage).
Test your recovery plan
The worst time to discover your disaster recovery plan doesn’t work is during a disaster. Any kind of oversight could have significant consequences – which is why testing is so important.
By testing the DR plan in advance, you can confirm that:
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- All of your data is being backed up correctly
- Your cloud backup archives are usable
- Your order of restore does match your operational priorities.
- Recovery completes within the acceptable timeframes.
You can then refine your DR plan, tweaking, optimising and re-aligning the various elements as required. Your cloud backup and disaster recovery plan must then be reviewed and tested regularly to ensure it continues to meet your needs.
Define – Prioritise – Test
Much like any other DR plan, an effective cloud backup strategy has three elements; define, prioritise and test. So long as your plan addresses them all, your business systems should be ready to face any outage.
To learn more about cloud backup and how to build a disaster recovery plan that meets the needs of your business, please get in touch.