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Backup & Disaster What Now?


Backup & Disaster Recovery: The who, what, when, where and, most importantly, the WHY?

Lost Data

20 years ago, in my Computer Science 100 class, the instructor began by writing a geek-joke on the whiteboard:

“There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary, and those who do not!”

I chuckled as I was one of the 10 kids who got it. In 2020, there are only 10 types of people in the world: those who have lost data, and those who will lose data.

(In case you feel confused, 10 is binary for 2, and 101 is equal to 5)

This article is a primer for Backup & Disaster Recovery (#BDR) —why we need it, and why we need to think about it as we navigate our digitally connected spaces. Understanding the importance of BDR is vital for entrepreneurs and Small-Medium-sized-Business owners needing to safeguard their intellectual property, client data or bookkeeping records, etc. It is also important for individuals with cherished memories in digital formats (photos and home movies), or extensive collections of music and whatnot.

“With so much of our data already in the 'cloud' do we really need a Backup & Disaster Recovery strategy?”

This is fast becoming the most common question posed to Managed Service Providers. With the proliferation of cloud-storage and cloud-services like #Office 365 (for mail and documents), and #OneDrive, #Dropbox, #Google Drive, etc. (for documents, files and folders), and line-of-business services like #QuickBooks Online, many folks wonder if they are really in need of an additional BDR solution.

The answer is a resounding “yes!” and here’s the lowdown:

The Who

Given that we’ve established there are only two types of business or people in the world - those who have lost data, and those who will - let's agree that the happier folks are those who have proactively taken steps to ensure that the eminent data loss occurs on their terms and lands within acceptable, preconfigured parameters. That is, the data is recoverable back to an anticipated and reasonable point-in-time (#RPO: recovery point objective), and within an acceptable time frame (#RTO: Recovery Time Objective—the time it takes to restore data back to normal operations).

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