Data backup is a term many people choose to ignore: it’s like a disease everyone thinks they can avoid until they contract it. Data loss can happen for a multitude of reasons - the most common being data corruption and malware attacks - many companies lose precious time and money over the loss of that one important file or folder.
A recent report from Media Trend watch cites that, there were three million six hundred thousand internet users in New Zealand (representing 85.4 percent of the population) in June 2010. With businesses and households increasingly relying on the internet, computer threats have become more advanced, more resistant to security systems and need to be protected more than ever.
Even though most hybrid businesses encompass traditional backup solutions, modern day complex malware needs continuous data protection (CDP) to mitigate the growing risk of data loss.
CDP works quickly and effectively to provide backup and restoration to the documents that matter most. CDP delivers automatic, transparent backup that ensures data, applications and systems are reliably protected from common user error, hardware failure, deletion, potential disaster and malicious attack. Integrated scheduling offers IT managers the ability to perform backups continuously in real time, or automatically on a routine basis.
Data backup can only be truly measured if the data is recoverable. Backing up physical machines is the easiest way to achieve this and can be done using various methods and various storage media; such as tape, external HDD, USB or CD.
However, the real issue is when the data backed up cannot be re-stored from these devices. In cases where recovery fails, traditional data backup solutions can prove futile, but CDP solutions ensure CIOs don’t lose sleep over potential data loss.
Below are five situations that organisations can learn from and how CDP can help:
When files get deleted by mistake.
Human error is an age old foe of the CIO. Regardless of an organisation's size or system, important files often get deleted unknowingly only to pose a problem when someone realises that file was the hook in winning that new business. How can you recover all the information that is lost? Even though a file is completely wiped off the system, IT managers or CIOs using a CDP solution have the ability to restore data within the working day by:
- Clicking on the CDP solution only once to reach the backup files
- Choosing the files to be restored
- Restoring deleted files
When a new document has been saved over an old document that is just as crucial.
Even if the file is there, data can still go missing. This is a common phenomenon faced by businesses, where files get overwritten and eventually lost, or corrupted. As important as backup is, recovery becomes just as or even more critical at times like these. IT can restore files lost more often than not, but the task usually takes more than a day. With a CDP solution in place, ICT teams can restore the overwritten file in less than 30 minutes by:
- Clicking once on the CDP solution to reach backup files
- Navigating to the folder where the file is located
- Choosing the file to restore
- Restoring the file
Backup on the go
Travelling disrupts the regular system backups that take place at a particular time, but only when connected to the network.
How then do CIOs who are constantly on the move back up their devices to avoid system crashes and other disasters that often strike when the guard is down?
With typical data backup systems, if CIOs are not connected to the network, their system does not backup. With a CDP solution, backup takes place automatically - even while on the move. This automatic backup requires the simple task of the necessary files to be saved. Once saved, CDP ensures the files are backed up when connected to the network at the next available point.
Disaster strikes within the four walls!
The coffee that spills on your computer can crash the system in seconds. Even with backup in place, how do you restore it? CDP solutions provide flexible disaster recovery options such as offsite and site-to-site that allows instant recovery of data, applications or the entire workstation. CDP’s are also available across different Operating Systems so CIO’s can transfer and recover data on their laptops, computers or even mobiles and gain access anytime from anywhere.
Over-bandwidth, under protected
Bandwidth management is a critical component of day to day operations within an industry- the more bandwidth used, the faster the company gets capped which directly relates to slower operations.
CDP solutions offer granular bandwidth control that enables administrators and IT managers to optimise backup performance and other crucial applications during peak business hours.
Richard Ting is vice president, Asia Pacific for network security provider SonicWALL.
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