Recovery Test Your Data Backups

Recovery Test Your Data Backups

Most businesses are aware of the need for data backup. Without it they risk losing important files with a hard drive failure or cyberattack. Yet having a backup in place is not enough: it is important also to test that backup. Ensure you can restore that essential data when needed.

The many reasons to set up data backups include:

• protecting against natural or human-caused disasters (including hacker or insider attack)
• ensuring compliance with tax, financial, and other industry standards
• preserving relationships with clients
• reducing downtime
• improving productivity
• establishing credibility with customers, investors, and employees

We recommend backing up in three places. You might have one on a local, on-site computer. You would also have a backup on a remote device and another in the cloud. The cloud option gives you the most flexibility. You can access it from anywhere, regardless of environmental conditions.

Yet while many people know they need backups, too few do recovery tests. The worst time to find out there is a problem with your backup solution is when you need it the most.

Testing Data Backups

Regular data backups can offer peace of mind. You will know you are ready to go if you test your ability to recover your system from a backup.

Testing your backup lets you verify the necessary data is available for recovery. Plus, testing helps you learn how to perform a recovery after a data loss. If a backup test fails, you can take the steps needed to ensure you do not lose valuable information. Otherwise, you are throwing money at storage space and backup services that are no help. Unfortunately, you will find out too late.

Regular monitoring helps you keep track of any software or hardware changes; they may have an impact on data backups. Testing may also identify staff members storing data somewhere not backed up; you can now intervene with those employees. After those checks, you may choose to extend your backup protocols to prevent that data from getting lost.

Tests can help you to find a misconfiguration in the backup software or ways in which you are not addressing your backup needs. For instance, you might not have set up a complete backup in the first place. This might mean you are backing up the data but not the settings. Most backup software will send error messages if there was an issue backing up, but they are easy for an overworked IT team to miss.

Testing backups allows the business to confirm fallback data accuracy and effectiveness. Additionally, you will be able to gauge:

• how long it takes to perform the backup
• any issues that arise during recovery
• what steps you need to take to address those problems

Some people say they work best under pressure. Most of us think easier and perform better if not in a data catastrophe.

A managed service provider can help your business. We help with data backup and recovery testing. Our IT experts can watch for failures and make changes needed to get the backup running again. You will be glad if you did recovery testing in advance when things run smoother and quicker during your disaster recovery.

Give us a call at (877) 686-6642. To correct your backups, make sure they are working the way you want to, and set up regular backup restore tests.

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