Is Your Data Protected In A Disaster?

With so many businesses being driven by data that they create, being protected in a disaster is more important than ever. That's why it's important to understand if you are covered in a worst case scenario.

The 3-2-1 Rule

One very important rule in data protection is the 3-2-1 rule. It means that your data should be backed up in three locations. Two of them should be onsite, and one should be offsite. This means that the chances of losing your data completely are limited to the data being destroyed with all three copies at two separate locations, which is a very rare occurrence. In a worse case scenario, such as a fire, you would only lose one or two sets of data and still have that third ready to recover it all.

The Misconception Of Using A RAID Server

RAID server configurations work by dividing the data across multiple drives, which allows for faster read speeds since data can be pulled from multiple drives at once. Some RAID configurations, such as RAID 5, allow for drives to fail without data loss. If one of the hard drives fails in the RAID configuration, you would simply swap out the drive and the data on it would be rebuilt from the other drives.

The problem is that a RAID server can give the misconception that your data is backed up. The truth is that there are a limited amount of drives that can fail in some RAID configurations. In the example of RAID 5, only one drive is allowed to fail. If another drive fails at the same time, you could lose all your data.

The Importance Of Cloud Data Backups

The best way to get your data offsite is to use a cloud data backup solution. In a worst case scenario where your onsite server were to fail, you would have all the data stored in the cloud where it could be recovered. Since data is constantly being uploaded to the cloud as it is created, you'll have an onsite and offsite copy that protects you from disaster recovery. 

However, the one downside to using a cloud data backup is the speed to recover your data in a disaster situation. If you do not have fast Internet speeds, you can run into additional downtime to recover your data. That's why you still need that second onsite copy so that you can quickly recover from a data loss disaster. Look into disaster recovery solutions near you for more information.

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