How often should you back up?

Backup schedules can be tailored to an organisation’s specific requirements. An internet service provider will usually advise on how often information should be backed up, depending on the changeability of data throughout daily, weekly or even monthly periods.

For large, high profile enterprises who indulge in E-commerce, there is every reason to backup at hourly intervals because of the high frequency of transactions.

More than one backup in 24hours may be particularly useful for businesses that deal with mission critical data. When determining a backup schedule a business should always consider the following questions:

1. How important is the data?
2. If data is lost can business continue?
3. How much data is amended and how often?
4. How many computers need to be backed up?
5. How much time is spent on office computers?

It is possible to save only data that changes rather than re-saving all data. This is called incremental backup.

Backing up multiple servers

Many organisations have a series of servers which need to be backed up. They can usually be backed up to one server if all of the machines use the same Operating System.

Problems arise however, when networks of servers run on a combination of different platforms.

A business with three Windows servers and three Linux servers may find that it has to back up to several different machines. This increases the amount of rack space needed to home the servers.

There are several negative factors in having to purchase multiple servers. For example:

Initial cost - the more servers, the more expensive it becomes. If information is backed up to different machines it may require twice the work to re-load data in the event of a roll-back.

When two servers are used, twice the energy is needed to power them- this has both environmental and monetary implications.

Click the link to find out more about server backup or request more information online.