How to Ensure Fast and Reliable Recovery After Data Loss

When it comes to data loss, what usually makes the headlines? Data breaches and ransomware, of course. But surprisingly, these are far from the most prominent reasons for data loss, regardless of the size of your organization.

Human error - not even malicious, just plain "oopsies" - is the leading cause of lost files or broken systems.

Survey from Reddit r/DataHoarder asking IT professionals what the most common reason for data loss was.

Don't get me wrong, ransomware is still a huge problem (again, 68% of the time, a human element is at the root of a ransomware attack). But there are so many other reasons why a company's information might be lost:

• Hardware failures: Unexpected hard drive crashes resulting in data corruption or loss.
• Accidental deletions: Human error requiring recovery of individual files or entire systems.
• Natural disasters: Fires, floods, and power surges that affect on-premises storage.
• Software corruption: Malfunctioning applications that cause database failures or unreadable files.
• Malicious (ex-)employees: Disgruntled employees who intentionally delete or tamper with data and systems.
• And much more...

No matter what, when something like this happens, companies need to get their files back as quickly as possible. Otherwise, they risk losing revenue, or worse, losing their business altogether.

So, what should you do in the event of a major outage?

Assess the Data Loss

Before hitting the panic button and blindly restoring data and entire systems, assess the situation.

Identify the affected systems: Try to get an idea of what actually happened and how much data was lost. What's causing it? Then determine which files, devices, and databases were affected.

Make sure you are aligned with your or your customers' recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO): Align recovery efforts with your organization's or your customers' expectations. Hopefully, you have had this conversation before and know how quickly data needs to be recovered. For example, if multiple systems are down, focus first on the business-critical data and systems needed to continue operations. If you don't know, talk to the relevant people and find out which systems are the most important and start there. It's much more efficient to outline which systems to restore in which order than to try to recover everything at once.

Review your disaster recovery plan: In addition to RTO and RPO, there should be information about communication strategies, team member responsibilities, compliance regulations, and more. Make sure all of this is taken into account as you prepare for the recovery.

Get Ready to Restore the Data

Once you know what needs to be restored and in what order, prepare for the actual data recovery.

Remember to breathe and keep calm: Yes, this is a shitty situation, and everyone is going to be stressed. But panicking and yelling at each other won't get your data back any faster. Stay calm and stick to your plan.

Verify backup integrity: If you don't do regular backup testing, or if it's been a while, run a restore test of the most recent backups and make sure they are complete and intact. This is especially important in a ransomware scenario, as the most recent versions of the backup could contain infected files that could lead to another disaster in a few days.

Prepare passwords and encryption keys: Before you begin the recovery process, make sure you have access to all necessary passwords and encryption keys. Without them, you won't be able to encrypt and restore backed-up data.

Know which backups to restore: Based on your RTO and RPO, prioritize which systems or data need to be brought back online first, and have the appropriate backups ready. You'll also need to decide whether it's more efficient to restore an entire system or just specific files - depending on the extent of the damage and the criticality of the system.

Start the recovery: Once you've decided on a strategy, proceed with the recovery, whether that means restoring backups to their respective systems or, if you're working with VHD(x) backups, mounting them into a (new) VM. The goal is to get everything back up and running with minimal disruption.

Challenges MSPs Face During Recovery (and How to Overcome Them)

Sometimes the best plan won't make things go smoothly. Again, don't panic. Assess the problem you're facing and consider alternative ways to mitigate the problem while still achieving the overall goal: Recovering the data.

These are the most common problems we see Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and businesses run into:

Problem: Slow recovery due to bandwidth limitations, such as transferring large backups over the Internet, which can take much longer than expected.

Solution: To speed things up, use any of your on-premise or local backups for faster restores. While cloud backups are your best option if you don't have access to local alternatives, local backups are definitely the better option when time is of the essence.

Problem: Incomplete or corrupted backups that don't work or restore only parts of the information.

Solution: This can be avoided by proactively and routinely testing backups - not just checking that they exist but verifying that the data is intact and usable. If this happens during a restore, check to see if you have older versions of the backup or try restoring a backup from a different location.

Problem: Compliance and regulatory hurdles can complicate recovery efforts, especially if proper documentation isn't maintained.

Solution: Maintaining thorough logs of backup schedules, recovery attempts, and any changes made during the process ensures transparency and helps meet audit requirements. By addressing these challenges proactively - using local backups for speed, regular integrity checks for reliability, and meticulous record keeping for compliance – MSPs and IT professionals can streamline the recovery process and reduce downtime for affected systems.

Best Practices to Prepare for Fast and Reliable Data Recovery

Once data is lost and systems are down, it's often too late. If you haven't taken proactive steps to ensure your backups are in top shape, the most expensive backup software and even expert help won't change the outcome.

Here are a few tips that reduce the risk of not being able to restore your data:

• Develop a disaster recovery plan: Establish and test data recovery procedures. Connect with colleagues and customers and talk through and document what’s needed in a worst-case scenario. Feel free to use our emergency recovery template.
  
  
• Perform regular test restores: In order to ensure backups are functional before they’re needed in a crisis, they need to be tested. Ideally, that happens on a regular basis not just right when everything is gone. To do that, simply restore the backup (note: don’t overwrite the existing data!) and check that everything is there.
  
  
• Use hybrid backups for faster recovery: A hybrid backup is a combined backup job that sends data to local storage as well as an offsite storage. What it also does (at least with NovaBACKUP) is that you do not need to piece everything together for the restore and don’t have to remember where (local or cloud) everything is stored. The backup software automatically finds everything and restores from local first to minimize downtime, then pulls data from the cloud if needed.
  
  
• Run file and disaster recovery jobs: It’s not just individual files that might be lost but entire systems as well. Depending on the type of data loss, you might need to restore only a single file or be able to set up the entire system, including all its settings. To be able to do that, run various types of backup jobs that ensure you are prepared for either.
  
  
• Communicate realistic RTO/RPOs: Running regular backups to multiple locations is just one step. Setting expectations with management or your customers is another. Help them understand that data restore – depending on the disaster – can take some time. That keeps them off your back when you’re in the midst of things.

Our Experience: A Successful MSP Data Restore

Recently, one of our managed service providers had to help a small business recover from a security breach. We quickly got on the phone with them, and all worked together to organize the recovery approach based on the importance of the systems first, and thanks to a comprehensive backup strategy, the files were restored fairly quickly. It looked like a minor hiccup to the customer, and the MSP reinforced its value as a trusted IT partner.

Are You Prepared?

Knowing what to do in the event of a data loss is half the battle. By taking a hybrid approach to backups, testing them regularly, and educating colleagues and customers about realistic expectations, you can minimize downtime and build trust.

Are you ready for your next data recovery scenario?

Learn how NovaBACKUP can help you create reliable backups and restore data faster. Download Our Free Trial