Share this
by Jon Ferraez on Sep 16, 2014 4:56:54 PM
Most small businesses understand the importance of backing up their business data, but don't always know the specifics of where to back up data or how to implement fail-safe measures to ensure that their data is protected. If you cannot afford to lose your data in the event of a device failure, you should have at least one secondary device for your backups, so you are covered should one of them fail.
As a starting point, set up two full backups to two different physical devices, one stored locally and one stored offsite (or moved offsite after the initial full backup). Once this is set up, you can use Incremental Forever backup to keep your backup window as small as possible.
One of the best examples of a backup device, which is perfectly suited for small businesses, is Network Attached Storage (NAS). The main benefit of choosing a NAS as your primary backup device is that you gain redundancy for storing your backup data in more than one place.
Redundancy and Backups for Data Protection
Redundancy and backup are the two popular types of data protection. They are not the same, however, and it's important to understand the differences between the two. The majority of NAS devices have built-in redundancy, which a small business can benefit from.
The first form of redundancy, RAID, is available in nearly all NAS devices. RAID stands for Redundant Array of Disks. A RAID-enabled NAS uses two or more hard disks to provide some level of fault tolerance for the backup data stored on the NAS.
Fault tolerance means providing a safety net for failed hardware by ensuring that the machine with the failed component, usually a hard drive, can still operate. Fault tolerance lessens interruptions in productivity and decreases the chance of data loss. A NAS can be set up with two or more hard drives to keep your data safe. Since the same data is written to multiple drives, if one drive fails, you can remove the faulty drive and replace it, and the data will be rebuilt to the new drive in the background.
The second form of redundancy that you can benefit from with a NAS is the ability to replicate data from one NAS directly to another NAS over the network, secure VPN, or the Internet. This feature is not available on all NAS devices, so you will need to verify that the NAS model you choose offers NAS-to-NAS replication. This feature essentially allows you to tell NAS #1 to replicate data in a folder to NAS #2. You can configure NAS #1 to replicate the folder containing your backup sets to NAS #2’s storage as a scheduled task, and everything is configured via the native interface built into the NAS device.
Diagram of NAS to NAS Replication:
Many NAS devices support NAS-to-NAS replication. Here are a few:
A third form of redundancy, which some models of NAS devices contain, is the ability to replicate data from a NAS device to one or more external hard drives plugged directly into the NAS’s high-speed USB 3.0 port(s). A scheduled task can be configured via the native software interface built into the NAS device to replicate data from one folder on the NAS device’s internal hard drives to a folder on the external hard drive(s) connected to the NAS device.
Your second or third backup device should be in the form of removable media meant to be stored offline; examples of this would include USB external hard drives, RDX removable disks, or tape drives. When your backup is maintained on separate physical devices, you gain redundancy, which is a very important part of backup for a small business. This "offline" form of backup would preferably be stored safely at an off-site location in case of inadvertent mistakes, fire, break-in, theft, and electrical problems.
Disaster Recovery - Hard Drive Failure Protection
Backup software such as NovaBACKUP’s SMB product line can make your valuable data accessible to you, even after a disaster. In addition to standard file-level backups, another critical form of protection to have in place is an image backup (also known as Disaster Recovery). An image backup creates a complete snapshot of your entire system—including the operating system, applications, configurations, and data—so that you can perform a bare metal restoration of an entire server or workstation in the event of a failure.
Failure could be anything from a single hard drive failing to the Windows operating system not loading because of a serious virus infection, ransomware attack, corrupted system files, or a faulty update. With a current image backup, you can restore the entire machine to new hardware or to a virtual environment and dramatically reduce downtime and recovery time objectives.
All NovaBACKUP software solutions allow backups to be executed in the background, including both file and image backups, without interrupting employees or impacting day-to-day productivity. This means you can schedule frequent backups, including Incremental Forever backup jobs, to keep recovery points up to date while your systems remain available for normal business operations.
Where to Back Up Data
Security should be a primary consideration both when selecting backup software and when deciding where your data will reside. Wherever your backups are stored—on local storage, a NAS device, or in the cloud—they should be protected against unauthorized access, malware, and corruption.
NovaBACKUP products are designed with this in mind. They offer built-in backup verification to ensure data integrity, and strong encryption with password protection so that only authorized users can access backed-up data. In addition, NovaBACKUP is fully compatible with backups to NAS devices and other common storage targets, making it easy to implement a secure, hybrid strategy that combines local, NAS, and offsite storage for maximum protection.
Share this
