World Backup Day is a day to talk and learn about the increasing role of data in our lives, and specifically, to raise awareness of the importance of backing up and preserving data. After all, whilst the day was initially created to remind consumers about the importance of backing up their files, it is a valuable lesson that businesses need to remain mindful of. From employees mistakenly deleting files, to hardware malfunctions, to catastrophic high-profile cyber-attacks, data is always vulnerable. Backup and data recovery plans are therefore vital, as they can save important files from being lost or stolen for good. And, with nearly a third of people having never backed up their files, it is paramount that people are informed of the reasons for doing so.

INTEGRATING BACKUP INTO BUSINESS STRATEGY
While World Backup Day was created to remind consumers about the need to backup their most important digital files, Jon Lucas, Co-Director at Hyve Managed Hosting stresses the importance of data backup to business as well: "Taking a business view on March 31st is just as imperative, and never has this been more clear than in today's uncertain and digitally-reliant workplace. Few companies would argue that backups aren't worth the effort, however, every year we see stories about lost revenue and lost reputation because a backup hasn't been there when needed.

"One of the ways sufficient backup plans can drop off the IT 'to-do' list is because businesses don't have the time, resources or experience to manage it in-house. But with the cloud computing and managed service era comes a practical and affordable way forward, and working with a partner that offers backup and disaster recovery solutions can be easily built into any IT environment. So, although awareness of its importance is - for most - improving, understanding its urgency and where to go for help remains a key message this World Backup Day."

Steve Young, Principal EMEA SE at Commvault, agrees: "World Backup Day is a great way to remind companies to ensure that their relevant data is not only protected but also the solution meets the business requirements for recovery. As with all other disciplines within infrastructure, it's imperative to keep pace with a constantly evolving infrastructure landscape. The ever-increasing adoption of cloud and container solutions follow a number of other innovations which backup solutions have to protect. It is because of this, that reviewing, testing, and improving is a continuous activity all year round."

THE ULTIMATE DR PLAN
"Backup and disaster recovery plans are crucial in today's data-driven society," comments Dave Demlow, VP Product Management at Scale Computing. "Faced with ever-increasing volumes of data, along with the growing threat of ransomware, malware, and a rapidly increasing remote workforce due to the outbreak of coronavirus, IT professionals are under tremendous pressure to protect everything while ensuring production systems aren't impacted. World Backup Day serves as an important reminder to raise awareness on the cruciality of data protection, backup and business continuity plans. Data loss prevention can be achieved through performing frequent backups and should be considered a high priority to individuals and businesses alike."

Demlow continues: "Due to the increase in cyberthreats and the rapidly growing remote workforce, it's important to secure and protect IT infrastructure with a disaster recovery plan. Implementing a recovery plan allows users to proactively prevent or recover quickly from disasters, ensuring data is safe and mission-critical business applications are available. Many only emphasise the currency and frequency of the recovery points, but the time it takes to recover information is just as significant. Backup and DR plans should be regularly evaluated to protect organisations from being 'blind-sided' by an incident."

Eltjo Hofstee, Managing Director at Leaseweb UK, also emphasises the need for effective DR plans: "Over 90% of companies that lost their data centre for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster. World Backup Day is the perfect opportunity for businesses to ponder this, then ask themselves the following questions: How much time am I prepared to have mission-critical functions unavailable? How much data am I prepared to lose? How much money will it cost while these services are not available? If these questions raise concerns, it is time for a business to address its backup strategy. The most valuable assets should be prioritised and organisations need to be demanding about the quality, scalability and reliability of backup solutions."

"Backing-up data is pivotal to a successful disaster recovery plan," he goes on. "Data has been backed up since the beginning of the computer age, but there have been many changes in the methods and storage technology used in this process. There has been an evolution in storage technology from tapes, to hard drives, to where we are now, which is cloud storage. One benefit of modern cloud backup solutions is that they are suitable for businesses of any size. A business and its employees can back up data to the cloud from any server or device, anywhere with an internet connection. Cloud backup solutions are easy to manage, and their providers offer hands-on customer support."

PLANNING THE PERFECT BACKUP
To conclude, Steve Nice, Chief Security Technologist at Node4, identifies the key considerations for businesses today: "No matter what size or sector a company operates in, backup and disaster recovery solutions provide continuity to organisations and should be seen as essential components of any business' IT plans. When planning backups, organisations need to consider:

• Operational impact - Carefully map out your backup windows to ensure there is no performance degradation for your systems and applications.
• Location - Consider whether your backups are going to be stored locally or off-site. You will need to determine what is the best option for your business and take into consideration factors like bandwidth availability and thus the time taken to transmit the backup data, to meet your backup window targets.
• RPO & RTO - To successfully build your strategy based on your desired Recovery Point & Recovery Time Objectives you'll need to consider multiple factors, including the media you're writing to, the backup location and the backup window available.

"Another consideration would be working with a managed service provider to see how they could take this off your hands. Sufficient security, capacity, recovery times and meeting compliance needs are all integral to success when backing up, but can be hard for an internal team to keep on top of. By working with a backup as a service (BaaS) provider businesses can have peace of mind that, whatever is backing up and wherever the data is stored, it is being efficiently managed and is available on request should the worst happen and a backup be required."

This World Backup Day it is paramount that individuals and organisations alike reflect on the best practices for data backup. After all, whilst data may seem secure, it can be catastrophic for businesses if this is not the case. In order to improve their data safeguarding practices, they must understand where to improve, and know where to go for help.
More info: www.worldbackupday.com