People say “third time’s the charm” about many things. But protection of the data that legal professionals rely on to serve their clients typically isn’t one of them.
Because valuable information like databases, client files and emails are stored on your network, your data backup system has to work at all times—or your business can be at serious risk. A number of studies in the U.S. and abroad have shown that an overwhelming majority of companies that suffer a major data disaster go bankrupt within five years—up to 90 percent, according to one British study.
And major disasters are not the only threat to the well-being of your data. A sprinkler malfunction, equipment theft or employee sabotage can destroy critical information just as completely as a fire, earthquake or flood.
The problem with today’s backup
If you look at a typical small- to mid-size company’s data backup history, the first step often taken is to burn the data to CD-ROM disks or store it on USB hard drives. These approaches are inexpensive and simple to do for new businesses.
Yet these techniques only work reliably for one to three users. Even then, the manual nature of the process, plus the task of moving the data offsite, does not make this system a reliable method to protect data.
As businesses grow, they often embrace tape backup systems with initial enthusiasm. Growing companies believe that since enterprises use tape backups, using tape will be an effective way to protect their data assets as well.
What small companies don’t know is that most enterprise IT administrators have quit relying on tape as their primary backup because of too many problems.
The realities of tape backup
With time, the great promise of tape tends to mutate to great disappointment as growing businesses learn the realities of tape-dependent backup. The dream of cost-effective backup from tape begins to deflate as the investment in the tape units themselves is compounded by the need for expensive consulting for initial setup and configuration. Then the speed issue surfaces. Businesses using tape are often forced to back up only at night because data transfer rates are so slow that it may take hours to capture data.
Failed data restoration provides the next disappointment. Growing companies use multiple tapes, meaning recovering a simple file can take hours, if not days, because the system administrator or IT consultant has to find the right tape and restore the data in the right order. Tape restoration failure rates, especially with older systems, are so high, it’s a coin toss whether the file can be recovered even if found.
In addition, the continued growth of company data can strain tape technology. Manual tape rotation often means no tape rotation. Tape autoloaders resolve the manual tape switching problem, but are expensive and lead to reduced offsite tape storage. And lack of offsite tape storage puts you back at the point of major risk should a disaster affect your facility.
Tape backup systems also do little or nothing to support your remote users, especially mobile workers. Waiting until a mobile worker reconnects to the office network leaves huge gaps in protection. Companies rationalize that leaving a day’s worth of data unprotected by tape is not such a major issue since they can only run their backups at night. But stretching the gap to several days risks too much.
Goals for a modern backup system
Legal professionals today should insist on a modern backup system to keep data safe. To be most effective, the solution must be automatic, reliable and include offsite backup. Anything less than this gambles with your data and business livelihood.
Essential elements to look for in a modern backup system include:
Continuous data protection (CDP): Once a technology only affordable for large enterprises, CDP is now available for businesses of any size. CDP is an important component of your data backup solution because it automatically replicates any new or changed data—in real-time and completely hands and hassle-free.
Local and offsite backup: The combination of local and offsite backup storage provides complete data protection. Restoration from a local server saves time and Internet bandwidth, while offsite backup saves company data from all-too-common disasters such as burglary, virus infection or fire.
Open file backup: One serious shortcoming of most tape backup systems is their inability to backup open files. Look for a solution that is able to monitor file changes at a binary difference level. Using a dedicated client application means reliable backup, even of open files, and easier verification. Rather than reading an entire file, a backup solution should read only the changes in the file, saving storage space and time.
Instant recovery and versioning: When looking for a backup solution, seek a solution that allows specific versions of each file to be re-created according to previous points in time. Instant recovery and versioning features empower users, decrease helpdesk calls, and decrease downtime.
Security. Data should be secured by encryption key technologies to ensure proper protection. Advanced encryption technologies, including AES 256-bit and digital certificates, are important deterrents to data theft.
The modern backup system goal—continuous data protection, local and offsite backup, open file backup and remote backup—ensures the safety of your business data. Tapes, whether 8-track, cassette, VHS or data, have outlived their usefulness. It’s time to upgrade to a serious disk-based backup system utilizing continuous data protection.
Patrick Sweeny is vice president of Network Security Business Unit, for SonicWALL, http://www.sonicwall.com/, a Silicon Valley provider of network security and data protection solutions. Patrick can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .'; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text5053 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it