Backup Anytime

Data backup isn’t just for Christmas.

There is a tradition amongst some people of running significant manual data backup processes at Christmas. The thinking here is that Christmas is the run up to a new year, a major holiday period and an occasion in which most or all persons will be leaving the office for extended periods and that therefore it is an apt time to run significant data backups.

If you do this, it may be an indication that you are not taking adequate data protection measures generally. Why so?

First off, your data backup systems should be automated. If manual intervention is required to boost your confidence in you data backup system this may be a concession on your part that your automated systems are not rock solid.

Secondly, your data protection plans should be adequate all year round. Variances in protection levels on a seasonal basis quite simply point to out of season backups lacking in the level of protection which you apply on a holiday season.

Additionally, while it can be argued that increased measures at end of calendar (or financial) year are a positive measure, any objective merits of this must be looked at from the viewpoint of why this is so and how can the system be improved so this level of protection can be automated and applied throughout the year.

Also, variations in data backup types, volume and intended target data have implications for relevancy and indeed appropriateness of data stores. Unusual bulk backups bring new responsibilities from a data protection perspective and in particular need to be assessed from the viewpoint of the legitimacy, rights and responsibilities your organisation can and should apply to third party information.

In conclusion.
The days of the office manager doing bulk backups on a whim because if is Saturday or Christmas or because he is worried about data but has failed to organise formal data protection are over. Dumping large quantities of data on to a data key or removable drive simply because you fell you may need it is not a data backup. It is a transfer which increases risk of data breach. This is well known but those who don’t understand or respect it are at the greatest risk. Those who visit Irish blogs (or indeed blogs just about anywhere) will see examples of people approaching backup in the festive season with the latest bulk storage toys. This flippant and near recreational approach to data backup is oft the proximate cause of severe data outage and sanctionable data breach. If you want to do something positive about your office data systems this Christmas or in the new year, organise a formal online data backup policy.
If you want to know more, contact Backupanytime in absolute confidence and start backing up properly.

Stand up laptop thief.

Laptop theft is a serious problem. The guy in this video may come across as being over the top, sanctimonious, threatening, obsessive and well just plain scary. If every laptop theft victim had his attitude it is likely that the incidence of stolen laptops would drop quite significantly. I wouldn’t like to be the target in the class.

The speakers failures however would appear to be in the areas of encryption and data backup. If these two issues were addressed correctly his data would not get in the wrong hands and would be available to him.

Conclusion?

Having the attitude, diction and power of a lecturer and having your target trapped in the room just doesn’t compare in effectiveness with having your data encrypted and backed up.

If he had an account with Backupanytime, not alone would he have his data, we could assist in retrieving his laptop. How can an online backup service provide a stolen laptop retrieval service? See here, http://www.backupanytime.com/blog/2008/10/21/backupanytime-stolen-laptop-retrieval-service/

Online backup was initially the domain of University communities, then the military, soon afterwards major corporates. Large companies were still the greatest online backup uptake category in late 2007. This year however has seen significant advances in the adoption of online backup by small and medium sized business.

An online backup industry article from byte and switch dated 19th June 2008 quoting researchers In-Stat explained that firms with over 100 people on the payroll were three times more likely to utilise online backup than say a small business. What this article did not address however is that this disparity shows not only a reduction in the uptake differences between small and large companies but also a significant acceleration in the uptake of online backup on the part of small business. Large companies generally have greater uptake level in new technology anyway so the comparisons regarding online backup do not differentiate significantly from other technologies.

Additionally, many very large companies will implement and manage their own online backup system whereas small to medium companies will in the main not do this. This leaves small to medium sized business as the main focus of online backup providers.

This is further evidenced in reports from online backup providers as gathered and detailed by highbeam research. While major corporates will remain a target audience for online backup companies, most of the focus here will be partnerships or divisional services. The major focus continues to be small business and increasingly medium sized companies who need online backup services as an end solution on an outsourced basis.

Online backup market research is limited in usability as a point in time excersice as the market is continually in flux. General, ost believe near global consenus is that the trend for the vast majority of businesses is away from both local and self serviced data backup to online and outsourced.

Ask the data experts.

New! (October 2008)

Following of from the continuing success of the “Who’s who in data” interview series we have decided to allow you to ask the questions! Simply respond to this post using the standard comment option below. Present your question in the comment. Given the question is appropriate we will publish it and ask it of an expert from the “Who’s who in data” interview series. The expert asked will be chosen based on the relevance of their experience and expertise to your question and their willingness to answer. The chosen expert may therefore be from a past, present or yet to be published interview.

The real benefit here is that information on this page will be provided in order of readers wishes rather than the interview chronological order of the main “Who’s who in data” section.

Appropriate questions may be asked regarding any of the following.

Data protection, data management, data law, data backup, data security, data storage, data de-duplicattion, data technology, data privacy and yes you’ve got it. anything of relevance to the data industry.

Go ahead, all you have to do is ask! Click on comment and type your question.

Sensible Data backup Auto Selection.

From our experience, the auto selection is underused and commonly incorrectly used. In examined usage, the main intended purpose (User defined file auto selection) is used in less than 10% of self installs.

Before looking at efficient and helpful ways of using the backup auto select feature, lets have a look at what auto select actually is and why it is commonly in the “off” state by default.

What is “Backup Auto select”?

Auto select is the facility which automatically includes all files of a specific type in a backup set. This assists in preventing a backup from missing important files of the specified extension. Some auto select modules will include some allowance for covering files of the specified type even if they are positioned outside of the main data backup areas. Please check the actual feature list of your own installation and make no assumptions regarding your features being the same as those you read about.

Why is Auto select commonly switched off by default?

Many installations have the auto select feature switched off by default. The reason for this is that if that the provider can not make any assumptions about the files which are important to you. This is the case for a number of reasons, not least that your provider charges relate to space you use and an obvious conflict of interest exists with a provider auto including files you may not want or need.

Now that we know what Auto selection (aka auto inclusion) is and why it is commonly switched off by default, we can now look at when and how it can be utilised.

For demonstration purposes we will look at some hypothetical data backup environments and the levels of suitability to and likely benefit from the use of auto selection.

Requirement to backup all instances of an unusual files type.

In this environment, auto selection is an excellent tool. The reason for this is that by adding the required file type to the active auto select list and enabling auto select you are adding all required files and potentialy zero or limited instances of files you do not wish to backup. In this case, the usage of the auto select feature assists in avoiding missing important files while keeping the backup set relevant, manageable and efficient from a storage space viewpoint.

Requirement to backup many instances of a relatively common file type.

In this case, the usage of auto select may cause you to backup some files you don’t actually need. The decision about data backup auto select usage will come down to balancing the benefits of being sure all instances of the required file type are included with the downside of backing up instances of that file type which you do not require.

Requirement to backup limited instances of a very common file type.

In this case, the usage of online backup auto selection tools will assist with avoiding missing selection for the required file type but will bring with it the overhead of also backing up many unwanted files of this same file extension. An example would be in the case of someone including in auto select all instances of say .doc files to avoid missing a limited number documents. As a consequence you can expect exactly what you intended plus possibly many thousands of unintended .doc backups such as Microsoft Word templates, documents embedded in software installations, help files and documents which may be created by or for you but which you don’t want to backup.

In summary.

Auto selection in data backup systems is an excellent tool if used correctly and in the right circumstances. The low usage level of auto selection in computer backup system does not point to it being broadly unsuitable but more so to the fact that it is commonly off by default and users are not informed about its’ existence, usage and benefits.

The three environments examined above are simplistic and are not representative of the complexity which is common to even the smallest of commercial backup requirements. The use of auto select in business backup can however be implemented in more complex environments by using auto include backup sets and non auto include backup sets within the same backup system. This would allow an auto include backup set which includes all say .qbw (quick books data files) to run prior to a non auto include backup set which selected a specific number of .qbb files (quick books backup files) and therefore allowing the backup operator to backup all actual quick books files and only those quick books backup files which were required.

If you have avoided the use of auto selection in your server backup configuration simply because you have limited experience of it, you may be missing out on a very effective data inclusion facility. Contact your local I.T. support and discuss the possible merits for your environment of auto selection.