How do you protect your files from loss? Do you have any security features? Or do you rely on fate or worse, think your business is not affected? I’ll surprise you, this applies to literally everyone, even the smallest units. What may seem absurd is that it is easier to steal from dozens of small companies than one large one. The effect will be the same, the acquisition of a huge amount of personal data. Interestingly, according to a recent One System study, one in five companies in Poland is losing data.
Personally, I am confronted daily with the topic of data loss and thus the lack of backup. The latest high-profile incident is a cyberattack on the Russian federation of air transport agencies Rosaviation. As much as 65 terabytes of data disappeared from their servers, which included emails, company documents and aircraft registrations. As you can guess, this is of great importance for this type of activity.
It is worth noting that there are plenty of reasons for data loss, not just through attacks by cyber criminals. These can include mistakes by your employees, server room problems, database security vulnerabilities, lack of disk or site security, as well as natural disasters such as fire or flood.
It is worth noting that backup does not have to be a complicated process. There are several ways, but let’s start at the beginning. First, from the features of backup itself, and ending with its types and methods of execution.
Features of a good Backup
Backup, backup is not equal. It might seem that making a backup is a simple matter. As it turns out, not quite. Plenty of users make basic mistakes that do not allow them to correctly restore copied information. In my opinion, there are three characteristics of a good backup, and the fourth is such a bonus that can facilitate a lot.
Three copies Have a minimum of three copies of the data.
Two data carriers Any data, should be stored on a minimum of two devices. One may be a workstation in the form of a laptop, and the other may be external media such as an SSD, flash drive or CD/DVD. It is worth noting that in addition to storing documents in two places, they should also be properly secured. So that outsiders, despite having the equipment, cannot read the information from them.
Another server When making a backup, we should remember one very important thing. Backup of the site must be done on a different server than our production environment is running. From experience, I know that half of my clients do not pay attention to this, resulting in countless problems restoring the site to its previous state. Describing this problem I have only one picture in front of my eyes, which I must share with you.
Therefore, remember. Make backups on other servers!
Sharing responsibility Did you know that you can share responsibility for your services? Companies that focus their operations in cloud computing, especially in SaaS solutions, can count on the so-called “cloud” model. shared responsibility. Its main principle is the sharing of infrastructure maintenance responsibilities between the cloud provider and its users. As a result, we have a higher level of security. Want to know more? If so, I refer you to the dedicated article.
Backup
Types of Backup
You already know what a well-made backup is, but do you know what types of backups there are? As it turns out, there may be several, four to be exact.
Full Backup A cyclical recording of the entire environment is made. This ensures that in the event of a disaster, all resources are restored at a 1:1 ratio. An additional point for this type of backup is that there is no need to use another storage medium. By storing backup data in one place, restoring it is a much faster process.
Differential backup To begin with, a full backup is created. Then backups are made of the data that has changed since the full copy was made. This method provides a faster way to restore resources than with incremental backup.
Incremental backup Only information that has changed since the full or incremental backup is backed up. The plus side of the solution is the small capacity of backups stored in server spaces.
Synthetic backup This type focuses on backing up information based on the current state of the system. Simplifying the complexity of the method, we can say that it is a simplified version of full backup, which is created based on current backup versions. The positive side of backup is the low network load, functional space management and faster ability to restore data to its original version.
Four different approaches. Which one is good for your business? I don’t know, because I don’t know its specifications, industry, operating principles and design capabilities. However, I know that we should start protecting our data as soon as possible. Nowadays, taking periodic backups, especially of files that have vital information about your company, is a must.
At Qlos, we help with backups, as well as support Disaster Recovery policy processing. It’s documentation that provides an automated and fast way to restore services if they are lost.
