In an age when data is your business, data backup and recovery can literally be the difference between your organization keeping its doors open — or shuttering them. And because data loss takes multiple forms, from cyberattacks to natural disasters to human error, it's never been more important to know where you and your business stand vis-a-vis data backup and recovery.
Which brings us...here. To this quick interactive assessment, designed to give you an indication of your organization's data recovery preparedness.
So, how does your business stack up on data backup? Let's find out. Take the quick 13-question quiz below.
And scroll farther down for additional guidance on the 3-2-1-1-0 rule mentioned in the quiz.
After all, data backup and recovery is nothing less than a make-or-break issue for many modern organizations.
3-2-1-1-0 is a framework for ensuring your mission-critical data can survive a potential data-loss incident — whether cyberattack, vendor disruption, technology failure, natural disaster, or — most commonly — human error (e.g., accidental deletion).
It goes like this...
3: Keep 3 copies of your data. One will be your live, primary data, while the other two copies will be your backups. So, 1 live copy + 2 backups = 3 copies total.
2: Store the two backups across 2 different types of media, so the failure of a single storage type doesn't take out everything. For many organizations, this will take the form of one backup on a physical device (e.g., internal drive, external drive, local appliance) and one backup in the cloud.
1: Keep 1 backup off-site, that is, physically separate from your main systems, or with a separate cloud provider entirely. This ensures a local disaster that knocks out your entire office (or a single cloud provider) cannot destroy all your data.
1: Make 1 backup immutable. This is a fancy way of saying: make sure one copy cannot be changed or altered, even by an administrator. In the ransomware age, this is particularly important. Such attacks often work by holding your data hostage. But, if you retain an immutable copy, there's only so much damage bad actors can do. Many businesses rely on their cloud storage providers to create an immutable copy.
0: With 0 errors confirmed via testing. That is, the backup has actually been restored and verified to work (see below).
A backup you've never restored is a guess, not a plan. "We think our data is backed up properly."
Two kinds of testing matter, and they serve different purposes.
Recovering a single file, folder, or mailbox. Spot-checks should happen at least monthly; they catch small, everyday failures before they become a problem.
Rebuilding an entire system or environment from your off-site backups. Unlike spot-checks, a full restore should happen at least once a year. They're crucial for confirming you could actually recover if your main systems went down. And, they allow you to test the final element of the 3-2-1-1-0 rule above – that your data backup and recovery system works with zero errors.
Skipping either one means you won't discover your backup didn't work — until it's possibly too late.
Whether you have questions about data backup and recovery, or you want someone to handle all the planning, backing up, and testing for you (I know it can feel like a lot), you've got a partner in TekTrendz.
We specialize in business continuity and data recovery — so you can rest easy knowing your data (and business) is safe.