Do Not Take Data Recovery for Granted

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We have discussed many reasons for data loss in the last several blogs. However, you can also lose  data by taking recovery for granted. This applies to all of those reasons for data loss. This one is pretty simple – simply assuming recovery will work.

Your Other Choice

You remember the age-old saying concerning what happens when we assume. It is particularly apt when discussing data recovery. Don’t assume anything!

Regardless of the technology that you use, it’s important that you periodically test your recovery. Don’t assume because you can write to tape that you can read from that tape. Don’t assume because a dashboard shows you a successful backup status that you can recover that backup. Be paranoid and test.

And then test again.

For more information on data loss and recovery, contact NPV.

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Losing Your Data from Computer Disasters

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Shortcut to Losing Your Data

Disasters are not a leading cause of data loss by any means. Data loss due to disasters occurs no more than 1% to 3% of the time. In order to avoid losing data, do not focus on the relative rarity of disasters and ignore the severe consequences when a disaster strikes.

What to do to avoid data loss from disasters

Why don’t people walk around outside in thunderstorms? The odds of getting struck by lightning are pretty low. The estimated odds in any given year are 1 in 500,000. Why? Because the consequences of being struck by lightning are very high. The odds of death are 1 in 10; the odds of disability approach 9 in 10.

The odds of data loss due to a natural disaster are relatively low; however, the consequences are severe. In order to safeguard your data, you need to have a disaster recovery plan for your environment. A major part of that disaster recovery plan is protecting data.

There are two basic schemes for this: tape-based rotational archiving and electronic-based replication of data to an off-premise site. We advise looking an integrated D2D2x approach whereby you can use disk, tape, or electronic replication concurrently to optimize your overall spending in support of true disaster recovery.

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Protect Against Computer Viruses

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An easy way to losing your data is to neglect to install a firewall and anti-virus software.  Computer viruses rangefrom the annoying to those that threaten not only the systems of your organization but your organization’s reputation as well. The easiest way to lose your data with respect to computer viruses is to not install a firewall and anti-virus software. Anther way to insure 100% infection when a virus occurs is to make sure that all of your systems operate using Windows – not just your PCs but your servers and your backup servers as well.

Other Options

In order to protect your data you will of course have a firewall and install anti-virus software. From a backup perspective, the important thing here is to operate your backup and disaster recovery software on a non-Windows platform.

Vendors ship their backup software on Windows platforms for one reason – they can make the most money with the least expense because Windows is so ubiquitous. If you take a step back and think about it, however, it just doesn’t make sense to run your “protection” software on the same operating system that is relentlessly under attack by malicious people.

For help to protect against data loss, contact NPV.

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Data Loss Through Theft

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Theft is another cause of data loss. Theft manifests itself either via a “data spill” in which data isn’t lost but instead made available to third-parties for whom the data wasn’t intended or in outright destruction. For the purposes of this blog, we’re going to limit our discussion to outright destruction of data.

 

The destruction of data is rarely performed by a relatively disinterested “hacker”; instead, it is most often performed by a disgruntled employee or ex-employee. It is incredibly difficult to prevent; although precautions should be and most often are taken particularly around the involuntary termination of employees.

 

Taking Another Path

 

The first step to avoid malicious destruction is to create policies which make your primary data more difficult to destroy. These include strict policies and procedures associated with not only involuntary but voluntary termination as well and on taking steps to secure your environment from external access.

 

From the perspective of data protection, theft is largely indistinguishable from human error in terms of the tools and techniques that must be used to protect your data – the only difference between the two is motive and motive isn’t really a factor in terms of this type of logical failure. Automation and retention again are the most important strategies for ensuring that you can survive this type of threat.

 

For more information on protecting your business from theft of data, contact NPV.com.

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Disregarding Software Corruption Leads you to Lose Data

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Shortcut to Losing Your Data

Software corruption is the third leading cause of data loss. Anyone who has lived through a BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) in Windows understands the concept. Of course, software corruption is caused not only by software defects but through the chaining of errors in systems as well. It’s important to ignore software corruption in order to increase your odds of losing your data.

Taking Another Path

Software corruption, like human error, is another type of logical (as opposed to physical, or hardware) failure. The primary differentiation with respect to data loss is that software corruption can occur and remain undetected for days, weeks, months, or years. Thus automation for strict adherence to policy and retention are incredibly important techniques for protecting your data against software corruption.

If you are experiencing software corruption, contact NPV.com.

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