A backup is mandatory for any business, but not all backups are the same. You’ll want to be prepared for more than just a simple server crash; you’ll need geographical redundancy that can protect your business even in the face of disasters that destroy your servers or physical location. Yes, local backups are helpful, but you’ll need the power of geographical redundancy to overcome the most horrific disasters that could strike your business.
Why You Need Geographic Redundancy
For a reliable data backup strategy, we recommend the following three elements:
- At least three copies of your data.
- At least two types of storage media are used to store this data.
- At least one copy stored offsite, ideally in a cloud environment.
The biggest benefit that comes from this strategy is that you’ll always have a spare copy of your data available in the event of a disaster.
Especially important here is the off-site copy, which includes having all your data backed up and saved somewhere else, like in the cloud or in a secure off-site data center. This isolates it from any threat to your company’s physical location. If you keep all your backups on-site, then a disaster like a fire, flood, or power surge could destroy your data—including your backups. This geographic redundancy is a failsafe, the ultimate safeguard against these business-ending scenarios.
Why is a Backup Necessary?
It’s easy to find yourself thinking that you won't need a backup, but the fact remains that it’s better to have one and not need it than to find yourself wishing you had one. Here are all of the scenarios in which you’ll be glad you have an off-site backup:
- Natural disasters, like storms, wildfires, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and blizzards, can damage your business’ infrastructure or the infrastructure your business relies on.
- Accidents and emergencies, such as hardware failure, equipment loss, accidental damage, and, in rare cases, sabotage, can wipe out some or all of your data stores.
- Location inaccessibility, such as that caused by a gas leak, local fire, pandemic, or other circumstances, that prevents your team from going to your place of business to do their work for extended periods of time.
In short, localized events that would spell doom for your business are effectively neutralized. The presence of an off-site backup gives your business the opportunity to continue operations, provided you restore your backup to a substitute server, granting the ability to resume business as usual in the interim, despite the circumstances.
You Need Both Local and Remote Backups
If you want to optimize protection of your business, you need to have the convenience of a localized backup combined with the redundancy of an isolated remote backup. Coleman Technologies can help you be prepared for any situation that demands a backup. Learn more by contacting us at (604) 513-9428.
