NEW Data Recovery Service Launched

Could you recover your tape back up’s in the event of a major IT issue?

With ever increasing importance placed on electronic company data, organisations are giving greater consideration to their disaster recovery plans. However it is clear that different organisations have very different views about what a disaster recovery solutions means for their business and indeed how necessary it is. One aspect of disaster recovery however that is used in a vast majority or organisations is tape back up. In reality however, most organisations never check whether the data on the tape is complete and recoverable. As importantly they have little idea whether the speed of recovery is sufficiently quick to prevent damage to their profitability and viability. A survey by Ontrack stated that 16% of businesses felt their survival would be at risk if data was not recovered in less than 4 hours. In simple terms, having data backed up is great but of limited use if the time taken to recover it is too slow for the organisations requirements. When you consider that nearly 50% of small businesses have reported data loss in the last two years and a similar percentage do not back up data daily, ensuring that the tapes that are created are complete and usable becomes vital.

Research carried out by Gartner showed the sometimes devastating impact of data loss with 80% of businesses that suffer a major data loss failure for more than 24 hours closing within a year. This type of statistic can cause alarm and create the sense that all organisations require expensive and sophisticated disaster recovery solutions and whilst that’s not the case, organisations do need to understand how their current solution is operating. Once you understand the problem and the risks, you can consider the balance between cost of the solution and the business risk.

Considering a data recovery testing solution could be a useful first stage. The Complete IT service collects a client back up tape three times a year and fully re-create the clients environment and data to establish if the tape could be used for a full restore. A detailed report is then produced that identifies problems with the tape and the time needed to carry out the recovery. This report then allows CIT and the client to discuss what if any action is needed to ensure that company is not put at commercial risk as a result of the back up activity.

Some clients find that their back up tape is healthy and complete and they then have the reassurance that their system is effective. In other cases, the client is given the visibility to potentially damaging risks. The role of the IT partner is to diagnose the issue and help the client to make realistic and appropriate changes to their back up and data recovery. Given the potential for data loss to create commercial damage, at a minimum it is important for the client to understand their risks.

If you would like to further information on data recovery testing then contact complete IT on 01628 552850 or speak to your Complete IT Manager.