The amount of data stored on business computers has grown at an astronomical rate. Today, many small and midsize businesses (SMBs) now have databases, file servers, and e-mail systems containing dynamic data crucial to day-to-day business operations. If a company loses this data, the business grinds to a halt.

It is essential for SMBs to have a reliable backup and restore strategy to guard against data loss. Unfortunately, SMBs are caught in a squeeze. Most backup strategies are either relatively unsophisticated solutions, designed for home users, or overly complex solutions geared toward large corporations. Low-end solutions often do not provide the advanced features that SMBs need to protect vital business information; enterprise-level solutions often require far more IT skill than SMBs have at their disposal.

SMBs need a middle ground: a backup strategy that can protect all data that is easy to set up and run with minimal IT resources. The following guidelines can help SMBs establish a reliable backup strategy to safeguard the integrity of data and guarantee quick, easy, and accurate restores.

Business-class Data Protection
Drag-and-drops, mirroring, and disk duplication sometimes provide adequate protection for personal users with minimal, unimportant data, but they have a number of flaws that make them unsuitable for business-class backup and recovery features.

These strategies simply overwrite files and folders previously existing on the backup media, erasing all previous data. Problems such as viruses, accidental deletion, and corrupted files are propagated in the backup media. Past versions of files are lost, and the computer cannot be returned to a prior point in time.

Instead, SMBs should select business-class backup software that protects all business-critical data, that is easy to set up, runs on a schedule, and automatically self-adjusts. It must not only protect files and folders, but also the computers in the network, and back up all the necessary data to restore a computer running any OS in the event of a failure.

When a computer fails, restoring the operating system, applications, settings and device drivers can be a time-consuming process. IT personnel spend countless hours loading application CDs and re-configuring settings. It is extremely difficult and time-consuming to reload software or drivers that were downloaded over the Internet. Having multiple operating systems on a network can also present a challenge.

Ensuring Fast Backups and Accurate Restores
Full backups copy all of the files and folders each time a backup occurs and provide accurate restores because they make an exact copy of every file and folder. However, full backups are time-intensive, require a lot of backup media, and provide few restore points.
To save time and backup media, incremental or differential backups capture only files that are new or that have changed after an initial full backup. However, restoring from them is a complex process that usually results in flawed restores. The process returns previously deleted, moved, or renamed files and folders. For example, if a document has been moved three times, renamed, and then deleted, the restore could return five different versions of that file – when an accurate restore would not have returned it at all.

The only way to get the benefits of incremental or differential backups and still have 100 percent accurate restores is to select backup software that scans the hard drive prior to performing a backup, creates a list of the files and folders present, and stores that list on the backup media. Later, the software uses the appropriate list to guide the restore, returning only the exact files and folders that existed at that particular point in time.

Automating Backups
Automating common backup tasks can greatly reduce the amount of time and energy that must be spent performing daily backups, but care must be taken to make sure that automated backups run reliably and protect all the computers on a network.

Automated backups do not protect desktop computers that are turned off or notebooks that are not connected to the network during scheduled backups, these systems, go unprotected for extended lengths of time.

Also, if backup windows are limited, and a large amount of data is transferred, most backup software will back up only high priority computers before time runs out.

SMBs should select backup software that recognizes which computers were not backed up, and assigns those computers a higher priority for the next backup. With a self-adjusting automatic scheduler controlling the backup process, IT personnel need not rewrite backup scripts daily. Notebooks are adequately protected, as they are recognized when they appeared on the network and then prioritized for backup.

SMB Disaster Recovery
SMBs should make at least two copies of the backup media. One copy should be kept in a secure, offsite location to guard against catastrophic events such as fire, flood, earthquake, or other disasters that might destroy the onsite backup media. Rotate onsite/offsite backup copies at regular intervals. Select software that doesn’t need to perform a time-consuming full backup each time offsite media is brought onsite.

Conclusion
A business-class backup strategy consists of easy-to-use, reliable backups with accurate restores disaster recovery in place. Backup software needs to provide complete protection for all your computers, applications, settings, and operating systems. It must save time by performing fast incremental or differential backups while at the same time delivering 100% percent accurate restores. And it needs to utilize automated backup technology, which allows small and midsize businesses to protect data without requiring extensive IT resources. As part of any backup strategy, remember to keep a copy of the backup data offsite in a secure location to guard against disaster.

Don Chouinard is the director of product
management at EMC Dantz. He can be reached at chouinard_don@emc.com.