BDR - IT Backup Disaster Recovery

Having an adequate and proven IT Backup Disaster Recovery solution is essential for all small businesses. After Connecticut’s most recent tropical storm, The Walker Group finds it pertinent to retouch on this topic and encourage businesses who haven’t developed a plan or tested their existing plan to do so. The content below aims to define what an adequate small business IT Backup Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution looks like and to describe the necessary tests to ensure its functionality.

Optimal BDR Solution

The optimal backup & disaster recovery solution includes a physical backup server onsite that replicates to an offsite server in another location. That secondary location can be either a 3rd-party datacenter that follows best practices or another office location with a physically secured datacenter. This enables a business to eliminate its main office as being a single point of failure. Additionally, it is ideal for both the onsite and backup servers to be able to virtualize. By having the ability to virtualize, employees can continue working using a backup server while the production server is being restored. Other key components of an optimal solution include:

 

  • Image-Based Backups
  • Using image-based backups as opposed to file-based backups can reduce the amount of downtime to minutes.
  • Data Encryption
  • It is safest for backup data to be encrypted both while in transmission and while at rest.
  • Anti-Ransomware
  • If both a business’ production server and backup server are infected, the ransom will need to be paid. In fact, Datto’s research states that the average cost of these incidents has grown from $48,800 in 2018 to $141,000 in 2019. 
  • Redundant Power 
  • Redundant power is necessary for both the main location and the backup location.
  • Redundant Internet 
  • Having two separate internet circuits reduces the risk of downtime and having an additional tertiary satellite internet source reduces risk even further. 

 

Proper Testing Measures

  • Test to ensure employees’ computers are configured to connect to the offsite backup server.
  • Run a monthly data restore test to ensure the backup data is not corrupted.
  • Install remote monitoring and management (RMM) agents on the backup servers that provide real-time system health information.

Small businesses who implement the optimal BDR solution for their needs and continuously test that solution to ensure its functioning will greatly mitigate their risk of large financial losses due to IT downtimes. Once a storm is in the forecast, or even on a sunny day when a server fails unexpectedly, it will be too late to take preventive actions to ensure employees remain productive and serviceable to their clients. The Walker Group assists businesses with the implementation of IT BDR solutions and can perform a business impact analysis (BIA) https://www.ready.gov/business-impact-analysis to ensure proper alignment with an IT BDR solution.


Backup and Disaster Recovery should be viewed as business insurance for peace of mind and to ensure resumption of service after certain events.  Let us develop a BDR Plan for you.


Contact Us To Learn More

written by:

Brendan K.

Brendan K. is a Business Alliance Manager focused on building partnerships with technology companies that can help The Walker Group’s clients increase efficiencies, reduce operating expenses and mitigate IT security risks. Prior to assuming the Business Alliance Manager role at Walker, Brendan spent 10+ years in new business sales and account management roles while working for both software and service providers.

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