How Often Should You Backup Your Data?
Data backup is often part of a company’s policy or industry regulations. However, it is more than simply making a copy of everything. When developing an effective data backup strategy, you should consider the Five Ws and H:
– Who? – Would you manage data backup in-house or delegate this task to an outside vendor?
– What? – Would you back up all your data or only vital data?
– Where? – Would you store your backups on-premises or off-site?
– Why? – What is behind your decision to back up your data? Is it a business need, legal obligation, in-house security policy, etc.?
– When? – How often will you back up your data?
– How? – Would you rather choose a traditional backup or go for the cloud option?
While much emphasis is placed on the “who”, “what”, “where”, “why”, and “how” of data backup, less attention is focused on the “when”. It’s important to consider not just when, but also how frequently backups should be performed. Data loss can happen at any time. As a precaution, it’s critical to determine how frequently to back up new data.
Important Factors to Consider
According to Microsoft, there are some critical questions you should ask yourself when determining backup frequency:
– How important is the data on your systems?
– What type of information does the data contain?
– How often does the data change?
– How quickly do you need to recover the data?
– Do you have the equipment to perform backups?
– Who will be responsible for the backup and recovery plan?
– What is the best time to schedule backups?
According to many industry experts, one of these questions is the most important. How frequently does your data change? Today, new data is created almost every minute, whether it’s blog posts, emails, consumer data, or policy documents. Organizations must keep track of new data through frequent backups.
Some data center backup products charge per backup. As a result, many IT professionals are concerned about the cost. Cloudways, for example, charges per GB of backup storage, as well as for the frequency and retention of clients’ backups. While smaller businesses can get by with a standard, incremental backup every 24 hours and a weekly full backup, larger enterprises typically require a higher level of protection.
Backup Recommendations
It is recommended that the average, mid-sized business run a full back up every 24 hours, followed by an incremental backup every 6 hours.
Smaller businesses are frequently tempted to store files on flash drives or in a Google Drive. While physical backups are great for a small amount of data, they have serious drawbacks. They can be damaged, lost, or stolen.
In situations where disaster recovery is required, the simplest solutions frequently fail. Google Drive and Dropbox are excellent cloud storage services, but they are not backup facilities. These store individual copies of data and documents, and it is possible to be locked out. This increases the possibility of human error. Furthermore, most file types do not update automatically. Many data types are not commonly stored on different systems. Therefore, this is insufficient for most professional use cases.
Mid-sized, online retailers, for example, will want to increase their incremental backups to 4 hours, in addition to producing transaction logs hourly. Transaction logs are files that list any changes to your database (in this case, new purchases). These are critical to an effective backup strategy because they are required for maintaining the integrity of your database.
If you prefer a more aggressive approach, you can perform a full back up every 24 hours, followed by incremental backups every 3 hours and transaction logs every half-hour. This scenario works best for high-traffic data systems, such as those used by enterprise online retailers and large banks. Lost transactions are simply not an option in these businesses. Given that backing up this frequently can put a strain on storage capabilities, it is recommended that a secondary server be purchased in this scenario.
Whatever frequency you select, you must also consider whether your backups will be performed automatically or manually. By automating backups, your team can spend more time focused on other crucial tasks.
Database Backup Software Options
When it comes to software solutions for backing up data and managing important files, there are two types. The first is Data Center Backup. The second option, Database Management, is far more comprehensive than these simpler backup solutions.
Data Center Backup Software
The best data center backup tools can ensure a smooth backup process and reduce human error. There are many options available to users. For instance, Rubrik, Veeam Backup and Replication, and Commvault Complete Data Protection, etc. are all good backup tools.
Our partner, Veeam, is an excellent choice for a wide range of applications. Users can take advantage of a free trial, as well as on-premises models with flat pricing structures. This is ideal for those who are new to backup solutions.
Database Management
As the name implies, database management entails organizing your data according to a variety of criteria. These tools frequently include a data recovery system.
In Summary
So how often should you back up your data? In short, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Companies should consider their business, specific industry regulations, the amount of created and aggregated data, and other factors. Businesses should back up their data as frequently as possible. However, the average frequency recommended for businesses is once per day. Always remember to apply the 5Ws and H to help you determine your businesses data backup needs and solutions.
If your company generates so much data each day that one backup per day is insufficient, you may want to perform backups more frequently.
Are you a business in need of assistance in building an effective backup strategy? Reach out to us! Our experienced team will help you to choose the best backup solution for your specific needs, automate backups and secure your data.
