Where's Your Backup Confidence?

Disaster recovery and business continuity are key drivers. Disaster recovery (89 percent), business continuity (73 percent), and security (52 percent) were the most common reasons to back up a company's critical data.

Cost of downtime varies. Forty-seven percent of respondents agree that the cost of downtime is "hundreds of dollars per hour," while 37 percent say it costs "thousands of dollars per hour."

Comparing recovery time for critical data versus non-critical data. Most organizations (40 percent) believe that "within four hours" is an acceptable recovery window (the time it takes for your recovered data to be accessible) for critical data. However, in terms of non-critical data, the majority (42 percent) believe that one business day is an acceptable timeframe.

Not every organization checks the status of its backup process on a daily basis. Only 52 percent of respondents check their backup process on a daily basis. Fourteen percent of respondents say they check on a weekly basis, while 9 percent say they never check.

Technical service and support is more important than price when selecting a backup vendor. Seventy-nine percent of respondents believe that technical service and support are more important than price (60 percent) when selecting a backup vendor. Data security (72 percent) and speed of recovery (61 percent) also scored high as important decision criteria.

Data that is important to back up varies from organization to organization. Database files (83 percent) were the most important information that needs to be backed up, according to respondents. Financial data (79 percent), email (73 percent), and productivity applications (52 percent) also scored high. Video files (19 percent) were the least important data to be backed up, based on the options given.

Back up your business-critical data to a secure location, and ensure that the data is properly backed up and stored offsite.

Run disaster recovery test drills on a regular basis. Make certain you can recover the necessary data in the event of a disaster to the designated alternate location.

Prioritize all your applications/systems to ensure that your recovery plan restores your most critical data first.

Document your disaster-recovery plan and make sure it's accessible in case of any disaster.

Invest in an online data backup and recovery solution that includes a simple pricing structure, no additional costs for restores or support, and proactive monitoring of all data-backup processes by senior-level engineers.

Data backup isn't a "set and forget" operation. It needs to be continuously monitored by experts who know your environment and know how to restore your applications/data properly.