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Disaster Recovery Alert!

Is your data Backed up?

 

Backup Recommendations:

IPM-Software recommends that you back up your data at the end of each day. If the computer has more than one drive, back up onto a different drive from the one where you keep your working data. If you have only one hard disk drive, back up onto a removable diskette or memory stick or your network server. Remember that the primary purpose for backing up data is to protect against loss due to a hard disk/computer failure, theft, fire, flood, or other natural disaster.

 

 

From www.wikipedia.org:

  • The more important the data that is stored on the computer the greater the need is for backing up this data.
  • A backup is only as useful as its associated restore strategy.
  • Storing the copy near the original is unwise, since many disasters such as fire, flood and electrical surges are likely to cause damage to the backup at the same time.
  • Automated backup and scheduling should be considered, as manual backups can be affected by human error.
  • Backups will fail for a wide variety of reasons. A verification or monitoring strategy is an important part of a successful backup plan. Once the data has been backed up, check to see if it is actually backed up.

EVENTS

  • In 1996, during a fire at the headquarters of Credit Lyonnais, a major bank in Paris, system administrators ran into the burning building to rescue backup tapes because they didn't have offsite copies. Crucial bank archives and computer data were lost.
  • Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has documented 16 instances of stolen or lost backup tapes (among major organizations) in 2005 & 2006. Affected organizations included Bank of America, Ameritrade, Citigroup, and Time Warner.

 

CornerStone, HUD and IPMS Backup instructions are located at

http://www.ipm-software.net/faxb.html

 

As the old computer adage goes:

Backup only as often as you can afford to lose your data

 

 

Feel free to modify the recommendations given in the documents on our website to better suit the specific operations for your environment.  Please keep in mind, the fewer backups there are, the fewer disaster recovery options are available.

 

Just something for you to consider:

Diskettes are like VHS tapes. The one you use to record your favorite show every day will end up wearing out after a while, the picture and sound degrade until the tape is useless.  The same holds true for diskettes, only they are much less forgiving, and like VHS tapes, when they start to go, they go quickly.