Policies, precautions and practices: some facts and practices for disaster recovery.

Not too long ago, Imation surveyed more than 200 IT directors and network storage managers of small to mid-sized companies on their perceptions of data backup, disaster recovery and storage practices and challenges. According to the survey, 40% of companies polled rely on an extensive network of laptops for their employees. Even though the use of laptops in business is growing, 57% of companies hold the individual employee responsible for backing up data onto the company server. Two in five companies (42%) leave it up to the employee to determine what data needs to be backed up. Moreover, less than one-third (29%) of those companies use software to backup changed files to a corporate network.

Viruses, Number One Reason Companies Review and Change Data Protection Procedures

It is evident that e-mail viruses have had the most profound effect on data backup procedures. More than half (59%) of the companies surveyed reported that e-mail viruses are the number one reason they review and/or change their data backup procedures. And this is no small concern. According to McAfee Inc., a leading supplier of network security and availability solutions, more than 100,000 threats exist today and cost $12.3 billion in damages last year alone.

Other top concerns prompting companies to evaluate their data backup procedures:

* Cyber attacks (31%)

* Natural disasters (28%)

* Terrorist attacks (22%)

* Government regulations (19%)

* Employee sabotage (17%)

* Homeland security issues (15%)

Despite these concerns, respondents said they are most confident when restoring data after a major power outage; however, that confidence diminishes as "mission-critical" data ages over one year.

Clearly, small-to-medium businesses have become more proactive in protecting their digital assets. While 71% of companies surveyed have a disaster recovery plan in place, the testing of those plans after updates is still not a universal practice--leaving companies vulnerable to significant data loss. In fact, 40% of companies don't test their disaster recovery plan after each update; and, 28% percent of companies admit they take a wait-and-see approach and test disaster recovery processes and people only "after a problem" occurs or "never.".

Protect Your Data Center From Virus

If e-mail viruses top the list of IT managers' concerns for data protection, what is to be done? They are more worried about e-mail viruses than they are about homeland security issues or other widespread threats

According to the survey, 59% of companies polled have reviewed and/or changed their data backup and restore procedures in response to the potential threat of an e-mail virus. Fortunately, with the adoption of a few simple techniques, businesses can avoid the long-term revenue loss, downtime and inconveniences that can result from data loss caused by e-mail viruses and other threats.

1. Backup information on a regular basis: pick a schedule your lifestyle or business can support and make it a daily or weekly habit.

2. Backup information on permanent, removable data storage media, such as CDs, DVDs or tape cartridges and store them in a cool, dry place, and in a safe location away from your computer. Businesses should utilize offsite storage of backups. This allows businesses to permanently safeguard files from the possibility of e-mail viruses.

3. Protect yourself from computer viruses: use anti-virus software that runs regularly scheduled virus scans and keep your anti-virus software up to date with the latest virus definitions.

4. Know your e-mail programs: Make sure that you and your employees recognize how attachments are presented in e-mails and how to delete unwanted e-mail messages without opening them.

5. Educate yourself regularly on Internet viruses: Visit anti-virus software websites to research current virus threats or sign up for e-mail alerts or updates from anti-virus software companies. Remember, the more you know, the less likely you are to be a victim of a virus.

6. Don't disable your anti-virus software unless it's necessary for installation or removal of a program (some installation programs can look like a virus). If you do disable virus protection, re-enable it before connecting to the Internet, or reading a floppy diskette, CD or DVD.

7. Don't open e-mail attachments from people you don't know and be wary of unexpected or unusual e-mails from known parties.

8. Protect yourself against data loss with regular system backups using cost-effective removable data storage media, such as CDs, DVDs, USB flash drives or tape media. Backup has to be a regular part of your business routine so you avoid the loss of your data. Schedule backup on your calendar, and secure your data regularly. You never know when the next virus will strike!

Backup and Restore: Evaluation and Testing Tips

A successful storage backup program involves more than just saving information on removable data storage media, such as tape or optical discs, and placing it in storage. A successful storage backup program requires regular evaluation and testing of the backup system to ensure it's working properly and the data stored can be retrieved if necessary. To do this, you or your company need to periodically restore some folders and files from backup media to validate the backup process is performing accurately.

Shockingly, the survey found that only one of three companies (32%) perform regularly scheduled testing and evaluation of their storage backup systems at least quarterly and another 35% do so only once a year or less.

The testing and evaluation process of a backup system should take no more than 30 minutes to perform. If your business cannot risk data loss, you may want to perform a restore job once a week or once a month, depending on your needs. At a minimum, testing should be done at least once a quarter.

To properly evaluate and test a tape backup system, small and mid-sized businesses should adhere to the following steps:

1. Select a representative set of test files and save them to a CD, DVD or hard drive. This step is done first so that in the event of a tape backup failure, you have a set of virus-free (clean) files to restore to the system. Make sure your sample set was copied correctly. This is vital because the files will eventually be deleted from their original location. You may also want to include a graphic file as part of your test set. Graphic files, in addition to text files, provide a visual way to easily recognize corruption if it occurs during the backup and restore process.

2. Backup the files using your normal tape backup procedure.

3. Delete the files from their original location on the hard drive.

4. Recover the files from the regular backup performed in step two. If any data is missing or damaged, the tape backup process is not working correctly. If this happens, recover the files from the CD, DVD or the hard drive backup created in step one and repeat the process with a different tape cartridge. If it fails again, check the tape drive system for problems, or call a professional for assistance.

To properly evaluate and test an optical backup system, small businesses should regularly check their CD or DVD backup copy to make sure the data was saved correctly.

                                            N=82

End-users responsible for downloading       57%
  laptop data onto the company server
End-users determine data files for backup   42%
Rely on manual backup processes             33%
Laptop users have access to backup servers  32%
Use software to detect changes and send     29%
  updates to the company network
Provide end-users with CD/DVD as            27%
  data backup media
Use software for continous backup           21%
  of open application files
Provide end-users with flash thumb drives   21%
Use a file-level backup                     16%
Encourage use of "My briefcase" feature     12%
None of the above                            6%

Figure 1: Majority of Companies Rely on Employees to Protect Data

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Brent Ashton is marketing manager of Small to Medium Business at Imation Corp. (Oakdale, MN)

www.imation.com