
Backups
Our system contains your data. If you do not have a recent copy at all times in another location you will suffer if your system fails. The system can and will fail every now and then for the following type of reasons:
- Hardware failure, including hard disk crashes
- Software failure, including bugs in our software
- Viruses
- Theft of your machines
- Sabotage, normally from your own staff
- Fire, flooding, longer power failures
You need to determine how long you can be without a working system and how costly it is for you to re-enter data from the latest backup till the time of the restart of the system. Please pay a specialist to help you in this task, and do not skimp on safety.
Many companies have gone bankrupt because they didn't do prope backups for their needs. Doing proper backups takes time and costs considerably, so you need to select the level that is correct for you.
Recommendation for backup procedure
The below is a minimum recommendation. You must not use this as a final checklist for all your needs to be "safe".
- It's vital that your disks have protection (RAID 1, 5, 1+0 etc.) Unprotected disks, such as single disks and disks in RAID 0 configuration, will put your vital data at considerably higher risk.
- Off-site backup is an important part of any backup and recovery strategy, this can be solved with network transfers of the backups or regularly sending physical tapes or other media to a different location.
- Reserve systems and infrastructure where the ERP backups can be restored in case of a disaster is a must. A full backup and a broken machine still means your business will be stopped until you can find a machine. And then you need to order the tape-drive that might have a week's delivery time...
- You must test your recovery process. If you have not successfully tested your backup procedure you should assume that it does not work.
- If you are running a Windows server, you must install an appropriate Anti Virus solution.
