How Much Will You Miss Your Data?

Submitted by: Shell Harris

The high cost of not being able to access your data is what should guide you when considering business continuity issues. This is the starting point when assessing the implications for your business and gauging what level and quality rating you are going to need in a solution.

First of all, what do we mean when we talk about data ?

Data is everything you are using in your business, and it is much more than accounting data or customer lists. Data includes training videos, employment manuals and policy documents, financial records (obviously) and CRM information, it also includes email archives and records, website files, audio files, program and application files, network management and security information on who can access your network and how in short, data is literally everything!

Data can be lost easily through simple user error in an accidental file deletion, or it may be lost due to data theft by a disgruntled employee or a criminal hacking into your network. Data may be lost or destroyed because of infection of the network by malware (viruses, Trojans and so on), or it can be lost due to physical action such as a theft of a hard drive or flood or fire.

Data does not have to be lost to be of no value; malware can slow down your network servers so applications run very slowly affecting productivity, or email and other applications crash. Consider what would happen if someone polluted your data, for instance changing the telephone number by one digit for every phone record of your clients and suppliers?

Data protection forms the very crux of any business continuity solution, but there are so many risks and uncertainties associated with protecting your data, that it is impossible to foresee them all.

So how do you know when you need to establish a solution and what lengths do you need to go to?

First you need to ask yourself some questions which are deceptively simple but very difficult to answer. First, what is the value of a particular data item and of the application which generated it (and this valuation should be in the overall business context). Next, how far back will you need to go to ensure you have recoverable and usable data go too far back in time and the data is meaningless, but recovery to a short period of time past becomes more expensive as more back-ups are required.

There are two concepts which can help; Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO). In essence, RPO can be established by asking how far back you can afford to lose data while RTO tells you how long you can go without your data before the costs become too great to the business. You can help get to the answers to what your RPO and RTO by asking yourself questions such as these:

Is the data mission critical?

How quickly will you need it back if you lose access?

How frequently do you use the data?

What happens if you cannot recover the data at all?

What you establish by asking these questions and establishing your RPO and RTO measures is the answer to a very significant question, and one which should guide you in establishing your business continuity solution:

If my business loses the data, how much will that cost?

About the Author: Lawrence Reaves is a strong believer in

Richmond IT services

such as

Richmond data recovery

and

Richmond cloud computing

. For these services, Lawrence recommends PLANIT Technology Group, a Juniper Networks Partner. PLANIT Technology Group can be found online at: PLANITTech.com .

Source:

isnare.com

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