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Types of Backup Methods
In this video, you will learn about different backup methods and how to select the appropriate one.
In this video, we’re going to go over understanding different backup methods. Now in the previous videos, we went over why we want data backups. Hardware failure, ransomware, virus attacks, fire, flooding, earthquakes, and other natural disasters could hit. So it’s important we have a good data backup. Now, there’s a lot of different types of data backups that we could do. They’re scheduled backups, automatic backups, on-premise backups, and off-premise backups. Now, an example of a scheduled backup, Windows 8 and Windows 10 and OSX all have their own version of a data backup. So for Windows, you have a system restore, which will actually create a recovery point.
So if something happens to your computer, that you can restore back to a different point in time. Now OSX has a more granular version built in called Time Machine. And we can load snapshots on hourly or past 24 hours. You can set it for monthly backups. It’s a pretty robust system. Now this is pretty good for general recovery. But if we’re looking at more granular approach, we want to take a look at other backup methods. And other problems with these things are they typically don’t back up offline, except for Time Machine, which you can actually put on an external drive.
Now other methods that we talked about for small deployments, we could do with things like DVDs, USB drives, external drives or NAS. And these might be pretty good if you don’t have a lot of data and you want to use this as another media source or a offsite backup. But for larger deployments for offsite backups, we can always take a look at cloud storage. Things like AWS, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud, these are all really good cloud storage devices. So this will give us a offsite backup. And generally, this will be an automatic backup for us. These too have different limitations. So these will generally only give you a gig or a couple of gigs of space.
And then you’ll have to pay for it from there. So if you have a lot of data, you might not be able to get away with these. With Google Drive, if you’re an enterprise, you could generally get unlimited storage. OneDrive, again, if you’re a corporation, you’ll probably get a lot more storage, especially if you host your own Microsoft servers. Other solutions for cloud backup, there is BackBlaze and Carbonite, which are two very big companies for data backup. Now there’s also hardware solutions. And generally, with hardware solutions, you’re going to see this in larger corporations, things like K-12 school districts or large companies. Barracuda is a hardware appliance that you put in the server rack.
That’s a pretty popular solution for data backup. And there’s also Hewlett-Packard Nimble storage, which you will generally have a large device that sits in your storage, in your server room. And it’ll have an array of SSD drives. Now if having two different backups with the solutions, like the hardware solution, you want to have a mirrored backup, meaning building 1 has, say our Nimble storage in there. It’s backing up. We’re doing a partial backup, say, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and a full backup up Tuesday, Thursday. That’s great. But what we really need to do is we need to have another set– say, if we have a second building– having it mirror that backup.
That way we have the exact same backup on both sites. Now the reason is, well, say, something happens to building 1. It catches fire, there’s a flood, there’s an earthquake, destroys our server. Servers die for whatever reason. Building 2, if it has a mirrored backup, will be able to recover everything because we have a backup of those files. So what you need to ask yourself when it comes to data backups are, how much data do you have. What kind of backup do you need? How long can you afford to be down? What’s your budget? What is your compliance requirements?
Because, depending on what industry you work in, especially if you’re in the medical field, you handle billing, or if you work in K-12, you will have different government compliance that you’ll have to be able to meet. What’s your backup schedule? How fast do you need to be back up? Do you do a full or partial backup? And when do you do a full or partial backup? Who’s going to be in charge of the backups? And whoever’s in charge of the backups, what they really need to do is make sure that it’s running properly, and that you occasionally test your data backups and make sure that it is actually is working right.
Not only that, but whoever’s in charge should also make sure that they do understand how to recover their data. In case of an emergency, the last thing you need is disaster strikes and you find out either you don’t have a good backup or you don’t know how to restore it properly. So data backup can be a real lifesaver. So wrapping up, what is your budget? How much can you afford to lose? How much is your backup solution going to cost? And what is your reoccurring cost? How much data do you have? How much data needs to be backed up? What type of data are you backing up? What type of compliance do you have?
What legal compliance do you need to adhere to for data retention? How fast do you need to recover? And do you have an offsite backup? Which the answer should always be, “Yes, I have an offsite backup and an onsite backup.”
In this video, you will learn about different backup methods and how to select the appropriate one.
How do you decide which method to use? Here are six key questions to ask yourself:
- What is your budget?
- How much data do you have?
- What types of data do you have?
- Do you need to comply with data retention laws?
- How quickly would you need to recover your data?
- Do you have an offsite backup?
Reflect and share: What backup methods work well for you, and why? Share with your fellow learners.
Test of the Week
The following test is going to assess your understanding of what you have learned within this past week of the course. Remember, you do not have to take the Test until you’re ready. To help you prepare you might wish to spend some time refreshing your understanding of the contents of this week. You may wish to reflect on the Learning Outcomes introduced at the beginning of the week and make sure you are comfortable that you have met the requirements of each. Take some time to review your learning to help you prepare.
This article is from the online course:
Cyber Security Foundations: Why Cyber Security is Important
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Cyber Security Foundations: Why Cyber Security is Important
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