Data Recovery - Pit-stop or Pitfall?

Small and medium-sized businesses are needlessly putting their customer and staff records, company accounts – and even the viability of their organisation at risk by backing up data to internet recovery services rather than seeking an end to end recovery service, according to Adam Continuity, a leading UK provider of business continuity, data resilience and disaster recovery services for local government and commercial organisations.

“IT Continuity Managers – or those who find themselves taking on the responsibility of data security – should ask themselves how quickly they could recover critical work in the event of a flood, fire, or simple server failure,” says Philip Caulfield, managing director of Adam Continuity.

“Online back-up systems may seem to be the solution, but when it comes to a disaster, you want the slick and speedy support of a Formula 1 pit-stop, and be up and running rapidly with all systems working.  All too often, back-up services simply store your data and deliver it back to you in a format you cannot use, for example, in disk format.  There is little point in having the data if you no longer have use of the hardware to run it. Data may also be taken back to a point 24 hours before, losing your business a complete day’s work.”

Adam Continuity has produced a practical, 10-point checklist to help IT managers make the right choices for their data security.  Entitled Why Data Vaulting Won’t Work on Its Own, the advice prioritises the main performance areas to consider; explains the options available and their strengths and weaknesses; and outlines tips for selecting a supplier to suit your needs.

 “In the event of a failure, you need to get back to work as quickly as possible, with the minimum of fuss, and you’ll want a supplier who can dispatch and deploy pre-built hardware containing operating systems and your data sets within as little as an hour,” says Caulfield “not to have your problems made even worse – and then left to sort the matter out yourself.”

Adam Continuity’s 10-point checklist, Why Data Vaulting Won’t Work on Its Own is available from Wendy Mills, Business Continuity Advisor +44 (0) 1256 378134 or wmills@adam.co.uk