Data
Storage & Back Up
Today's businesses generate more data than ever before. In addition, IT has never been more critical to the success of a business. The costs of data storage have significantly decreased and the wide array of technologies such as cloud storage offer even greater opportunities to do more with less.
However, for many businesses, their backup and storage strategy hasn't caught up with their more pervasive use of computers, the increase in cyber security risks and the introduction of stricter data protection regulations. This could be due to confusion about the vast amount of storage options available or merely the thought that the occasional backup will be sufficient should there be a problem. This is, however, no longer the case. The introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has made data storage, security, access, back-up and business continuity a legal requirement.
Kaizen understands the complexities of effective data storage and back-up and appreciates that there is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach. We offer data services throughout your data's lifecycle, including secure data destruction, and recovery, and have a range of storage and back-up options such as:
1. Direct attached storage: DAS denotes storage devices that are connected directly to a PC or server, typically using a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 peripheral port.
2. Network attached storage: A NAS appliance is a storage device that connects directly to the network. It features the attendant capabilities of a file server and accepts multiple storage drives. Redundancy is offered in the form of RAID capabilities.
3. Disaster protected storage: As its name suggests, disaster protected storage — which can come in the form of DAS or NAS — is hardened against the type of disasters that would have easily destroyed unprotected data. For example, storage appliances that can withstand fire for up to 30 minutes and total immersion in water for days.
4. Online / Cloud storage: Online storage designed to help consumers and businesses store or back up data in the cloud. Cloud storage can work very well if backing up data incrementally, and requires no up-front capital investments.
5. Offline media: This is commonly understood to be tape drives, but optical media such as DVD and Blu-Ray discs are occasionally used for the purpose of offline data backup.
Data Backup Best Practice
For critical data, businesses should make two full copies, maintained on separate physical devices. In addition, a third copy should be kept offline, preferably stashed at another location.
Having two complete copies offers some measure of business continuity, allowing organizations to continue with their business as usual even with the complete loss of one set of data. After all, even RAID volumes may be degraded for a substantial amount of time until the array is completely rebuilt. These two copies of data can be kept synchronized by a variety of means: The cloud, a third-party sync application or the sync capabilities of an increasing number of NAS.