If you think “data backup” is synonymous with “disaster recovery” and aren’t sure what “business continuity” means, you’re not alone.

Most of the business owners I talk to make the mistake of not knowing the difference and end up paying the price when data is lost, a network goes down or a disaster prevents them from accessing their physical office and the server inside.

Data backup simply means a copy of your data is
replicated to another device or location. Tape drives, offsite
backup and even USB devices provide data backup. Data
backup is obviously important. However, the more important
consideration is whether or not your backup solution provides
easy disaster recovery, or the ability for you to recover all your
files, software and functionality quickly, easily and without
corruption.

For example, if your server died, you would not be
able to resume work quickly if you only had file-level
backup. In order for you to start working again, your server would need to be replaced, all software re-installed, data re-installed and then the whole system would need to be configured with your settings and preferences. This process could take hours or even days – and that is if you have all your software licenses and a clean copy of your data.

Then there’s business continuity. This is the ability for your business to continue to operate even after a major disaster. For example, if you ran an accounting firm and your building burned to the ground, you would be out of business if all your files were on the server only. However, if you had your network in the cloud (see previous blog post) your employees could continue to work from home or some other location, giving your business continuity.

Of course, you need all three at some level. At a minimum you need to make sure you have in place the right backup and disaster recovery plan for your tolerance for downtime, and a plan for how your business could continue to operate if you could no longer access your building, server or data. You should review your plan annually.

If you want a simple and easy way to get all of this handled, give us a call at (703) 652-4685 or visit our website at www.gaeltek.com.  We specialize in planning, implementing and managing these projects so you don’t have to.