Here’s the Most Efficient Way to Back Up Your Data

Is your business still using tape as its primary method of data backup? If so, you could be missing out on a more reliable, less time-consuming alternative. Image-based, or “snapshot” backup solutions are the optimal way to guarantee the continuity of your organization’s data infrastructure.

So why isn't tape backup good enough in today’s business environment? Storing data backups on magnetic tape reels has long been a standard procedure, but compared to more modern data backup practices, tape has fallen short of today’s expectations. Tape backups are resource-intensive, and as such, they need to be performed at the end of the workday to avoid slowing down the network. Furthermore, because tape backups are resource-intensive, they can only be taken once, meaning you could potentially lose up to a day’s worth of productivity and accumulated data.

The Difference
Image-based backup is vastly more efficient and manageable than traditional tape backup. Image-based backup lets your business take a “snapshot” of your organization’s data, which is then sent to several locations either on or off-site for safe, secure storage. These snapshots record data that’s been changed recently rather than taking a whole backup. Because these smaller backup sessions are less resource-intensive, they can be performed more frequently during the day -- as often as every 15 minutes.

Perhaps the greatest advantage to an image-based backup system is that it’s automatic and relies less on users. Your team doesn’t need to set and run the backup at the end of each workday; you can set them to run automatically. (Of course, you still have to check the backups and make sure that they work properly.)

Disaster Recovery
When it comes to backup and disaster recovery, your business can’t cut any corners, as doing so could become a problem down the road. Even a power outage could lead to major data loss. Hardware failure, floods, and fires could lead to not just data loss, but expensive hardware replacements and damage to your IT budget. The damage caused by the resulting downtime is also a major problem, and one which absolutely cannot be ignored, as you never know when you'll need proper backup and recovery to continue operating. (In this regard, it is our hope that every agent along the East Coast being threatened by Hurricane Matthew has sometime in the past taken seriously their need for having proper disaster recovery solutions in place.)

If you need to upgrade the backup solution at your agency, SMART Services can equip your business with myAGENCYbackup, a standby server, data backup, and disaster recovery unit all in one, replacing obsolete and unreliable tape backups. Depending on your needs, you can back up your data to several off-site locations, including a secure data center and in the cloud for rapid data recovery. All in all, it’s the ideal solution for an agency like yours that relies on data to keep operations going.

Let Smart Services position your agency for tomorrow’s technological challenges. For 25 years, Smart Services has helped agencies across the U.S. face a changing environment by providing innovative technology solutions that allow agencies to focus on growing their business. MyAgency Cloud, our complete cloud solution, covers all your technology needs in the cloud or at your agency. In today’s competitive environment, it’s time to make your agency technology a strategic asset, instead of a liability. Let us show you how. To learn more, please call our expert agency technology advisor at 586-258-0650.