Author: Neftaly Malatjie

Develop a written backup plan that tells you:

• What’s being backed up
• Where it’s being backed up
• How often backups will occur
• Who’s in charge of performing backups
• Who’s in charge of monitoring the success of these backups

All backup routines must balance expense and effort against risk. Few backup methods are 100-percent airtight — and those that are may be more trouble to implement than they’re worth. That said, here are some rules of thumb to guide you in developing a solid backup strategy:

With most backup solutions you can choose to back up all of your data (a full backup) or just parts of your data (an incremental or differential backup).

• A full backup is the most complete type of backup. It is more time-consuming and requires more storage space than other backup options.
• An incremental backup only backs up files that have been changed or newly created since the last incremental backup. This is faster than a full backup and requires less storage space. However, in order to completely restore all your files, you’ll need to have all incremental backups available. And in order to find a specific file, you may need to search through several incremental backups.
• A differential backup also backs up a subset of your data, like an incremental backup. But a differential backup only backs up the files that have been changed or newly created since the last full backup.

Regular backups are vital insurance against a data-loss catastrophe. In this article, we’ll offer some best practices and basic strategies for backup. Be sure to also read our follow-up article on implementing your organization’s backup strategy.

Saving Time by Spending Time

Developing a solid backup plan requires an investment of time and money, but the cost is far less than the burdensome task of recreating data for which no backup exists.

Understanding On-Premises and Remote Backup

There are two broadly defined approaches to backup: on-premises backup and remote backup. Either route (or both) may be appropriate for your non-profit.

On-premises backup

In an on-premises setup, you can copy your data to a second hard drive, other media, or a shared drive, either manually or at specified intervals.

With this setup, all the data is within your reach — and therein lies both its value and its risk. You can always access your information when necessary, but that information is vulnerable to loss, whether through theft (someone breaking in and stealing equipment) or damage (such as a leaky water pipe or a natural disaster).

Remote backup

In remote backup, your computer automatically sends your data to a remote centre at specified intervals. To perform a backup, you simply install the software on every computer containing data you want to back up, set up a backup schedule, and identify the files and folders to be copied. The software then takes care of backing up the data for you.

With remote backup solutions, you don’t incur the expense of purchasing backup equipment, and in the event of a disaster you can still recover critical data. This makes remote backup ideal for small non-profits (say, 2 to 10 people) that need to back up critical information such as donor lists, fundraising campaign documents, and financial data, but lack the equipment, expertise, or inclination to set up dedicated on-site storage.

Automation is another key benefit to remote backup. A software program won’t forget to make an extra copy of a critical folder; a harried employee at the end of a busy week might. By taking the backup task out of your users’ hands you avoid the “I forgot” problem

The main downside to remote backup solutions is that Internet access is required to fully restore your backed-up data. If your Internet connection goes down (as may happen in a disaster scenario), you won’t be able to restore from your backups until your Internet connection is restored.

Another potential downside is that you have to entrust critical data to a third party. So make sure you choose a provider that is reliable, stable, and secure. You can also help secure your data by encrypting it before it is transmitted to the remote backup centre.

On completion of this section you will be able to implement a backup strategy for a local area computer network.