Backup and Restore 1

Backup and Restore

Nikolas Seropian

University of Advancing Technology

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Backup and Restore Plans

“Data loss happens when you least expect it and can be caused by different factors such

as human error, malware, hard drive damage, power outages, hackers, and even natural disasters.

It disrupts the day-to-day operations of any business and when important files are lost,

companies often need to spend time and resources recreating or recovering them.”

(Midwest Data Center, 2020)

The loss of data can have great negative effects on the company’s productivity and put its

customers at risk. This is especially an issue as a hacker attack occurs every 39 seconds, putting

sensitive data at risk of being compromised by any of these constant attacks. Having both a data

backup and recovery plan is important in the event that these situations occur and put the

company in danger.

Backup Plan

A backup plan is a strategy set up so that a copy of data can be made which is able to be

recovered and restored if anything bad were to happen to the original. There should also be a

complete set of instructions for the backup process as well as an individual to perform the

backups or verify that they were accomplished successfully. Backups should be constantly tested

and updated to make sure they are ready for a potential disaster as well.
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Yugo Solution

A very cheap and easily put together backup plan can be done with the use of physical

drives or disks. The easiest type of data storage to set up would be RAID level 1, also known as

mirroring. All of the files saved can have an exact duplicate saved onto other hard disks. The

price can be as low as $300 up to $700 and can be installed within 3-5 days. The types of failures

covered are deleted data, formatting issues, partition loss and bad sectors. Some downsides,

however, are that only half the storage capacity of the total drives can be used, and they may not

always allow a hot swap of a failed drive, meaning a computer must be powered down in order

to use the backup, something that can be an issue for servers being used by multiple people. Hard

drives can also be prone to physical damage along with the main servers in the events of natural

disasters or other situations where harm can be brought to the hard drives.

Chevy Solution

It can be argued that this isn’t necessarily better than a simple RAID setup, but another

simple form of a backup plan would be the use of cloud storage. Removing all the physical needs

of a hard drive, data can be saved constantly to an external site miles away. This also means that

data can be accessed anywhere, whether at a different work site or at home. It can also be cheap

with scalable prices based on how much storage you need going about as low as $15 a month.

Some downsides, however, can be the lack of control over how data-storage is set-up as well as

difficulties migrating to other cloud services or making changes to contracts. Online saving can
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also have its own security issues while also making an internet connection a requirement to

function at all.

Cadillac Solution

While to easy to set up plans were explained, I would recommend a stronger set up to

help ensure all data is backed up safely. With this plan, I would still recommend the use of a

cloud service to gain all the advantages of having a cheap, easily accessible backup online. But

to add to this, a more complex RAID set up could be used to add more safety and advantages

then my initial solution offered. A level 5 or 6 RAID setup can be used to allow for faster read

data transactions and allow for continued use even when entire drives fail and are being repaired.

Higher level RAID setups do take more effort to setup, however, having price ranges between

$700 to $2,000 and a week to a month to setup. But having a strong physical setup tied with a

cloud setup can cover integral data in two ways, and cover some of the weakness a business

would have from only having one.

Recommended Restoration Plan

I recommend the Cadillac solution as despite the extra expenses, it will help to ensure

that no matter what happens, there will always be a backup of all the important data saved

somewhere. However, more will need to be went over in the recovery plan as there will be two

methods of recovery. In most cases on site, physical hard drives will be used for recovery, so

long as a higher-level RAID system that can continue normal functionality during drive failures

is used. There should always be an individual who can occasionally check back up states to make

sure that all data is being backed up properly and that everything is in working order so that in if
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a failure happens, everything is working properly to ensure continued business functionality.

Backups saved online will also need to be checked, making sure everything is up to date but also

protected in cases where information is sensitive (with the use of encryption, for example.) It is

also important to maintain a healthy internet connection so cloud saving always works properly.

If a failure or an attack does occur, a RAID system will be able to continue functionality while

an employee checks on the status of the failed drives to make sure they are being properly

repaired or replaced. If for some reason this system does fail, or data needs to be accessed

elsewhere, it can be pulled from the cloud. Checks should be done on the cloud saves as well to

make sure they are up to date with the work on site. Constantly checking and performing

maintenance/keeping things up to date should prevent any loss of continuity in the event of data

loss, as there should always be a chance to recover immediately from one, if not two, sources.
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References

Midwest Data Center. (2020, June 18). Data backup and recovery plan best practices. Retrieved from
https://www.mwdata.net/2019/09/data-backup-and-recovery-plan-best-practices/

Prepressure. (2020, August 20). RAID level 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10: Advantage, Disadvantage, use. Retrieved
from https://www.prepressure.com/library/technology/raid

ProvenData. (2021, March 11). How much does raid data recovery cost? A breakdown of fees &
expenses. Retrieved from https://www.provendatarecovery.com/blog/raid-data-recovery-cost/

SecureStorageServices. (n.d.). Pros and cons of cloud storage back. Retrieved from
https://www.securestorageservices.co.uk/article/11/pros-and-cons-of-cloud-storage