Top 10 Data Protection TIPs for SMB's

Top Ten Data Protection Tips for SMBs Once upon a time, a small or medium business (SMB) could protect all its important data by copying a handful of important files onto backup media and tossing it in a desk drawer. Things aren’t that simple today. The amount of data on business computers has grown astronomically over the past few decades. Many SMBs now have databases, file servers, and e-mail systems with constantly changing data that is crucial to day-to-day business operations. If a company loses this data, business grinds to a halt. A reliable data protection strategy is built on two key components: proven, dependable storage hardware, and backup and recovery software tailored to the needs of SMBs. The following tips can help you select the hardware and software you need to safeguard the integrity of your data, guarantee accurate restores, and manage backups without placing an undue burden on IT personnel. 1. Step up to RAID Storing data on a server disk or a non-RAID external disk array leaves you vulnerable to data loss as a result of hardware failure. A failed disk could cause you to lose all the vital business information created after your previous backup. Storing backups on a RAID disk array, such as the EMC CLARiiON AX150, provides SMBs with a new level of advanced functionality and data protection. The high degree of redundancy inherent in RAID protects your data against disk, component, or power failure. With RAID you don’t have to worry about losing important information. Applications continue running, and your employees remain productive. 2. Take advantage of shared storage Consolidate your storage. A shared storage solution is efficient and convenient. A disk array eliminates the need to constantly monitor storage on individual servers. It avoids the expense and inconvenience of acquiring too much storage for some computers and too little for others. Monitor storage for multiple computers from one central location. Allocate or reassign disk space to multiple computers quickly and conveniently based on each computer’s requirements without having to purchase new disks for each computer. If a computer is not making full use of the disk space allocated to it, simply reassign the storage to another computer with a few easy steps without having to manually shuffle disks between servers. 3. Be sure your storage can scale to meet your needs As a business grows, so does the amount of data needed for day-to-day activities. Is your storage scalable? Will your storage solution grow as your company expands? An SMB needs the flexibility to quickly and easily increase disk space for shared storage or backup capabilities. To provide backup storage for other servers, desktops, or notebooks, your shared storage solution must be easily expandable to deliver additional storage capacity. Select a storage option, for example a shared storage disk array, that enables you to easily add extra disks or upgrade to higher capacity disks as available storage space is consumed. 4. Choose iSCSI or Fibre Channel Whether you opt to use iSCSI or Fibre Channel depends on the needs of your business. iSCSI is a natural choice for most SMBs. It keeps costs down by using commodity cables with standard GigE ports and switches, which are also easier to set up and configure for most IT departments. Fibre Channel switches and cables are more expensive and require more expertise to install and manage, but Fibre Channel is a better choice for environments that demand a consistently high level of performance. 5. Protect everything Select business-class backup software, such as EMC Retrospect, that protects more than just files and folders. Backup software should protect all your computers, support the most popular operating systems, and back up all the data necessary to restore your computer in the event of a failure. Some backup strategies protect only file servers and business-critical application servers. A complete backup strategy needs to protect servers, desktops, and notebooks, which can remain unprotected because they are often not connected to the network during scheduled daily backups. Protection should also encompass the operating systems, device drivers, applications, application settings, and user settings on the computers in your network. When a computer fails, you shouldn’t be forced to spend countless hours locating applications Top Ten Data Protection Tips for SMBs 1 files, loading application CDs, re-installing applications, and re-configuring settings. Backup and recovery software make it easy to recover all your applications and settings. 6. Select software that makes backup and recovery easy Robust data protection doesn’t have to be complex. Backup and recovery software should be easy to set up and manage, while still delivering the features you need to protect all your data. Select backup and recovery software with intuitive wizards that streamline setup, schedule backups, and perform restores. Ongoing backup operations should require minimal manual intervention, so IT personnel can concentrate on more important tasks, rather than spending time monitoring backups and adjusting backup scripts to keep operations running smoothly. A built-in self-adjusting scheduler can ensure that all your computers are protected by recognizing computers that were not backed up and assigning them a higher priority for the next backup. Networks are easier to protect if your backup application can automatically find new client computers as they are added to your network, can push client software to them (rather than going to each computer to set up the software), and can log them in for back up. Backup software should also provide IT personnel with easy-to-understand backup reports that make the backup review process painless. 7. Utilize disk for fast backups and rapid restores You can protect more computers in less time when utilizing disk as a backup destination. Backing up to tape is a cumbersome process. Tapes must be tracked, located, and loaded. It takes time for tapes to start, advanced to the correct position, and stop. With disk, backups can be streamed to the media at a constant speed. Use disk on a daily basis for simpler, faster, more reliable backups and restores. For offsite storage and disaster recovery, rapidly stream data from the backup disk to tape on a weekly basis without affecting systems, users, or your network. By keeping the most recent backups on disk, you can restore data directly from the backup disk without wasting time locating and retrieving backup tapes. 8. Enable users to restore their own files One of the most common restore scenarios involves a user who loses or inadvertently deletes a single important file and need to recover that file quickly. Backup software with a user-initiated restore capability enables users to restore their own files without burdening IT personnel. This feature is especially useful for SMBs protecting a large number of desktop and notebook computers. Typically, user-initiated restores take place via an intuitive Web-based interface that allows users to easily restore their own files from backup media stored on disk. For security, make sure your software requires password protection to access the backup disk. 9. Use two sets of backup tapes Make two copies of your backup media and store one in a secure, offsite location to guard against catastrophic events such as fire, flood, earthquake, or other disasters that might destroy your onsite backup media. Rotate your onsite/offsite backup media at regular intervals, bringing the offsite media up to date when you bring it onsite. Traditional backup software requires a complex strategy to protect against failure of backup media or a site-wide disaster. Multiple sets of tapes must be created, tracked, and rotated offsite in a rigid and unforgiving manual process. Choose backup software that eliminates complex tape rotation strategies and allows you to simply create two sets of tapes. Keep one set onsite for backups and restores. Send the other offsite for safety. 10. Protect offsite tapes with AES encryption Protect your offsite backup media with 128-bit or 256-bit AES encryption to prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing information if backup media is lost, stolen, or misplaced. AES encryption also ensures compliance with an increasing number of government and industry regulations designed to protect private information and prevent identify theft. These regulations are far-reaching and come with stiff penalties for non-compliance. The need for AES encryption of backup data is not limited to large businesses, organizations, and government agencies that store personal information. SMBs are affected as well, because many entities require partners, contractors, and other business associates to provide proof that backup data is securely protected. To view backup and recovery software certified as AES-compliant by the U.S government, visit the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Web site at http://cswww.ncsl.nist.gov/cryptval/aes/aesval.html. Top Ten Data Protection Tips for SMBs 3 EMC Insignia EMC Insignia is a line of software and hardware products that enable small and medium businesses (SMBs) to store, manage, protect, and share vital business information. To learn more about EMC Insignia, contact your authorized EMC Velocity SMB channel partner or visit www.emcinsignia.com. About EMC EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world leader in products, services and solutions for information management and storage that help organizations extract the maximum value from their information, at the lowest total cost, across every point in the information lifecycle. Information about EMC’s products and services can be found at www.EMC.com. EMC2, EMC, CLARiiON, Retrospect, and where information lives are registered trademarks of EMC Corporation. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Copyright © 2006 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 733000506V1 Top Ten Data Protection Tips for SMBs 4