When was the last time you actually checked to see if your backup was working properly?
Has it been a while?
Many backup providers (ourselves included) talk about “set and forget” and that things should just take care of themselves, however this is your critical data we’re talking about here. What would you do if it was gone? unrecoverable?
Here’s a few things to check.
Are You Backing Up Everything?
When we talk about backup with people, many mention documents, data, and email and for many these might be the most critical pieces to backup. But is that really everything you want to backup?
What about all those items on your windows desktop? Some people keep a lot of folders and temporary documents on their desktop, things they are working on. Your desktop is an easy area to overlook when mapping out your backup folders.
What about your Internet favourites or bookmarks? Many of us have spent years building up our favourite sites and quick shortcuts to those sites we use often. Don’t forget to include them in your backup.
Are you using special or proprietary software that’s not off the shelf? Sometimes these product save their data in places you wouldn’t normally expect. I still see folders right off the root of the C: drive with Simply Accounting, or other software. Make sure you know where everything is saved. Ask your vendor or technician.
Are You Being Notified?
Don’t just take for granted that your backup is working. Just because a tape is sticking out in the morning when you get there (if you’re still using tapes) doesn’t mean everything backed up correctly.
Online backup software like CloudPockets should be notifying you every time a backup completes. It should be sending you an email to tell you if it was successful, and if it wasn’t it should tell you why. If you are not getting notified you either need to activate that feature, or find backup software that does.
Make Sure It’s Right
Simple oversights like the ones we’ve mentioned above can make the difference between a sigh of relief, and stress, panic, and potential business failure. Many companies that experience a disaster never recover.
Make sure you company is not on that list.