Ten Things You Should Know About Document Backup

What's the difference between backup and archive? The major difference is that an archive consists of primary data while a backup is secondary data. The objective of archiving is preserving original documents while backing up is a precautionary activity aimed at creating a fallback resource for reconstructing original data in case it's lost.

1. Backing up involves copying original data to secondary media, typically off-line media. The result is that two copies of original data exist and the secondary copy can be used to restore the loss of the primary copy.

2. Loss of original data is a common enough occurrence to make a backup procedure an unavoidable document management process. Data can be lost due to electrical problems, system crashes, virus attacks, accidental or intentional deletions, theft of storage media and their destruction in a natural disaster like fire, flood, cyclone or earthquake.

3. Business data is unique to each business, and cannot be replaced if there is no backup copy. This is what distinguishes data from other resources like hardware, software and other infrastructure, which can be replaced in case of loss. It's rare for businesses to survive after a complete loss of their data.

4. Backing up data is not something that can be left to individual users to be done in an ad hoc manner. An ad hoc approach can lead to an incomplete backup, redundant backups and even irrecoverable backups. The result will be high costs and effort, with unsatisfactory results. Above all, it might not be possible to locate the specific backup media that stores the copy of lost data.

5. A systematic approach to backup will involve a cycle of backup that will back up all data. The approach will also minimize redundant backup. For example, a full backup is done only at periodic intervals with backups of only new or changed data being taken between two full backups.

6. Backups will involve not only business documents and records but also applications and system data. Copies of applications along with their activation keys and license details will be needed to restore them. Copies of up-to-date system data will be needed to recreate the original environment.

7. A systematic approach can ensure that all data including system data and all applications with supporting details are backed up. Additionally, by minimizing redundancies, it can also reduce the requirements of storage media, thus reducing costs.

8. Systematic backup will also involve organizing the backup in a manner that makes retrieval of needed data quick and dependable. All media will be labeled indicating their contents and dates. Periodic tests will ensure integrity of the backed up data and their recoverability in case of need. Physical storage of the media will also be done in a logical and intuitive order.

9. A catalog of the media with their IDs, contents and dates will also be maintained up-to-date. This can be a paper list where the number of media is small or a computer database where the number is large.

10. Other backup practices involve data compression to reduce storage space, encryption to maintain confidentiality, a specific time period for backing up (so that regular operations will not be interrupted during the backup; backing up live data is a big problem and hence files might have to be closed for backup) and ensuring long term retention of stored data and its readability where necessary.

Backing up business data, applications and system data is essential to recreate the original IT environment in case some disaster results in losing the original data. Such disasters are unfortunately too common, ranging from power fluctuations to a major natural disaster like a hurricane. If business data is lost, it cannot be replaced in the absence of a backup, unlike the IT infrastructure which can be replaced comparatively easily.

Ademero, Inc. develops document storage software. Based largely on user experience, the company's flagship product, Content Central™, is a browser-based document management software system created to provide businesses and other organizations with a convenient way to capture, retrieve, and manage information originating in hard copy or digital form.