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Location of backup storage media is important in disaster recovery

Many a time, thoughtful companies keep a disaster recovery on their active agenda and even backup all critical data. A common mistake that many often unknowingly commit is to keep the backup data in close physical proximity to the site they are trying to protect against a disaster. An example would be to keep the backup DVDs in a safe locker inside the same company premise that they are supposedly protecting against a disaster. So, in the event of a fire, the backup media is also charred beyond recognition along with the computer terminals and the entire office.

This mistake is due to the flawed definition of the term disaster. The company executives in charge of formulating disaster recovery strategies often tend to give a narrow definition to 'disaster', which often does not go beyond a virus attack or a network failure or a potential hacker threat. This is a cardinal mistake, as has often been proved in case of accidental fires.

A disaster recovery can be called fool proof if and only if there is absolutely no loss of critical data.

How do you overcome this and achieve a viable disaster recovery?

Naturally, the sensible thing to do would be to store the backup disks at a location that is physically distant from the actual company/firm, which is being protected against. There are different ways of doing this in terms of how the backup process itself is done, rather than the physical storage of the backup storage media.

The cheapest means of achieving a remote backup of sorts would be to do the actual backup process at the company location and then transport the backup storage media to a different location like to the company warehouse located a few of miles away. So even in the case of an unlucky fire at the company premises, the storage media containing the backup of all critical data would be untouched. This would make a recovery possible but cannot do away with an inevitable downtime, the time required for populating a new network using the backup data.

Frankly, this would actually not constitute a true remote backup but can be termed as remote storage of backup media.

So, what is a real remote backup, the best disaster recovery plan possible!

Actual remote backup is regular backup of critical data on storage device that is located at a different site over a dedicated cable or network. This involves putting in place a network with required bandwidth and scheduling the backup without interfering with the day-to-day activities of the company. The backup data would be written on to storage media located in a different building in a different location, often several miles away, can initiate the backup process sitting in the company premises.

So in the event of a disaster, all the backups would be waiting to be retrieved! A picture perfect recovery, is it not? A recovery that involves absolutely no critical data loss and the least amount of recovery time.