Backups – Is your organisation at risk

  • Are your computer backups adequate?

    1. If you lost all the data on your hard disks, how easily could you recreate it?
    2. How long could your company continue to trade and compete without your computer systems?
    3. If you do have a backup plan, have you tested it?
    4. Have you ever accidentally deleted a file or corrupted your database after spending weeks entering valuable data?
    5. Do you have trouble finding files on your computer?

  • Five good reasons for backing up your computers:

    1. Hard disk failure:
      Modern hard disks are extremely reliable but they are not infallible. Like all mechanical devices, hard disks do wear out and will eventually fail with a loss of data. When they do break down it is often at the most critical times.

    2. Natural Disasters:
      Fire and flood are just two ways a computer and the data on it can be destroyed. Due to our location in the Caribbean, a Hurricane is a very real and natural disaster that can destroy your organization's infrastructure and subsequently destroying all equipment within.

    3. Insufficient Disk Storage Capacity:
      You might think you have lots of disk space today, but with the increased size of operating systems, applications and data it soon fills it up. Regular archiving of data is one way to avoid running out of disk space.

    4. Power Fluctuations and Surges:
      Power failures in some areas are worse than others, especially here in Barbados. A power surge can strike at any time, possibly causing the disk head to strike the magnetic platter resulting in irrecoverable data loss.

    5. Human Error:
      With today's Graphical User Interfaces it it so much easier to delete your large databases or mailing lists with the click of a button! Some of the most common causes of data loss are overwriting a file with an empty file or deleting the wrong file.

    One of the things that we harp on the most about when it comes to preventive maintenance and system care, is the importance of regular, reliable data backup. No matter how well you treat your system, no matter how much care you take, you cannot guarantee that your data will be safe if it exists in only one place. The risks are much greater than most people realize.

  • How important is your data to you?

    You can respond to this question with words, but the steps you take to protect your data are the real answer. We find it troubling when people lose large quantities of data--because they have no backups--and then they get very upset, talking about "how important that data was!" If it's important, why wasn't it backed up? If it matters enough to get upset over losing, it's worth protecting, and backups are an essential part of data protection.

  • There are many reasons that people neglect doing backups:

    • They don't understand how important they are, because they haven't had a disaster happen to them (yet).
    • They don't know how to do them.
    • They forget to do them because they don't have a routine for doing backups.
    • Or "Yes I do backup", but when last. Last month or sometimes I do.
    • They can't be bothered with it.

  • Backup Solutions

    We are pleased to offer a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery planning service. A number of specially tailored solutions are available; the following are some examples:
    • We can analyse your needs and recommend a suitable backup strategy (including hardware and software as required). We can either automate the backups for you or prepare written documentation so you can perform the backups at your leisure.

    • We can transfer your valuable data to disk, tape, DVD or CD. These can be used for archiving of data that is not needed on a regular basis or for a snap-shot of your system to be stored off-site.


    ‘Backup NOW, for tomorrow may be too late...’
    • Tropical Computers can take care of all your backup and disaster recovery issues.

    To discuss your requirements, please contact us at sales@tropicalcomputers.com

Updated on Saturday, January 30th, 2010 at 4:29 pm .