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Your data backup resolutions for 2015


Faced with ever increasing volumes of structured and unstructured data, 2015 will prove more challenging than ever for organisations to effectively backup, store - and when required, retrieve information, writes Darron Edwards, senior consultant at CSA Waverley, part of The Maindec Group


So, as data growth outstrips IT budgets, it will be essential that you employ methods that enable a greater understanding of your stored information and its value. This will help you to avoid, not only the costs arising from ineffective backing up, but also data loss and compliance failures.


Backup anarchy


There remains a mistaken belief across organisations that they must backup all their data. This uninformed, costly approach to data management occurs because organisations don’t know when they may need to retrieve it – or its actual value. A new approach is required to prevent us all disappearing underneath a pile of LTO tapes and disk backup systems.


The key here is to understand your data, classify it and protect it – according to its value if lost. Understanding structured data, typically held in databases, or record systems, isn’t a problem


as it’s easier to comprehend and use. The real headache is that most data is now unstructured – including email, social media, images and voice, which is harder to utilise and effectively manage. Organisations need to be in a position to control this unstructured data – whether it’s for compliance, access, recovery, or search.


Try creating an IT policy which provides a complete understanding of all your data sources, its relevance and how it will be captured, stored and accessed. Catalogue your records by business unit to provide an in-depth understanding of the nature, type and location of them. These retention practices will enable users to centrally identify relevant data sources, in a consistent and seamless way.


Armed with this data insight, you can then apply better backup policies. For example, you may question the need to backup all


Bewley Homes supports local life-saving defibrillators


Helping to save lives, Bewley Homes has donated an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) to Reading Station, one of the nation’s busiest travel interchanges serving more than 19 million passengers every year.


And, as a continuing community- conscious commitment, Bewley Homes is aiming to provide more AEDs at busy locations near its developments in the south-east to ensure a potential life-saving ‘heartbeat’ is near at hand.


Sudden cardiac arrests (or arrhythmias) claim 100,000 lives in the UK every year – more than breast cancer, lung cancer and


AIDs combined – explained Trudie Lobban MBE, co-founder and trustee of the Arrhythmia Alliance, during a defibrillator-use demonstration at the Reading Station presentation.


While CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) helps save the lives of 9% of the people who suffer a sudden cardiac arrest, when CPR is used alongside a defibrillator the survival rate increases to over 50%.


“It just makes sense for defibrillators to be available locally to help save lives,” said Andrew Brooks, MD of Tadley-based Bewley Homes. “They are very easy to use by anyone, since the device


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – FEBRUARY 2015


user files after finding out they store personal information, such as music or photos. A policy can be created to move them, exclude them or even delete them. Invest time in getting to know your data assets and what they are worth to you – especially if they are unavailable. Take out the trash and make the backup operator’s life easier.


Backup neglect


To protect against data loss, you or your IT provider probably has a backup system that copies all the data on your network. But it’s your responsibility to check whether this system works, so do some house keeping. Establish when was the last time you looked at backup logs to see if all data was copied?


You could try and restore data from the backup to familiarise yourself with the process, this will ensure that the restored data is accurate. Also, establish if you have recently looked at all the


news extra


explains everything. Advised of the AED locations, the emergency services can be assisted by the public by having AEDs placed locally.”


A cardiac arrhythmia is an irregular heartbeat or abnormal heart rhythm, which in extreme cases can lead to sudden heart-stopping death. Some arrhythmias have no symptoms, while others are dramatically debilitating.


Former Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallagher attended the Bewley Homes AED donation ceremony as living proof of the effectiveness of defibrillators. Despite feeling fit, he had a sudden cardiac arrest just before giving a speech in an Aberdeen hotel and woke up later in hospital. He had been given CPR


drives and shares in your network and matched them with the drives and shares that are being backed up. If you don’t have any backups that are stored outside of your office building, consider some kind of offsite backup solution. It could be as simple as backing up your data on storage devices which you take offsite, or setting up a cloud backup solution.


Also, don’t rely on just having an email backup policy – especially if data must be retained longer- term, for data protection purposes. Backups on their own will not help the retrieval of old emails, as they rarely go back more than 14 days. Play safe, and choose an on-premise or cloud- based email archive solution instead.


Action


So, with the multiple challenges resulting from the exponential growth in data, it’s critical that you understand the nature of your data, evaluate current approaches to data backups and ensure that they are effective, cost efficient and compliant.


Details: www.csawaverley.co.uk


The defibrillator is presented to Trudie Lobban by Bewley Homes managing director Andrew Brooks at Reading Station


but the hotel also had a defibrillator available.


Since his attack, Gallagher has been campaigning for golf venues throughout UK and Ireland to have an AED on site for emergency use.


www.businessmag.co.uk


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