I was just dealing with an issue the other day where someone was dealing with database corruption issues. The server itself should be getting backed up...the machine is remotely hosted, but we don't have paperwork or verification that it is or how far back the backups can be restored, that I know of. But the part that got me thinking about this was that part of the process involved reading data from a USB drive that was inserted for the local application to access.
In passing I asked him if there was a backup of the data on it. He looked at me quizzically..."Don't you have one?"
"Um...no. Not to my knowledge." Which is bad. If my boss is hit by a truck there's not much chance of being able to recover from this kind of data loss as I don't know if there's information recorded anywhere about procedures or backups or master copies of this particular batch of information.
Because it's an end user dealing with the information it just never occurred to him that USB drives have a finite lifespan and, while usually more reliable than floppy disks, they will experience failures. More often than not, in my experience, users don't think about these things until it ends up happening to them...and even the ones that do often don't take steps to prevent it from happening again.
I immediately copied the data to another drive and burned a master CD of the information for them to store.
Perhaps there another attitude that permeates peoples minds as well. The above is really a side effect of the fact that users aren't system administrators; they don't want the responsibility, they don't take the time to do it. If something goes wrong, they'll just blame someone else for it. They're focused on their own primary job functions or skillsets. I get that.
But I also saw this on a mailing list for REALbasic not too long ago. A common issue for programmers using RB is that they'll use an older version of the software because a particular product they created or function they need is deprecated in newer versions or they need to test compatibility. One user needed an old version that wasn't installed on his computer anymore, and because of mixups and missteps there was a delay of a few days until REALSoftware and the developer cleared up issues and the user got an archived version of the programming software.
To be clear...REAL had no responsibility, and they don't claim to have such a responsibility, to their customers for supplying old versions of their software.
The user complained quite bitterly that he lost money because of the delay and was vocal about slamming REAL for the mixup. Others in the list asked why he didn't have the copy of the installer on hand.
Perhaps the issue was one of saving face but many other users chimed in saying that they had CD's burned of old installers and their projects. "What happens if you can't get the old version?" "Why aren't you making backups of backups if your livelihood depends on having it available??"
These were programmers. People who sit at the keyboards hours on end, with paychecks depending on their systems and software working reliably. And still many don't have quality backup plans in place.
Even at home I have three drives copying my personal data, usually once a day. When I went in to surgery I sent a message to a computer-savvy and trusted friend with a general outline of where my data is kept and how to get into certain accounts. Should something go wrong quite a bit of banking information and accounts and such were accessible to him, and I told my wife to contact him and he'd assist her with getting my stored data for her. Is it a perfect backup strategy? No...if I have a fire at the house, my backups will be fried unless I'm very lucky. I'm working on a new strategy at some point in the near future, though. At the moment my backup strategy is really just a way of surviving hard disk failure, or very short term "Oh crap I deleted what??" recovery.
If you are a vendor, a consultant, even a home user...ask yourself this:
- What information or tasks do I use my computer for that I can't go even a week without? A day? An hour?
- If my computer dies or is stolen, how can I get back up and running?
- How long can I work without my computer?
- How much money will I lose every hour (or day) if my computer or system isn't available?
- How safe is my information if there's a fire in my home, will my backups (if there are any) be safe?
- If I can restore information, how much information will I lose?
- Is my information worth more than the cost of creating an effective backup strategy?
- Do I have information documented in case something happens to me? Are others depending on the data?
- How upset am I going to be if my computer is damaged, data lost, stolen, etc.?
Find someone to help you cover your bases, to think of things that you wouldn't think of as a non-administrator...do you need redundancy? How far back should backups go? A day? A week? A month? Decide what data is crucial to your business and whether it's just the data or also the functionality that is necessary. Come up with strategies to get your business up and running again in the event of catastrophic failure.
Being able to recover from data loss with only a couple hours' worth of data loss is meaningless if you lose everything when the building burns down, just like a backup is useless when a user comes to you after realizing they need a report back they had deleted a week ago and your idea of a backup is a RAID array.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment