Offsite Data Protection: How Critical is it?

Mission-critical electronic data must be backed up, taken Offsite and stored in a secure location safe from site-level disasters. This makes good business sense, and is a critical component of any business continuity strategy. Moving data to a separate, Offsite location reduces your company's risk and protects against data loss when, for example, the company's IT infrastructure, or its critical electronic information, is damaged by hackers, computer viruses, power failures, fire, water, or other natural disasters.

Special attention should be given to your archive media. In order to achieve the archive life expectancy specified on your media, archive tapes must be stored according to the archive temperature and humidity requirements specified by the manufacturer. Usually these requirements are higher than normal operating temperatures and humidity. It is important that your Offsite Data Protection facility meet the appropriate environmental conditions so that your data is recoverable many years later if you need it.

4Service assures that our Offsite Data Protection and Disaster Recovery Services Los Angeles facility meets or exceeds environmental storage standards and we periodically inspect your Offsite media for signs of obvious damage or contamination.

It is essential to make a duplicate copy of your archived information. These duplicate long-term storage media sets need to be stored separately, in geographically diverse locations, to protect them from pervasive natural disasters than can affect an entire area.

One recommended practice is to have an Offsite Data Storage provider regularly come on site to remove backup sets for remote storage and return other media sets for re-introduction to the backup rotation. Rest assured your media sets are stored in climate-controlled facilities that meet the highest standards.

Offsite data protection, or vaulting, should always include everything that is necessary to implement a fully functional system from the ground up. This is extremely important. If all equipment at the corporate site is damaged or lost, the company will still be able to access and retrieve archive data at the Offsite location.

Finally, make sure your backup strategy calls for vaulting current copies of the operating environment including the backup/recovery software, all application software that is used by the company, and other data-related devices.

4Service's Offsite Data Protection provides a reliable backup complement that reduces the burden on your staff and:

• Increases your recovery reliability
  

• Ensures your data can be recovered fast in the event of a disaster
  

• Reduces administrative and management burden