Data backup and recovery resources

Why back up your data? Why is it so important? According W. Curtis Preston, vice president of data protection services at GlassHouse Technologies and author of "Backup and Recovery," you need to think about what lost data will cost you (lost customers, orders, image, budget, morale and time).

Data is generally regarded as a company's first or second most valuable asset -- right on par with people. Equally important with backing up data is the ability to recover that same data and recover it in a timely fashion to keep your business up and running.

We've compiled our best resources to help you solve your biggest data backup problems and speed up those recovery times.

Table of contents:

>> Backup and recovery basics
>> Testing your backups
>> Tape-based backup
>> Data backup security
>> VMware data protection
>> Data deduplication
>> Advice from our data backup experts

Backup and recovery basics

It's hard to jump feet first into backup if you don't know the basics. Check out W. Curtis Preston's "Five golden rules for backup".

Here's a list of our additional articles and guides on backup and recovery basics:

• The true role of a backup administrator
• Backup vs. archive
• How to choose the correct backup type
• Signs you are headed for a backup disaster

Testing your backups

"The Symantec Disaster Recovery Research 2007" report says that 48% of the test recoveries run by companies testing disaster recovery (DR) plans fail. DR is the most extreme kind of backup, but evidence suggests that the failure percentages aren't much lower for basic backups.

Check out our resources on backup testing:

• Backup and recovery basics: Testing your backups
• Backup reporting tools FAQ
• Why you need a backup reporting tool

Tape-based backup

Data storage pundits have been predicting the demise of tape for years. But tape remains an essential backup and archival solution for many small to midsized businesses (SMBs) and enterprises. Check out our resources on tape-based backup:

• The advantages of tape for data backup
• Ten things you should ask a vendor before buying a tape library
• Top tape rotation strategies

Data backup security

With data breaches constantly in the news, it's important to stay up to date on the latest backup security solutions available. Storage administrators are increasingly relying on tape encryption and other security technologies to guard sensitive data. We've compiled a list of our best backup security articles, videocasts and other learning tools.

• Encryption's impact on network bandwidth can be high
• Archiving and encryption videocast with W. Curtis Preston
• Tape encryption FAQ
• Tape drive encryption options

VMware data protection

VMware virtualization is changing data protection today. But in spite of these benefits provided by VMware, there are still many backup challenges to be overcome. We've got the latest articles on VMware backup trends, tools and research.

• Three VMware backup and restore methods
• Demystifying VMware data protection: Data backup products
• Centralizing data protection with VMware VDI
• Five things backup administrators should know about VMware Consolidated Backup

Data deduplication

Data deduplication is one of the hottest technologies in backup today. But there are many misconceptions and myths surrounding data deduplication. We have articles from industry-leading backup experts to help you separate the facts from the hype.

• Data deduplication FAQ
• The pros and cons of file-level vs. block-level deduplication
• Restoring deduped data
• The pros and cons of globally deduplication backup appliances

Advice from our data backup experts

If you have a backup-related questions that wasn't in this guide, we've got you covered. We've compiled a list of questions from SearchDataBackup readers and answers from out experts.

• Are online backup services ready for enterprises?
• What's some helpful advice on setting up backup and recovery systems for small to midsized businesses (SMBs)?
• What's the main causes of tape failures?

If you have a backup-related question that's not in this guide, you can always ask our backup experts.

What do you think of this guide? Would you like to see more guides like this? Is anything missing from this page that you'd like to see added? Email us with your thoughts and comments.

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