“We don’t have a backup.” If you’ve spent any time involved with information technology, those five words inspire a sinking feeling in your stomach, because let’s face it, we’ve all been there. No matter how thorough and detailed your backup plans were, the data you needed didn’t get backed up. And all too often, it’s because of human error, as the great playwright said, “to err is human.”

The fact is, people will make mistakes. A technician is distracted by a server crash, an irate customer, or even worried about a leaky water heater at home, and forgets to rotate a tape or make sure a batch process is running. Adding insult to injury, you will only discover this when you absolutely need a backup copy. Best intentions notwithstanding, if there’s an opportunity for human error to cause a lost backup, the odds are you’re going to have to deal with it happening, and usually at the most inopportune time. Unless your core business is information technology (and even if it is), chances are you don’t have the manpower and other resources to avoid this all too frustrating scenario.

A bulletproof managed backup solution must take this into account, and be engineered to prevent lost data despite the likelihood of someone somewhere eventually making a mistake. Full end to end automation is key. If an administrator needs to manually rotate a tape or move data volumes around, the system isn’t automated. From the end user perspective, a backup solution should truly be “set it and forget it” easy.

A complete managed backup solution also has to be flexible. One client doesn’t want the backup that was done yesterday, they want one from three weeks ago. They likely also just want parts of the backup, not a complete restore. A different client has a completely static web site, but has a massive transaction database that requires regular snapshots. When comparing managed backup plans, look for providers that understand and adapt to real world situations, versus generic broad brush applications. In the best examples, users have web based control panel access to configure exactly the backup schedule they need.

Avoiding single points of failure is also critical. If you back up one hard drive with another hard drive, what happens when they both fail? Don’t laugh, it happens. RAID-based network attached storage technologies spread data across multiple drives for true redundancy. There are ancillary benefits to this approach as well, such as avoiding downtime due to physical hard drive upgrades, and pricing schemes that allow you to pay for only the storage space you are using.

Tying all of this together should be an enterprise class provider. It takes massive human and technology resources to deliver a foolproof managed backup solution. Look for companies that already have large customers, because they will already be providing a much higher level of service and have already invested in best in class technology. Take advantage of that expertise and top quality infrastructure, and you’ll never have to tell the customer you don’t have the backup.

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Tags: managed backup solution, NAS, network attached storage, Online Storage