Data Recovery in the Era of Cloud Computingthe

Cloud computing is the wave of the future, or at least it appears to be. It offers many advantages over traditional methods of networking and application use, and it can be more secure, suggests a former information security officer for the Justice Department, but you shouldn’t rely on cloud computing for disaster recovery. You can make automated data storage a part of your disaster recovery plans and business continuity planning, but be sure to also make a plan for traditional data recovery services.

Cloud computing can make post-disaster data recovery easier in some cases, but it’s best not to count on it exclusively. If you haven’t already developed a disaster recovery plan that includes data retrieval, there’s not time better than before disaster strikes.

First Steps in a Post-Disaster Data Recovery Plan

All data is not created equal. Your company won’t suffer much if you lose the file of job descriptions, most of which exist in hard copy. The loss of the customer order files, on the other hand, could put a significant crimp in your business.

The first step in creating a post-disaster data recovery plan is to classify your data by its importance to your company so that you can assign it a level of priority for backup and recovery.

Create a backup plan and institute backup procedures and policies based on the priorities you identified. As part of that plan, identify the roles that each person on your data recovery team will fill. Make sure that each person understands the importance of carrying out his or her assigned role and give them ownership of it. The biggest pitfall in designing backup plans is employees who are not fully on board with or accountable for the data recovery plan you’ve come up with.

Always, always, always check your backups periodically to be sure that they’re running right if they’re automated, and that they can actually be restored. An IT chief’s worst nightmare is popping in the backup tape to restore lost data only to find that the file is corrupt or an error prevents your system from doing a full restore.

Identify a data recovery firm, such as Fields Associates, to handle data recovery chores that can’t be handled onsite. Don’t wait till it’s too late to identify the right company to handle your data recovery problems. You’ll have more perspective and time to make the right choice when you’re not panicked by an emergency.