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What Does Restore Backup Mean: Ultimate Guide

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So exactly what does restore backup mean, and why is it essential to modern business? As the amount of data taken in by individual companies continues to proliferate, organizing and administrating those data become more and more important. It is essential to business continuity to have all data properly prioritized and backed up. However, backing up data is not as simple as it used to be. In previous business generations, having a few floppy disks ready and creating a new copy was all that was necessary.

Today, there is simply too much data for floppy disks to be a viable method of backup. The infrastructure of a company also changes far too quickly for a single backup to be in any way helpful to business. Fortunately, there are some more sophisticated ways to create a backup in the modern world of information technology (IT).

What Does Restore Backup Mean?

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Restore backup is a concept that connects a backup to the continuity of a business. Today’s companies need more than just another copy of data held somewhere in the cloud. These data must be able to replace the data that are currently in a company’s infrastructure with speed and precision. If not, then the company may face hiccups in its process. If these problems are customer facing, then a company risks having to stop business to fix them.

This is not a viable way of doing business in the modern economy. Prospects today can switch companies with nothing more than the click of a mouse button. Loyalty is virtually nonexistent in a business community of nearly infinite choice. A restore backup ensures that a company has the ability to continue business no matter how catastrophic a breach or other data problem may become.

Specifically, a restore backup combines the advantages of being able to restore data and backup data into one, highly efficient service. The restore backup allows companies to ensure that data are placed in a secure location where they can be quarantined from any problems that are happening in the primary data stream. This is the backup part of the restore backup function and is arguably the most important feature that is used.

The restore function and restore backup ensures that the most recent backup can be instantly delivered into the infrastructure of a company should a catastrophic event occur. As stated before, this is essential to business continuity. Consistently updated records of proprietary information and sensitive consumer information cannot be updated from two or three years ago–these updates need to come from a backup that occurred ideally within the past 24 hours.

New Technology And The Restore Backup Function

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When you ask, “What does restore backup mean,” you are also asking about the technology that makes this kind of process viable. It would have been impossible to create this kind of process before cloud technology became commercialized because data that were backed up to a remote location could not be instantly delivered back to a company after a catastrophic occurrence. Companies had to pick either one or the other feature. Either a company could shell out money for the in-house technology to keep a backup on-site, or it could keep the backup off-site and risk a late restoration. Neither solution is ideal for today’s business environment, but the cloud puts both features in the range of even the smallest startups.

Keeping the scale of in-house hardware necessary to facilitate a viable backup is a prohibitive cost for most companies in the modern business landscape. It can cost a company hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy the equipment necessary to back up its data. Even if a company can afford this, the repairs and maintenance on this in-house hardware will quickly reduce its return on investment (ROI). Repairs and maintenance are only a part of this cost. A company must also update its equipment to keep pace with the latest updates in the market. If the company fails to do this, then it may not be able to restore its data to a place that will integrate with its partners and suppliers.

If a company keeps information off-site without a connection to its primary infrastructure, it also loses out on one of the core elements of what makes the restore backup function important. Although a company may save money by outsourcing its backup to a third party with scaled hardware, that company must also find a way to deliver the protected data back to the primary infrastructure quickly and without errors. If this does not occur, then a business may lose access to sensitive customer information at a time when that information has to be accessed for regulatory purposes or simply to keep a client. This is not a viable way to do business in the Information Age.

Cloud technology has solved both of these problems by combining the restore feature and the backup function into one streamlined operation. Companies no longer have to purchase the extraordinarily expensive hardware it takes to viably backup its data. It can outsource this function to a company that can provide the service for an affordable monthly fee. The company also manages the servers that keep the data, updating its security features with real-time access to top security manufacturers. This is something that a smaller company would not be able to do, because large security and IT companies will not provide large-scale solutions for an individual company unless it is a true international juggernaut. This is why even the largest of companies do not handle their own restore backup functions but outsource them to third-party specialists.

The Cloud And The Restore Backup Function

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So, what does restore backup mean? It means invoking “as a Service” functions from a third party specialist well-versed in properly backing up data and restoring it when necessary. Two essential services that all companies should consider is Backup as a Service (BaaS) and Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). Together, these services form the foundation for what is an incredibly efficient and useful way to keep data safe and secure.

Together, the services form the foundation for what is an incredibly Together, these services form the foundation for what is d Disaster Recovery as a Service and Disaster Recovery as a ServiceCloud services make it possible for nearly every company, no matter how small or cash strapped they may be, to engage both backup and restore functions at the same time through BaaS and DRaaS services. How does this happen? Many companies follow the 3-2-1 method of backing up data, which is highly recommended by IT experts.

The 3-2-1 backup strategy involves adhering to a simple set of principles that aid in enhancing the veracity of data so that it can be trusted as a restore point if this ever becomes necessary. You must have at least three full copies of your data stored somewhere. Two of these storage locations can be local, but they need to be on two different devices. Also, you need to have at least one copy of your data stored as a backup off-site.

Your cloud partner can easily serve as the off-site location for your data. However, it can also help you with more than one separate copy of your backup. Keep in mind you do not have to have two local copies of your data; you can actually keep all three copies off-site in three different locations. Because cloud companies keep servers in disparate physical locations, this is an easy task for a company if they have the right cloud partner, and it is a necessary strategy.

This backup philosophy also gives the company a great deal of leeway should a catastrophic event occur. Accidents with data do not occur on a schedule, but they do have immediate consequences if they don’t get fixed at the time at which they occur. Keep in mind, you do not have to have a malicious user attacking your data in order for something to go wrong. An incident in which you need backup may occur because of simple human error from one of your employees. As a matter of fact, this is how the majority of backup situations occur.

Once you have a viable copy of your data off-site, be sure your cloud services company can restore that data to your primary infrastructure quickly. You should be able to restore your data to a usable point within a matter of hours, not days or months. This feature is an essential component of every cloud service company, and you should be sure you understand exactly what your partner’s capacity is before committing to them.

In short, every company should have a restore backup ready to go. This is the only way to protect the business from itself and outside calamities, and it becomes more important as a business grows. Make sure you align yourself with a good cloud services partner, so you can enhance your business continuity and keep your data viable.


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