- Media Management: Managing and rotating backup media in a remote location required careful planning and organization. Ensuring that backup media were properly labeled and stored was essential.
- Physical Security: Protecting backup media from environmental hazards such as dust and extreme temperatures was necessary to maintain data integrity.
- Periodic Testing: Regular testing of backups and recovery procedures was essential to ensure that the backup solution continued to meet the company's needs.
The renowned IT company, operates a remote Power facility where internet connectivity is
minimal and unreliable. The company needs a robust backup solution to ensure
critical data is protected and recoverable in case of hardware failure or data
corruption, but traditional cloud-based solutions are impractical due to
connectivity issues.
Objectives
- Ensure Data Protection: Safeguard critical operational data, including geological survey data, equipment logs, and operational reports.
- Ensure Data Availability: Enable quick recovery in the event of data loss or system failure.
- Minimize Downtime: Reduce the time required to restore data and operations to normal.
Gigahertz decided to implement Acronis Cyber Backup with a focus on offline backup capabilities. The key components of the solution included:
- Local Backup Storage: Using Acronis Cyber Backup, data is backed up to local storage devices such as external hard drives and Network Attached Storage (NAS) units.
- Backup Frequency: Backups are scheduled to occur nightly to ensure that the most recent data is available for recovery.
- Backup Media Management: Data is stored on multiple sets of media to ensure redundancy. The media is rotated periodically to minimize the risk of data loss.
- Encryption and Security: Backups are encrypted to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access.
- Disaster Recovery Plan: A detailed plan will be developed to guide the recovery process in case of data loss or hardware failure. This includes step-by-step instructions for restoring data from local backups.
- Initial Setup: Gigahertz installed Acronis Cyber Backup software on the primary servers and configured it to perform daily backups to local storage devices.
- Testing: A series of tests were conducted to ensure that backups were correctly created, stored, and recoverable. This included simulating data loss scenarios and verifying the integrity of the restored data.
- Training: Staff were trained on how to manage backups, including how to perform manual backups if needed and how to restore data from the backup media.
- Reliability: The offline backup solution proved to be reliable, with no significant issues reported during the implementation phase. Backups were successfully created and stored on local media without connectivity issues.
- Recovery Time: In a simulated data loss scenario, data was successfully restored within a reasonable timeframe. The recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) were met, ensuring minimal disruption to operations.
- Data Protection: Encrypted backups ensured that sensitive data remained secure, even if the backup media were physically accessed by unauthorized individuals.
- Operational Efficiency: The use of local backups eliminated the need for a continuous internet connection, which was crucial given the remote location and unreliable connectivity.