Backup and Shoes

a backup is one of the most primitive but fundamental aspect of business continuity planning. In this world of 99.9999...s % uptime, backups provide a way to recover from information systems-related data meltdown.

Got sneaky data corrupted by a transaction? Restore the backup!

Erased/added/updated data accidentally? Restore the backup!

Feeling sad and blue? Restore the backup!

Backups can be a real business saver if implemented properly. As such, several strategies have been made known to man:

* Incremental
* Differential
* Full

When exactly do companies backup? Some with an 8-5 punch card do it after office hours while others with a 24/7 business do it when there are the least amount of users or transactions using their system.

Backups, i'd like to end with, are much like shoes. If you keep using the same and single media for backup, wear and tear will eventually produce a bad sector from the floppy or tape. if you keep using the same pair of shoes (or any equipment, for the matter), your shoes will have a short (but hopefully meaningful) existence. That's why it has been common practice to rotate several tapes/ backup media for physical data storage integrity.

* Grandfather-father-son
* Tower of hanoi
* Round-robin

Listed above are possible implementations of tape rotation to avoid data compromises or shoe rotation,if you would like, to keep them from getting funky.

As a last note, remember that backups are good in as much as they work. So when you do create backups, make sure that you test them if they work.