Johannesburg, 14 Aug 2002
Companies are still not taking adequate measures and frequently frown upon the costs of implementing backup plans, while forgetting what the cost of lost data can amount to, said Jaco Voigt, director of managed network solutions at DataPro, a first tier ISP and business continuity specialist.
"Rather than looking at the cost of implementing backup systems, companies should consider the cost of a serious system, or backup failure. What, for instance, will be cost in labour and lost business opportunities, if data is not recovered? What is the cost if it takes days or weeks to recover data? This costs can be punitive," he said.
But companies that plan to implement backup systems also make one cardinal error - they only look at the costs of the initial investment. This is a big oversight as there are a host of additional costs along the way.
One area frequently overlooked, or underestimated, is administration costs. While no backup solution will eliminate this cost, a good system can, at least, go a long way towards minimising them.
"It is naturally important to work out what the initial investment will be. But you can also only arrive at a proper figure for this amount when you consider the bigger picture, including the estimated incremental costs of growing the system as the company needs additional disk space and, perhaps, additional licensing as the system expands.
"One thing that is important to consider is that things are changing in the digital economy. The type of systems we need to embrace in the near future will be far different to a few years ago. The emerging generation of e-business-type file servers and robust, digital networks, will lead to entirely new ways of conducting backups. Forward planning, therefore is important. Don`t get stuck with a system that cannot grow with the changing times.
"Another simple but fundamental point is that companies are focused on the backup process and are happy if they are backing up their data - or so they think. But the actual proper retrieval of that data is the core element. If you can`t retrieve data in a useable manner then what is the point? Data integrity must be maintained at all costs. Here it is important to consider that, because of the move to open systems, proprietary backup systems may not be the best route to go. They may begin to fail as companies interact with more diverse systems in a digitally-driven, and open, environment. Remember, business-to-business e-commerce is now becoming critical. Your system needs to talk to the outside world and you need to be able to store - and retrieve if need be - a myriad of incoming data.
"Even if you put together a solid blueprint for a really good backup system, there are a host of elements to consider in the event of a failure. If, for instance, recovery requires the assistance of a third-party vendor, will that vendor still be around in a few years time - and will the vendor be able to provide you with the necessary software upgrades for the backup server and clients?
"That doesn`t mean to say you should not hire the services of a third-party vendor. But check them out thoroughly first because they are, to a large extent, going to the be custodians of your data - the lifeblood of your company."
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