Your colleagues are constantly changing data, and in the event of a disaster, all the data created from the latest backup to the moment of failure will be lost. Once you decide on the scope of your backups, the next important decision is how often you need to back up and define a backup schedule. Instead, you need to implement multiple, disparate solutions - or better still - use a solution that backs up every device and system in your backup scope. For example, if you have a physical server in your data center, a solution that only backs up your VMs isn’t enough. Otherwise, some data will go unprotected or you may need multiple backup solutions. When you choose a backup solution, be sure that it can protect all your data. Your mantra is “back up everything, back up often.” New devices, solutions, services all use data. Revisit your backup scope every time you change the infrastructure. And, don’t forget mobile devices - your CEO’s tablet could hold critical company data that can be more important than the data stored on some of your servers. If you use a cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), you want to include that in your scope. If you use virtualization, you want to back up your hosts and management console, not just your virtual machines (VMs).

To reduce the risk of data loss, you want to back up files and databases, but you also want to back up your operating systems, applications, configuration - everything you can. The Backup Administrator’s primary initial task is to understand, define, and manage what data to back up and protect.

Data backup solution