Why are backups important?
We all get complacent at times, however this is not something we can do when it comes to the security of our data. It's often taken for granted that our data will be around when we need it. You switch your device on, it's expected that it will operate the same way it has been doing for the last few months or even years.
But, on one morning, normally a 'fine' morning, you know, after you've had an unusually great sleep, the weeks gone really well for you and maybe you've even had that thought, The one we've all had: "It's been pretty smooth sailing the last month at work!". It's a morning like this, when you get to meet a certain law we all know about. You see here's this guy called Murphy, you may of heard about him? His law says
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Though being pessimistic is not always the best strategy in life, well it could be if you don't want to be disappointed? but I digress. Being positive all the time in life and ignoring important aspects of data management is no way to go about looking after an irreplaceable commodity like your data. Alright.. lecture over.
Let's paint the data loss picture
You enter the office, and notice the file share is not responding, going to the SAN you see the server is on, but the power light is flashing. "A simple power cycle should fix it, right?" you think to yourself. Holding the power button down for 5 seconds, the server reluctantly winds down and powers off. With another quick indentation of the switch, it's obvious, somethings wrong! it does not react as you thought it would.
Instead of the pleasant glow of the screen and the flashing indicator lights.. All you hear is three beeps and nothing happens.
Not being a negative sort of person, you chose not to believe in the worst, and so you do, as we all would. You think that if you push that button again, maybe differently this time, it'll work! You give one last hopeful thrust and... Nope, the server has a mind of it's own, but the problem is it's mind has left, along with your data. Your storage array is broken, your SSD drive backplane stopped working with no warning. and may of corrupted the RAID array. Never the less, your company does not have a backup SAN on hand for you to test!
In this situation a few things happen, If you've ever worked as a sysadmin or been in charge of IT, there is that feeling that comes with having an important system break. I'm sure it's similar to being chased by a bear? I live in South Africa so I don't know about bears, but my brother did chase me around the house with a Winnie the Pooh once, when I was 4 , hehe pretty scary stuff!
So in an event like this, (no, not the bear, the data loss!) all your body wants to do is;
Make the load lighter,
Probably so you can run away quicker! It hits you in your "coffee-abused no-breakfast" guts!
The adrenaline starts pumping! You're now a sweaty mess that needs to have a plan of action but can't think straight enough to get a data recovery plan in place, because this should of been done ages ago. And now you're hiding in the bathroom stall hoping someone else will push the button the "right way" before you return.
Having a cloud backup strategy in this situation is going to mean you can restore the information you lost and get your organization backup and running.
Yes, you work in IT, so people will still instinctively moan at you, complaining about things being down
"My emails are down, why can't I access the files on the network share?"
As if it's your fault! They'll go as far as to make you feel personally responsible for the bad behavior of an inanimate machine that you, unknown to the others in your department, forgot what it did.
Well now you know what that 8 bay NAS did, because your emails are down and the video footage for that important advert your company has been working on, is gone. And there's no way the camera man is going to get the same footage again. Felicia is a busy lady, and refuses to perform the same scene again unless it comes from the heart and feels natural. "You can't force art" She'll say. You're in trouble, maybe starting thinking it's time to search for another backup job?
Cloud Backups
Anyways, the point of this story is, things can, and do go wrong.
So we need to be smart and make sure we have backups in place.
These backups should be done Daily, 1 copy on-site, and 1 copy off-site, in cloud storage, with Z1 Storage. Even if something fails and you can't get the data back quick enough to your local devices. We offer the ability to mount your backups as a drive to Windows, MacOS and Unix so you can work on the important documents you need while your data is synced back.
Cloud based data backup and recovery services are cost-effective, scalable and provides easy access to your data. It is a good strategy to ensure business continuity and data recovery in case of data loss. You have the option of regular automated cloud backups which will prevent any data loss in the even of anything unforeseen happening as your data is also stored off-premise.
Pricing:
Organizations will save when they make use of cloud storage providers as they won’t have to pay capital towards building and maintaining their own infrastructure.
With Z1 Storage we include traffic to and from the storage cluster built into the price. We also include API calls per day, per GB you store with use, which is more than enough for the majority of our clients.
We have decided to not charge for upload, plus you can download data equivalent to your stored data, for free, per month.
Pricing and features for Z1 Storage can be seen here: https://www.z1storage.com/pricing/
Why should you host your data in South Africa?
Transferring your data will be that much quicker due to low latency thanks to our agreements with various network providers and local internet exchanges. You will have the benefit of high upload and download speeds..
Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI Act)
The President of South Africa proclaimed 1 July 2020 as the POPI commencement date. This POPIA will provide more peace of mind to organizations in relation to the security of their data because guidelines have been introduced to help ensure this.
- Conditions and minimum requirements have been introduced before any personal information can be processed
- There is an information regulator which has the jurisdiction to ensure the act is adhered to and also issue codes of conduct
- Regulate the flow of personal information across the borders of the republic
- South African companies are required to store their data locally in many instances.