6. Storing Back-ups

It is important that an organisation store back-ups of their system in a different place to the original servers.

If there were to be a fire, flood or theft and the servers were stolen or damaged then the chances are that any back-up tapes stored in the same location would also be stolen or damaged.

If the back-up copies are stored elsewhere - preferably in a different building or location then the organisation would still be able to retrieve a copy of the data in the worst case scenario.

A locked, fireproof safe would provide further security although this might not be an option for some companies.

However, it is also important that copies of recent back-ups are readily available in case a system or file restore is required.

Some of you might have accidentally deleted your work and your teacher might tell you to go and see the network technician and ask them to restore your work. If all the back-up copies are stored a few miles away then you might have to wait for a hours until your work can be restored.

Whilst that might not affect you too much, it could be disastrous for an organisation. Imagine a bank who has to tell their customers that they can't withdraw any money because they are waiting for their back-up to arrive from the other end of the country!

Back-up tapes need to be clearly identified with the date and time that the back-up was made. This makes it easier to identify which is the most relevant back-up should a system restore be needed.

Challenge see if you can find out one extra fact on this topic that we haven't already told you

Click on this link: Fire proof safes