Implement a Backup Plan
Creating data backups and having a data recovery plan are important pieces of your disaster plan and business continuity.
With an effective data recovery plan and frequent backups stored on and off site, you can quickly restore your data if a disaster strikes.
To get started, meet with your organization's leaders and create a backup plan that answers the following questions:
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What do you want to back up?
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How often will you back up your data?
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How and where will you store your data?
Finally, designate someone to coordinate and keep records on your backups. You should keep your backup plan in writing with your organization's disaster planning procedure documentation.
What Should I Back Up?
- Back up everything on your hard drive. This method offers the greatest amount of data security, it allows for one-step restoration in the case of loss, and you can do it automatically during off hours. The downside is that it can be costly.
- Another option is to back up only data that is necessary for your organization to operate. In this scenario, only back up work that is not easily replaceable. Examples are ACS, PDS, or Headmaster backups, Word documents, important letters or memos, databases, Publisher files, MP3 files, and archived e-mail.
- You may also want to consider backing up any program that you don't have the original software for.
Strategies for Successful Backups
You should back up your data often and at regular intervals. You may want to keep one backup on site to restore data quickly if you encounter a system or hard drive error, but it's also important to keep some backups off site in a secure location, preferably not near your physical location. By keeping backups off site, your data can be restored if a disaster strikes your community.
Here's a simple but effective strategy that may help your church, school, or organization when implementing a backup plan. It's a good idea to have four sets of backup copies, including:
Daily Backup Set A and Daily Backup Set B
Each day, you should back up your data. These backups can be used in case of system or hard drive failure or operator error.
When making manual backups on CDs or other removal media, always label the media with the type of backup (People or Financial), the date that the backup took place, and the backup file name. It's also a good idea to keep a log book with the above information, as well as the name of the staff member who made the backup.
Weekly Backup Set
You should also make a backup at the end of each week and store that backup at a location other than your workplace, so that it can be used in case of a catastrophe such as fire or flood. Once again, if you use a CD, you can reuse it each week.
Monthly Backup Set
You should make a backup copy at the end of each month as part of your month-end accounting procedures. We recommend making the backup after you've printed your month-end reports, but before closing the current month. Use different removal media for each month so that at the end of the year you have 12 monthly archive backups. Be sure to give each backup a different name or place them in different directories.
You may also want to back up your picture files when you make monthly backups. Picture files rarely change, but reimporting them into ACS can take valuable time away from your organization's goals.