Backup Definition Backup refers to the copying of physical or virtual files or databases to a secondary site for preservation in case of equipment failure or other catastrophe. The process of backing up data is pivotal to a successful disaster recovery (DR) plan. What is backup and recovery? Enterprises back up data they deem to be vulnerable in the event of buggy software, data corruption, hardware failure, malicious hacking, user error or other unforeseen events. Backups capture a...

Recovery Time Objective (RTO) The recovery time objective (RTO) is the maximum tolerable length of time that a computer, system, network, or application can be down after a failure or disaster occurs. The RTO is a function of the extent to which the interruption disrupts normal operations and the amount of revenue lost per unit time as a result of the disaster. These factors in turn depend on the affected equipment and application(s). An RTO is measured in seconds, minutes, hours, or days ...

Recovery Point Objective (RPO) The recovery point objective (RPO) is the age of files that must be recovered from backup storage for normal operations to resume if a computer, system, or network goes down as a result of a hardware, program, or communications failure. The RPO is expressed backward in time (that is, into the past) from the instant at which the failure occurs, and can be specified in seconds, minutes, hours, or days. It an important consideration in disaster recovery planning (D...

Mozy to the rescue – a review of online backup I’ve written a few times about online backup services and options.  I have setup Peer to Peer backup for a friend of mine using Crashplan, but primarily for my own use, I use Mozy.  I also setup a Mozy account for my good friend Tammy  to keep her photos and other files backed up on an aging eMachine desktop.  Shortly before Thanksgiving, the eMachine died an unceremonious death.   Initally alarmed, her daughter asked “Oh no! What about all the p...

Undelete and file recovery for Mac One of the questions I’ve received most often is whether or not there is a file recover or undelete software for the Mac.  Until recently, I did not know of one — and I’ve been burned more than a couple times.  I had one user who lost his 60GB+ iTunes library and I was not able to help him recover it. Enter Disk Drill. Disk Drill, made by Clever Files,  is the software I have been missing for a number of years on Mac.  There may be other software availabl...

Mozy nixes unlimited backups; disappoints with lack of tools to manage data I have relied on Mozy backup for a few years now.  I really like their online backup service.  I’ve been a proponent of Mozy for a long time and I’ve written about their service several times on my blog.  But this morning, I found out that they had changed the rules of the game and removed the unlimited backup offering.  This is a big deal to me, but probably not to most users.  This change probably only affects the top...

SafeCopy: My answer to the Mozy changes? I got a comment on my recent Mozy post which offered SafeCopy as an alternative to Mozy.  When my current subscription to Mozy ends, I’m certainly in the market for a more favorable solution to meet my needs.  Mozy’s new plans, in my opinion,  do not offer enough space for the price they charge and they limit the number of computers that can connect to an account .   I’d never heard of SafeCopy and so I headed to their website to check them out. First...