By Michael Gallagher, IntelliSuite Technologies
The loss or corruption of data such as patient records, accounting and financial data, employee records, payroll, and credentialing information could cripple a medical practice. Smaller practices are most vulnerable to data loss since they do not have the resources or technology to manage a best practice data backup solution.
“It is estimated that 60% of companies that lose their data shut down within 6 months.” – John Jackson, Storage Insider.
With today’s ever changing technology, identifying the right data backup solution for your practice can be more difficult than ever. In order to make the most informed decision, it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of today’s backup solutions. Below you will find summaries of the most common data backup options as well as things to consider while determining which solution makes the most sense for your environment.
Traditional Tape Backup
Traditional tape backup is manual-intensive, requires significant resources, and can be costly. Tapes need to be changed daily, cataloged, and removed from the premises. Tape backup units must be cleaned a minimum of once per month to ensure proper functionality. Data restores from tape should be performed a minimum of once per quarter. Lastly, tapes should be replaced annually. The cost of a tape backup unit and tapes can add up very quickly. The manual labor involved makes it more likely to forget a process. Traditional tape backup solutions require such maintenance because they have a very high failure rate.
According to Microsoft, 42% of attempted recoveries from tape backups in the past year have failed. In addition, Ben Matheson, group product manager for Microsoft Data Protection Manager, said, "More than 50 percent of customers we've surveyed said their current backup solutions do not fill their needs."
Online Backup
An online backup solution provides a location in cyberspace where you can securely backup your critical data. The benefit of an online backup solution is that it is generally cost-effective, easy to use, and automated. One downside of an online backup solution is that data can only be transferred at the speed of your Internet connection. Another downside is that your Internet connection becomes another point of failure in your backup solution; if you lose your Internet connection, you cannot perform any immediate backup or recovery functions. To put this in perspective, 1 GB of data (about 250 average MP3 songs) would take almost two hours to recover over a standard T1 line provided no other resources were using that Internet connection for any other purpose such as email, web research, online applications, etc.
Disk-to-Disk
With the decreased cost of hard drive space, disk-to-disk backup solutions have become more viable in today’s backup solution space. Disk-to-disk is the most reliable, fastest, and most secure form of data backup. Disk-to-disk solutions are typically automated and are able to restore data faster than any other solution in the market. The downside to disk-to-disk is that your data backup is located on your premises. If there is a disaster, your primary data as well as your backed up data is lost.
Our Recommendation
IntelliSuite recommends a combination of disk-to-disk backup with online backup. A hybrid solution encompassing both technologies allows for immediate data recovery as well as offsite data backup which will ensure your data will never be lost. And all of it is automated with no manual intervention required.
What to Think About
As with any business decision, you must weigh the cost of a solution with the benefit you will receive from that solution. Questions to ask while determining which solution makes the most sense for you: How long could you afford to be without your critical data? How much money does your practice lose if you were not able to operate for 1 hour, 4 hours, 1 day, 1 week, etc.? How effective is your current backup strategy? What is your operational backup strategy? What is your financial backup strategy? How would your cash flow be affected if your data were lost or unavailable for a period of time? How long can you operate without a steady cash flow?
In the end, a data backup solution is very much like an insurance policy. It is hard to appreciate or justify it until you actually need it.