There is much more to backup than feeds and speeds, how-to guides for specific products, technical analysis of individual product features and bug reports. In fact, having an understanding of the technical features and working of any particular backup product, be it EMC NetWorker, Veritas NetBackup, etc., is less than half of the details when it comes to implementing a fully functional backup system within an environment.
You see, backup isn’t an IT function. If you’re operating under that assumption, or if your management are operating under that assumption, you (or they) are incorrect. Not only is the assumption incorrect, it’s practically dangerous.
The best (the only) backup systems are those that come together when the following factors coaelesce:
- Business involvement, covering:
- Staff awareness
- Management buy-in
- Development of SLAs for RTO and RPO, i.e., clear establishment of system and business function priorities
- IT acceptance and implementation
- Zero error policy
- Best practice designs
- Implementation of management and maintenance procedures
- Systems and processes documentation
- Enterprise software
- Reliable hardware
Now, if you want to learn how to go from having a backup product installed to having a complete backup system, I’d suggest you need to book some time in to read my book. Thankfully, it’s easy to get a hold of! If you prefer to order by land mail, head on over to the book homepage for an order form to the publisher. If you’re a fan of Amazon, then you can find the book here, and finally, if you’d prefer to order online from the publisher, you can go here.