Data Protection Day is an annual opportunity to remind and educate businesses on the most effective approaches to preparing for the multitude of threats to Business Continuity that exist in the global digital landscape.
From strengthening defences against ransomware to training employees in regulatory compliance, a vital part of any Modern Data Protection strategy is the ability to backup and recover data at any time. Veeam advocates the expanded 3-2-1-1-0 backup rule as its best practice that all businesses should follow in 2022.
3: Maintain at least three copies of your data
In addition to your primary data, you should also have at least two more backup files for sufficient protection.
The chances of something going wrong on three devices at the same time is much smaller than two devices, especially when the primary backup is often situated close to the primary data. In the event of a disaster the primary data and primary backup might be lost. The secondary backup should be situated away from the primary data as a contingency for when disaster strikes.
2: Store backups on two different forms of media
It is recommended that you store one of your backup copies on an internal hard disk drive and the other copy on removable storage media – for example, tape, external hard disk drives, cloud storage, etc.
Storing both copies of your backup on the same type of storage media increases the chance of losing all your backup data if an outage or cyberattack affecting data stored on a specific media format occurs.
Alternatively, store your primary backup on internal hard disk drives of a physical server and the secondary backup on internal hard disk drives of a NAS where the hard disk drives on both systems are of a different brand, size and type.
1: Store at least one backup copy offsite
Keep at least one backup copy away from the physical location where the primary data and primary backup is located. It is recommended that you do not keep your second copy at the same physical location. This is because in the event of a disaster such as a fire or flooding, everything in that one location could be destroyed. If you stored your primary data, primary backup and secondary backup all in this same facility, it is lost forever.
For businesses without multiple sites, you can store a copy of your backup data in a private cloud via a service provider or in the public cloud.
1: Store at least one copy offline
It is recommended to keep at least one backup copy offline – disconnected from the network and away from any IT infrastructure. Examples of offline media include rotating external USB-disks, tape, and object storage with immutability.
If a hacker successfully gains access to your IT environment, everything on the network is potentially vulnerable. To fully protect data, keep an offline copy, protected using an encryption key, to prevent external or insider threats from interfering with it via the network. This is commonly referred to as an air-gapped backup.
0: Make sure you have verified backups without errors
Backups are only as good as the process being used to verify them. Firstly, backups must be monitored daily. Check whether there are errors and solve them as soon as possible. There should be zero. Secondly, make sure you can restore data from your backups by performing restoration tests at regular, recurring intervals.
Modern Data Protection
As the leader in backup, recovery and data management solutions that deliver Modern Data Protection, Veeam views its 3-2-1-1-0 rule as a critical best practice for organizations working to maintain exceptional service levels while protecting against data loss.
Rick Vanover, Senior Director, Product Strategy, Veeam, said:“At Veeam we recommend that businesses view 3-2-1-1-0 as a rule to live by when it comes to protecting their day. It’s a logical evolution from the more commonly understood 3-2-1 rule, originally concepted by world-renowned photographer Peter Krogh, which states that you should always keep three copies of data, on two different forms of media, with one copy off site. Given the scale and diversity of threats to business continuity in the digital economy, this should be viewed as a starting point. To achieve the resiliency demanded by the increasingly volatile threat landscape, businesses must add another one and a zero. As well as keeping one copy offsite, keep one offline, which is air-gapped or immutable. And always remember that when you restore your data, you are aiming for zero surprises, so you need to use a recovery verification solution to be sure that any data you have backed up can be fully restored in the shortest time possible.”
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