Backups should be capable of restoring anything from a single file to an entire system. They should be used when a server is impacted by ransomware or malware, a single server fails due to a bad software update, a file is deleted from a shared drive, or a table could be dropped from a production database. When deciding on a solution consider these factors:
- Infrastructure Integrations
- Your solution should work with the underlying infrastructure to leverage capabilities which enables performance backups and rapid restoring of entire systems
- Application Compatibility
- Ensure that that backup solution is compatible with existing applications and be aware of special procedures that may be needed to perform
- RPO / RTO
- How long is the outage acceptable (defined by Recovery Time Objective (RTO)) and how much data loss is acceptable (defined by Recover Point Objective (RPO))
Disaster Recovery should be able to handle natural disasters the physically damages the data center (earthquake, hurricane / water leak), a full network outage in the primary data center, or a long-term power outage at the office. When deciding on a DR platform consider these factors:
- Infrastructure Integration
- The solution needs to be natively compatible with the infrastructure protected and environment planned on recovering to
- RPO / RTO
- It is important to look at the expected RTO for the source site/recovery site/DR software combination you plan to use and ensure that the RTO for this combination meets the requirements of your business
- Consistency Requirements
- Additional care must be taken to ensure that data remains consistent across servers because DR solutions are not aware of underlying applications (some incorporate "consistency group" ideals)
- Service Discovery
- The full DR solution should ensure that users are able to reach their applications quickly without direct aid from IT staff