Some organizations will purchase cheaper hard drives or storage media with the main purpose of saving money. If the drive fails, however, and no backups have been performed on a frequent basis, a data recovery service is the only option to retrieve critical data stored on that failed drive. The cost of using such a data recovery service can certainly be much more expensive. Purchasing more expensive drives or backup systems will prevent disasters. Also, the amount of time required to retrieve the data can be time-consuming. It will also have a negative impact on daily operations of an organization. The saying goes; if the data is not worth backing up and protecting it isn’t that important.
Data backup costs
As finances can dictate a company’s strategy in this regard, data retrieval options are the option. Purchasing more expensive drives alone will not necessarily guarantee a longer life of a drive. Several factors can determine a drives life cycle which can also be out of the hands of an organization, such as:
data center and dedicated server temperatures
physical handling of the server or drives during setup and installation
power fluctuations or spikes.
Data recovery services are plenty but there are some differences to take note of.
Some data recovery services may even charge a fee for simply looking at the drive. Then determining what is salvageable and what may not be. It may indeed be disappointing to realize most of the data is lost in addition to paying a fee to get that determination.
In many cases, a failed drive can be mounted as a secondary drive for data retrieval by a server administrator or as services provided by your web hosting provider depending on their Service Level Agreement. This can avoid the wait time of having a third-party retrieve the data for you, the added cost and the security to keep in mind if there is sensitive data that cannot fall into the wrong hands.
It is important to understand how the sensitive data on the drive is going to be handled and by whom. Determining what data was recovered, where it was copied to and how it was handled afterward is vital. When some or all data has been retrieved make sure the data on the bad drive was permanently erased.
It is also possible that the vendor of the drive offers some sort of data recovery services. If not they should offer recommendations for data recovery from an established and reputable data recovery service.
Nothing is certain
Even a RAID backup system does not ensure backup security if a dedicated server has been compromised or a file has been deleted on purpose or by mistake. Having a separate external backup can provide an unaltered copy (also depending on backup frequency). Data can be retrieved and in the case of a security breach, will provide an extra level of backup security for faster retrieval.
Remote backups are a good option to ensure no data is lost and ads an extra layer of security should a dedicated server become compromised. These remote backups can be within the same datacenter or with a completely different provider in another physical location. Should a datacenter or dedicated server suffer a catastrophic failure or even sudden unforeseen closure or bankruptcy, having data stored in another location can save the life of any small or large business?
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