A single event can cause a business to irrecoverably lose valuable data. This can occur due to human error, equipment failure, or a cyberattack.
In the United Arab Emirates, and particularly Dubai, a significant number of businesses have integrated the use of digital systems, email, cloud and other electronic business and customer databases to manage their day to day activities. As such, these businesses are vulnerable if their data backups are the only copies of their data and no additional plans are in place to address data loss and system failures.
In such situations, the importance of data backups and disaster recovery plans combine to provide recovery of data and restoration of systems to enable businesses to continue with their activities.
What Is Backup and Disaster Recovery?
Backup and disaster recovery work together but serve different purposes. A backup gives you a copy of important data that can be restored later. Disaster recovery is the broader process of restoring systems, applications, data, and business operations after a disruption.
For example, imagine an employee accidentally deletes an important project folder. A recent backup can help recover those files.
Now imagine a ransomware attack encrypts company computers and servers. In that situation, simply having a backup is not enough. The business also needs a recovery process to bring systems back online safely and reduce downtime.
This difference is often overlooked. Companies focus on where their data is stored but do not always think about how quickly they could recover if that data suddenly became unavailable.
Why Do Dubai Businesses Need a Reliable Backup Strategy?
Businesses in Dubai rely heavily on digital systems for customer and accounting records and for running their business on Microsoft 365 and other cloud applications. Loss of access to such systems can disrupt business operations and make it difficult to serve customers properly.
An effective data backup strategy helps protect the copies of business data in case of an accidental loss of business data.
Such strategies are effective for businesses that cannot afford to have their operations disrupted for a long time.
Imagine what it would mean for a business to lose access to its customer database. Employees would be unable to process customer orders and would be unable to access data to assist customers or to create and issue customer invoices. And all of this would be true for other business records.
The negative impact on a business can be significantly reduced if a copy of the lost data is available through a backup strategy.
What Can Cause Business Data Loss?
Data loss does not always happen because of a major cyberattack. In many cases, ordinary mistakes or technical problems can create just as much trouble.
Some common causes include:
- Ransomware and other cyberattacks
- Accidental deletion of files
- Hardware failure
- Server problems
- Software or system errors
- Human mistakes
- Damaged or corrupted files
- Theft or physical damage
- Power or infrastructure problems
For example, an employee may accidentally overwrite an important document or delete a folder that another department still needs. Without a suitable recovery point, restoring that information can become difficult.
This is why businesses should think beyond cybersecurity. Backup is also about protecting against everyday problems that can happen without warning.
Why Is Disaster Recovery Different From Backup?
While data backups and disaster recovery are closely related, they serve different functions. Data is often backed up multiple times, but a total restoration of a company’s operations may not have occurred. For a complete restoration of a company’s operations, a number of systems must be restored, including file and application servers, access control and directory services, email, telephony and other unified communications, and other business-related applications.
Let’s look at the failure of a company’s server as an example.
Data can be backed up, but what good is data without the systems to access and process it? Systems and application recovery may depend on the location of the backup data and the knowledge of a company’s IT staff as to the recovery sequence.
Disaster recovery planning encompasses the above. The goal of an effective disaster recovery plan is to facilitate the recovery of data and systems in an orderly manner.
How Does the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy Help?
The 3-2-1 backup approach is a simple way to reduce the risk of losing all copies of your data. It generally means keeping three copies of important data, using two different types of storage, with at least one copy stored away from the main environment.
The idea is straightforward.
If everything is stored on the same server or in the same location, one incident could affect every copy. Keeping another copy separately gives the business an additional recovery option.
For example, a company might keep its working data on its primary systems, another backup on separate storage, and an additional copy in a different location or cloud environment.
The exact setup can vary depending on the company’s size, systems, compliance requirements, and recovery needs.
What Are RPO and RTO?
RPO and RTO help businesses understand how much data they can afford to lose and how quickly their systems need to be restored after an incident.
RPO, or Recovery Point Objective, refers to the amount of data a business can afford to lose based on time.
For example, if the RPO is four hours, the business should have a recovery point that limits potential data loss to roughly four hours.
RTO, or Recovery Time Objective, refers to how quickly a system or service needs to be restored.
These two measurements are useful because not every business system has the same importance.
An accounting system may require faster recovery than an old internal archive. Similarly, customer-facing applications may need to be restored before less critical systems.
Defining these priorities makes a recovery plan much more practical.
Is Cloud Backup Useful for Dubai Businesses?
Cloud backup can give businesses an additional place to store backup data without depending entirely on local hardware. It can also make it easier to maintain off-site copies and support recovery when the primary office or infrastructure is unavailable.
However, moving backups to the cloud does not automatically create a complete disaster recovery strategy.
Businesses still need to decide:
- What data should be backed up?
- How frequently should backups run?
- How long should backups be retained?
- Who can access them?
- How will the data be restored?
- How will the backup be protected from ransomware?
- How often will recovery be tested?
The answers should be based on the business rather than simply choosing a backup solution because it is cloud-based.
Why Should Microsoft 365 Data Be Included?
Many organizations believe that email and documents stored in Microsoft 365 are protected from all types of data loss.
As a result, some recovery plans may omit protection for emails and documents stored in Microsoft 365.
Microsoft 365 is critical to a business, however, a complete recovery plan should include protection for emails, documents, and other data lost due to deletion or other reasons from Microsoft 365.
This is true for businesses where email and online documents are the main method of business communication.
Therefore, to protect business data, a backup strategy should include protection for data stored in the cloud, on servers and other end-points.
How Can Backup Reduce the Impact of Ransomware?
In the case of a ransomware attack, backups can be a business’s primary means of recovering its data. If the business’s systems become infected, the business can restore its data from the backup systems.
However, backup systems should not be considered a replacement for other layers of a business’s cybersecurity strategy.
Other layers of a business’s security strategy should include, but not be limited to, strong passwords, endpoint protection, software updates, and staff training. Backup systems should be considered as part of a business’s security strategy.
Additionally, the security of backup systems should be considered. If a malicious actor can gain access to or delete a business’s backups, then those backups will not be of any use to the business.
Why Should Businesses Test Their Backups?
Backups are of little value unless they’ve been tested. Of course, testing backs ups helps confirm files are restored and the process to do so is clear.
Testing a restore is often treated as a checkbox during an audit, but many organizations only think about actually performing a restore when it’s already too late.
Just because backups are successful doesn’t mean restores are. Even the best backups provide no assurance that files have been fully restored or that ownership and permissions will be correct after recovery. Additionally, restores take a significant amount of time.
The only method to determine the status of a restore is to perform a restore.
One of the main benefits of restores is it helps correct issues with the process.
Restores also do not need to be performed for the entire system to help identify issues and correct issues with the restore process. Testing can be focused on a subset of the data or a subset of the system.
What Should a Disaster Recovery Plan Include?
A useful disaster recovery plan should explain what needs to happen when an important system becomes unavailable. It should be practical enough that the team can follow it during a stressful situation.
At a minimum, businesses should identify:
- Critical systems and data
- Responsible team members
- Backup locations
- Recovery priorities
- RPO and RTO requirements
- Communication procedures
- Steps for restoring important systems
- Backup testing procedures
- Alternative working arrangements where necessary
The plan should also be reviewed when the business changes.
For example, adding a new business application, moving more operations to the cloud, opening another office, or changing IT infrastructure can affect recovery requirements.
A disaster recovery plan should grow with the business instead of becoming an old document that nobody checks.
How Can Businesses Build a More Reliable Recovery Strategy?
Start by identifying the systems that the business cannot operate without. Not every file or application needs the same recovery priority, so separating critical systems from less important information makes the plan easier to manage.
Next, review how those systems are currently backed up.
Ask simple questions:
- Where are the backups stored?
- How often are they created?
- Can older versions be restored?
- Who can access the backups?
- What happens if the main office or server becomes unavailable?
- When was the last recovery test completed?
These questions can quickly reveal weaknesses that may not be obvious during normal operations.
The goal is not to create the most complicated setup. It is to create a recovery process that the business can actually depend on.
How Does Backup Fit Into Business Continuity?
Business continuity is concerned with the recovery and resumption of critical organizational operations. It is closely tied with the Disaster Recovery process, which focuses on the recovery of information and technology.
An illustrative example is provided by a significant outage of a company’s IT services. Continuity of business operations would require that managers plan for how employees would communicate and interact in order to perform their jobs.
The focus of the recovery plan would be the restoration of the IT services.
In general, both plans must be integrated with one another.
An organization can develop an effective plan to backup its information and services; however, if its employees are unable to identify and perform their functions during an outage, the overall business continuity plan would be ineffective.
What Should Dubai Businesses Look for in a Backup Solution?
The right setup depends on the company’s infrastructure, data, budget, recovery requirements, and security needs. There is no single backup approach that fits every business.
Before choosing a solution, businesses should consider:
- Backup frequency
- Storage locations
- Data retention
- Recovery speed
- Security controls
- Scalability
- Microsoft 365 and cloud data
- Backup monitoring
- Recovery testing
- Support requirements
It is also worth looking at what happens when something actually goes wrong.
A solution may offer many features, but the more important question is whether the business can recover its critical systems when it needs to.
For businesses that want help reviewing their backup and recovery setup, Acronis Dubai can be considered as part of the wider IT protection strategy. The important thing is to first understand the company’s actual recovery requirements rather than choosing a product based only on features.
Final Thoughts
Backups and disaster recovery plans should be formed prior to an incident. It is important to have proactive measures in place in order to maintain data and system availability.
Dubai is a prime example, as more business operations transition to virtual environments. These environments are reliant on cloud and other connected systems and infrastructure.
A good starting point is to locate your critical data, determine the various scenarios that could occur, determine the recovery objectives and time frames associated with each, and determine the impact and level of service associated with each scenario. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, test your backup and recovery solution to ensure that it meets the requirements outlined for each critical business scenario.
While a plan may be comprehensive, it is of little value if it is not tested and does not meet the requirements of the business.
Protect Your Business Before Data Loss Happens
A backup plan should give you confidence that your business can keep moving when something goes wrong. If your current backup setup has not been reviewed or tested recently, now is a good time to check it.
Need help reviewing your backup and disaster recovery strategy?
Talk to the Acronis Dubai team to understand your options and build a recovery approach that fits your business needs.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Backup gives a business another copy of important data if files are accidentally deleted, damaged, corrupted, or affected by ransomware. It can make recovery easier and help reduce the disruption caused by unexpected data loss.
No. Backup protects copies of your data, while disaster recovery focuses on restoring systems and business operations after an incident. A reliable strategy should consider both data protection and how quickly critical systems need to be restored.
The right backup frequency depends on how often data changes and how much information the business can afford to lose. Businesses handling frequently changing or critical data may need backups more often than those with less critical information.
The 3-2-1 backup rule means keeping three copies of important data, using two different types of storage, with at least one copy stored separately from the main environment. This helps reduce the risk of losing all copies from a single incident.
Businesses should consider how they would recover important Microsoft 365 data if emails, files, or other information were accidentally deleted or compromised. A clear recovery plan for cloud data can help avoid gaps in the overall backup strategy.
If ransomware makes the original data inaccessible, a suitable backup can provide a recovery point from before the attack. However, backups should work alongside other security measures such as access controls, endpoint protection, software updates, and employee awareness.
Regular recovery testing is the best way to find out. A backup may appear to complete successfully but still have problems during restoration. Testing helps identify missing data, access issues, or other recovery problems before an actual emergency occurs.
