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All set for World Backup Day


Johannesburg, 30 Mar 2012

Businesses across the globe are being reminded to review their backup and security strategies as the world celebrates World Backup Day on 31 March.

World Backup Day was initiated in 2011 to drive the message that users should back up all their files. The event is the brainchild of biology student Ismail Jadun, who identified the need for a backup day after reading comments on reddit discussing backup awareness.

“I was just a college student who was looking for something interesting to do,” says Jadun. “I took the initiative and started the @WorldBackupDay Twitter feed as well as the Web site. After a fast and furious week of developing and designing, the World Backup Day holiday was born on 31 March 2011.”

According to a study carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers, a single incident of data loss costs businesses an average of $10 000. Gartner also reveals that 25% of all PC users suffer data loss each year and that 80% of businesses that suffer a major data loss or failure for more than 24 hours close within a year.

However, security software vendor Symantec points out that the current approach to backup modernisation offered by some vendors is broken.

The company notes that data growth has been exponential while backup performance gains thus far have been incremental.

At the same time, adds Symantec, backup teams are frustrated with missed backup windows and non-integrated solutions for physical and virtual backups, deduplication and snapshots. Ultimately, organisations face a situation where recovery, the end goal of why backups exist, is complex and unnecessarily expensive.

Hard drive manufacturer, Western Digital, says data is not only intangible and irreplaceable without a backup copy, but is probably also the single most valuable asset of a business.

The question is not if you will lose your data, but when, the company says in a statement. Whether it is due to accidental deletion by an absent-minded employee, intentional vandalism by a rogue vendor with access to your network, or a massive attack of thousands of infected computers, losing your data is a business reality, it adds.

Anamika Budree, Western Digital country manager, SA, believes having a backup strategy is crucial not only for large enterprises.

“Many small businesses don't expect the worst-case scenario of losing all their data through fire, flooding, cyber crime, corrupt data or damage to hard drives. The results can be devastating if this information cannot be retrieved,” she says.

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