GUEST OPINION: Information is undoubtedly one of the most important resources a business can have. As such, business data protection should always be a priority – since there are plenty of different ways for sensitive data to be either damaged or compromised.
When it comes to protecting data, the question becomes, “How?”. Fortunately, there are various methods and approaches to data security, each with its own benefits, drawbacks, and unique factors. While implementing complex data security systems may be challenging for those with less knowledge, creating backups of the system’s data is a relatively simple and effective measure.
While basic backups are suitable for safeguarding personal or small business data, medium-sized companies and large enterprises require more comprehensive solutions known as enterprise backup solutions.
Enterprise-level backup solutions offer a wide range of features and support various storage types such as disks, tapes, cloud storage, virtual machines, databases, containers, and SaaS application data.
These solutions typically aim to integrate with different platforms and storage types while streamlining backup and restore tasks. However, the characteristics of a good large-scale backup solution for large enterprises include:
- Scalability in both directions to handle large data volumes without exponential cost increases
- Integration with other enterprise-grade systems, not just different storage types
- Bare metal recovery for workstations running Windows and/or Linux operating systems, essential for disaster recovery strategies
- Centralized data management capabilities, allowing oversight of backup and recovery operations in one place for convenience
While this list is not exhaustive, there are numerous other features and functions that may be necessary depending on the company and its specific situation. It can be challenging to research this topic, even for experts in the field.
However, Requests for Proposal (RFPs) offer a solution to this problem. Although RFPs are primarily used by large enterprise companies, they provide a feature set that the company desires in a backup and recovery solution. The company presents its features to the customer, reversing the traditional research method.
The RFP process is more complex, involving discussions of industry-specific features before making a final choice. For example, while many enterprise backup solutions offer basic MySQL integration, a dedicated small-scale backup solution may provide more advanced features for MySQL backups.
In such scenarios, the choice lies between accepting a solution’s basic capabilities in a specific area, seeking a more versatile and feature-rich solution, or opting for a dedicated small-scale backup solution that excels in a specific storage type, such as MySQL.