Tape systems are the primary methodology used
to implement DR solutions. These systems take point-in-time copies
of the organization’s data and commit them to removable media
(i.e., the tapes), which the company can then store in a safe
facility.

In many cases, this means that a designated
employee takes the backup tapes and places them in a safer
location. However, many services are available that can manage tape
storage for your organization.

While you can keep the tapes at the same
location where you generated them, you risk losing both the
production and backup data if a physical disaster, such as fire or
a flood, hits your site. So storing tape backups in a safe, different location is a
better choice.

Most DR solutions perform backups on a daily,
weekly, or monthly basis–or even a combination of all three. You
can perform a full backup, where you copy all data to tape during
each backup. You can also create a combination of full,
incremental, and differential backups, where you back up only
changed files to disk after completing the full backup.

In addition to tape-based backup systems, many
products offer the ability to send a copy of your data from one
server to another. This method involves storing data on disk rather
than storing it offline on tape. You can find such replication
solutions that allow you to take either point-in-time copies
(snapshots) or allow for storage of real-time copies of the data in
one or multiple locations.

Because the DR approach doesn’t require the
installation or configuration of applications until it’s time to
restore, you can often protect multiple production servers to a
single destination server, reducing your overall budget for DR
systems.

As with tape, you can configure these systems
to store data locally. Of course, using only local copies creates
the possibility that a site loss would also result in massive data
loss as well.

Using a combination of both local and off-site
copies–or, at the very least, off-site copies only–allows for
greater overall protection.

For the many servers that hold relatively
static data that doesn’t change very often and can be down for a
period of time in the event of a major disaster, DR solutions are a
good combination of protection and price.

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