Why it is important to have a Disaster Recovery plan.
A corporate data loss, whether due to a breakdown, an environmental disaster, a fire, or a hacker attack (such as ransomware), is in most cases a real disaster for the organization, whose operational halt very often results in a collapse of reputation and turnover.
That’s why, whatever virtual environment your company uses (Vmware, Hyper-V or other), having a backup of your data available is critical. In fact, being able to rely on a reliable recovery point is the only way to carry out an effective disaster recovery that will allow the company to return to operation immediately without any consequences.
For this to happen in complete safety and efficiency, a good backup strategy, called until recently the “3-2-1 rule” and now evolved, thanks to Veeam Backup & Replication, into the “3-2-1-1-0 rule,” should be followed.
3-2-1-1-0 backup rule: what is it?
The original “3-2-1 rule” was based on a very simple principle regarding computer data storage, namely that one should always:
- Own at least 3 copies (also called the “rule of 3”)
- keep copies on 2 different media
- store off-site 1 of the copies
The expression “3 copies” means that, in addition to the original, at least two additional backups must be available. In this way the risk of them all failing at the same time decreases exponentially, reaching, in the case of one original and two copies, the 1-in-a-million chance index.
This is all valid if there are no common causes of failure, which could be the case if all copies were saved in the same place, as is the case with disks in the same RAID system, for example.
In fact, having multiple copies allows each to be stored in a different physical location, averting the danger posed by accidents such as fire, explosion, and so on.
Again according to the “3-2-1 rule,” it is good to keep copies of data on two different types of storage, such as an internal and an external hard drive, possibly, as we said, stored in different locations.
Finally, one of the copies should always be stored off-site, so that it cannot be damaged by a concrete adverse event or be tied to a physical location.
How the 3-2-1-1-0 rule works
The “3-2-1 rule” evolves into the “3-2-1-0 rule” when applied to VMware or HyperV environments via Veeam Backup & Replication.
The second “1” that is added indicates that in addition to an off-line backup copy, an “immutable” one must be created . This type of backup allows for faster data storage, the ability to maintain information history, and most importantly, increased security against hacker attacks such as ransomware.
Instead, the “0” that is added at the bottom stands for “zero errors,” and indicates the fact that during the automatic verification of backup recovery, Veeam’s SureBackup feature ensures complete compliance and total absence of functional bugs in the process and in the data itself.
This is done through constant monitoring of backups, which also enables the quickest possible correction of any errors.
Veeam Backup & Replication also meets all the other parameters outlined in the “rule,” for at least three reasons:
- Thanks to the Backup Jobs feature, it allows the creation of several backups simultaneously
- Being storage-independent, it works with all kinds of media, from disks to the cloud
- Through Veeam Cloud Connect, off-site cloud backups can be achieved directly in a service provider’s infrastructure.
For all these reasons, applying the “3-2-1-0 rule” through Veeam is now considered a must by all companies that want to protect their data as best they can to keep their service level and competitiveness high.
The important thing, to take full advantage of its potential, is to refer to a certified and trusted partner who has the expertise to best implement the right solution.
