Darren McBride, CEO of Sierra Computer Group shares with you the most common reason for data loss; the 20 common backup mistakes resulting in data loss during an emergency; why the time to restore your server may be several days longer than you want; and how the cloud can help in your backup strategy. Darren also shares ways to test the backup system and ways to reduce the impact of human error.

1. www.SierraComputerGroup.com 775-322-6455
Cloud and Backup Tips for
Protecting Your Business
Including: The 20 most common backup mistakes

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 Many small businesses
have backup problems
 But….they often don’t
know it.
 Gartner Group says
that 43% of companies
were immediately put
out of business by a
“major loss” of data.
It’s Best Not to Ignore Backup &
Business Continuity
 A few Stories

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Opening Questions
 How many of you have a server?
 How many of you *think* you backup your
server daily?
 How many of you have experienced some
type of data loss? (46% per year)
 How many think a copy of your data to
another drive is a backup?
 Do your employees save any data to
workstation drives? (28% do) Should have roaming
profiles
 Do you have Apps in the Cloud? (25% by
2020)
 How long will a laptop stored on a shelf retain
data on it’s solid state drive?

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Opening Question
 How long can your computers to be down without a
substantial cost or business impact?
A. 2-3 hours (Less=HA)
B. 4-8 hours
C. 1 day
D. 2 days
E. 3+ days

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What Scenario Scares you the
Most?
A. Disaster like earthquake, flood, or a fire
B. Hacker gaining access to my system
C. Hard drive crash or server hardware failure
D. Power bumps or power outages
E. Infection by Malware or virus
F. Our own employees making a Mistake
G. Disgruntled employee

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Common Causes of Data Loss
Most Common Hardware failure: hard drive. SSD second. Some statistics claim
power failures & bumps may be involved or third leading.
Note that a “local”
only backup might
protect you in 90%
of cases.
Fun fact: Symantec
Executive says Anti-virus
software lets viruses through
over 55% of the time.
Signature based AV isn’t
working
Studies vary. For example Google Docs says Data loss is 63%
from Human error.
Theft and hacking
are also significant.
15% of households
experience burglary
or theft each year. Up
to 8% of data loss
may now due to
hacking.

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20 Common Backup Mistakes
1. “It’s all Automatic”. Never accept this! Backup file
existence, size, date not checked regularly.
2. Backup Logs not checked daily. Preferably use RMM
tool or email notification.
3. Believing RAID 1 (Mirroring), 5, 6, or 10 is a backup.
4. Data does not get sent off-site. 10% problem
5. Backing up Data only with no OS/ programs or
ability to do “bare metal” to foreign hardware.

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20 Common Backup Mistakes
6. Machines running critical applications at night, with
skipped files. (The CEO?)
7. Believing a “copy” or “replication” is the same as a
backup.
8. Changed admin password (or Backup User)
9. Backing up only Servers, not
workstations. Gartner says 28% of
corporate data lives on local devices.
SMB is much higher.
10. Insufficient number of
versions or retention of files.

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20 Common Backup Mistakes
11. No agent for “always on” applications (AD, Exchange,
SQL, Sharepoint), meaning skipped open files.
 No granular restore ability for these apps.
12. Failure to archive, keep data size small as possible.
13. Failure to have a Secondary or extra automated file
copy.
14. No Battery Backup on server(s) or backup appliance/
failure to test power outage scenario.
15. Installing conflicting software (Anti-Virus or
Other Backup/ sync programs)

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20 Common Backup Mistakes
16. Relying on one continuous incremental forever.
17. Security: Failure of backup system to retain user
permissions and file ACLs (Access Control Lists).
18. Security: Failure to encrypt or protect backup files in
a HIPAA or other industry requiring compliance.
19. Understand how long a restore will take (RTO/RPO)
particularly with the cloud.
 RTO- Max tolerable downtime (i.e 2 day server repair)
 RPO- Max tolerable data loss (i.e. backup was last night)

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Cost of
downtime
Length of
disruption
Time
Last
Backup
or
replication
Failure
Event
RTO Recovery
Time Objective
RPO Recovery Point
Objective
24
hours
48
hours
Time decision is
made to Recover
Recovery Time and Recovery
Point Objective Graph
$
RPO- Max tolerable
data loss
RTO- Max tolerable
downtime Cost of
unrecoverable data
Cost to Recover
(i.e. mirrored
servers)
Cost to Recover
(i.e. tape)
Cost
Balance
point
Organization
with High cost
of any downtime

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20 Common Backup Mistakes
20. Failure to test a restore.
Virtualization makes table top test a reality

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Backup Locally, Removable, or to
the Cloud?
 90/10 rule applies but you need a combination.
 Local is first priority as it will account for 90% or more
of your restores.
 Smaller businesses can do “Cloud Only” and “File
Only” backups…but only if they can tolerate long
(multi-day) recovery times.
 Image based backup with reverse incremental and
synthetic roll up is preferable for most businesses.

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Managed Backup
Internet
Customer Site
Sierra Computer Group
Having “the cloud” live in Reno data center provides substantial benefits including
the ability to re-seed quickly and the ability to restore more quickly (Better RTO)
Multiple replication jobs are
stored at SCG Network
Operations Center
Managed Backup (BaaS) includes
hardware appliance, Image based
backup software, monitoring, remote
correction of problems, storage in our
cloud (3Ps-Pipe,Power,POP), Data
Insurance.

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In the 3rd party backup assessment we’re looking for 20
common backup mistakes and more.
The Need to Assess Backup
• Takes 2-7 hours depending
on level of report detail
desired.
• Does not do a test restore or
guarantee restorability, but
does give peace of mind.

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A Few Final Tips & Thoughts
Human Errors
 “Save” can be just like delete. Users
accidentally overwrite files.
 They accidentally drag and drop or
rename.
 Problems are not always discovered
immediately.
 Let’s look at one way to reduce the
impact………..

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Tip 1: Reducing Impact of Human Error
 Do you have Microsoft “Previous Versions” turned on?
Only works if you
have a “real” server
– running
Windows Server
operating System.
Or… certain new
versions of
Windows
workstation
And…..
An IT guy who
turned it on

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Do you
Supplement
your backup
with a copy of
server to a
workstation?
Tip 2: Do you have a Backup Backup?

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Tip 3: Challenge your staff
 Simple Challenge: Pick a file created yesterday &
ask your IT person to restore it.
 Spin up a virtual machine and login to it.
 If backup is in the cloud calculate how long it will
take to restore it. http://www.high-
rely.com/blog/cloud-backup-calculator-and-data-
upload-time-calculator/

20. www.SierraComputerGroup.com 775-322-6455
Tip 4: Let us do It!
 Offer:
We’ll Give Attendees of this Seminar a Backup
Assessment & written report for $250. Normally
$560
 Managed Backup (Image or File) – If you’d like us to do
either file based or Imaged based Backup as a Service
(BaaS) contact us for a quote.

21. www.SierraComputerGroup.com 775-322-6455
Discussion. And Questions
Darren@SierraComputerGroup.com
SCGSales@SierraComputerGroup.com
Phone us at 775-322-6455