3 Ways Computers Can Hurt Your Ministry - Part 1 - Ineffective Data Backups
Our computers have become almost indispensable ministry tools. What would you do if the worst happened and you had to function without your computers? Would your ministry survive?
This article is the first in a 3-part series on how to protect your ministry from serious computer-related loss. This time we're going to focus on protecting your critical data with effective backups. In the next two installments, we'll cover the basics of network security and finally what you should know about software license compliance.
Ineffective data backups really do have the potential to hurt your ministry. Here are some frightening statistics:
31% of PC users have lost all of their files due to events beyond their control.
60% of companies that lose their data will shut down within 6 months of the disaster.
Armed with the right knowledge, you can protect yourself and avoid becoming another statistic.
Back Up Your Data!
Most people would agree that computer data is one of their most valuable organizational assets. What would you do if all your donor and accounting files were suddenly gone forever because a hard drive on your server crashed? This could also happen through disgruntled employees, accidental deletion, corruption in one of your software programs or even because of an attack from an outside hacker. The first line of defense in protecting your ministry data is to perform regular backups.
What exactly is a backup? It's when you make a copy of your important data and keep it in a safe place, so you can restore that data if it ever becomes necessary later. The most common method of backing up data is to use a tape drive and backup tapes. I'll have some important recommendations for you later in this article, but the critical thing to understand is that you MUST do something?any kind of data backup is better than none at all. If you ignore your data, it just might go away!
Back to the Future
Remember the 1985 movie "Back to the Future"? Just like the character in that film used a sports car to travel back in time, you can take your ministry back in time, too. Instead of keeping just one backup copy of your data, you should set up a system that keeps copies of your data for set time intervals (every day, every week, every month, every quarter, every year, etc.). Use a different tape or disk for each backup you make and then label them by date, and you will soon have a library of archived data backups you can restore from as needed.
Why go through all that trouble? Well, suppose you find out that a very important Excel spreadsheet is now corrupted and you can't open it. You haven't used it for several months, and your backup strategy has been to keep writing over the same tapes every week. Chances are all the backups of that Excel file are probably corrupted, too! But what if you would've used a different strategy and kept an archive of your backups for each month of the previous year? You could then easily go back in time to the month when you knew the Excel file was still working and restore that copy?the issue would be quickly & easily resolved. Time travel can be pretty useful sometimes!
How to Make Effective Data Backups
If you have multiple computers networked in your office, keeping all your data in a single location (like a file server) and backing that up every night is the recommended way to perform backups. I would also recommend using a 20-tape rotation, which gives you the ability to "go back in time" up to a whole year (in various intervals) to restore important files.
You should also keep the most recent copy of your backup off-site (i.e., at another location away from your office). This is critical because if your building burned to the ground, your data backups would be destroyed right along with it. With a recent off-site copy, you could restore what you need on new equipment and get back to the business of ministry quickly.
I recommend using enterprise-quality backup software to perform your data backups. Good software, like Veritas Backup Exec and Computer Associates BrightStor ArcServe will schedule everything for you, run automatically and keep logs of everything that does and doesn't get backed up. These programs can also notify you by email (or some other method) when a backup is finished, if it was successful and whether or not you need to address anything. Aside from a little ongoing monitoring, everything can be automated. All you have to do is remember to change tapes every day.
If you're a home office or small office user without the resources to do tape backups, a ZIP drive, an external hard drive, a CD/DVD burner or even one of those cool little USB jump drives that fit on a key ring would all be options to consider. There are also services that let you do online backups over the Internet for a monthly fee. These are good options, as long as the amount of data isn't too large. Some services you can check into include Remote Data Backups, U.S. Data Trust's LiveVault Online Backup Service and iBackup.
Another Form of Insurance
Backups are really like another form of insurance. What kind of problems would you have if your ministry data was wiped out? Could it be replaced at any price? With a relatively small initial investment in equipment and some ongoing monitoring and maintenance, you can practically guarantee that your critical data will be available when you need it.
Protecting your data by effective backups is only part of the solution. Next time we'll talk about some simple steps you can take to protect your network against hackers, viruses, disgruntled employees and other potential vulnerabilities.
Donnie Schexnayder is a ministry technology expert. He holds industry certifications from Microsoft and CompTIA and has over 10 years experience in supporting churches and Christian ministries with technology. With a mixture of passion and expertise, Donnie helps ministries advance their mission of bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth by using cutting-edge technology. Donnie lives with his wife and 2 children in Colorado Springs, CO.
Eternitek: Advancing Christian Ministries Through Technology
MORE RESOURCES:
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Stellar Introduces CD DVD Data Recovery v3.0 with Additional DVD Media Support ... NewDesignWorld (press release) Gurgaon, Haryana, March 19, 2010 - Stellar Information Systems Limited - Today announced a major upgrade to its CD data recovery software, ... |
Disk Doctors New Windows Data Recovery Software TransWorldNews (press release) Disk Doctors new Windows Data Recovery Software will recover deleted files as well as helping to recover files that may have been lost. ... |
Vitesse Enables 10G Metro and Long-Haul Network Transition to 40G/100G MarketWatch (press release) ... a single-chip device with four simplex channels of Electronic Dispersion Compensation (EDC) and integrated Clock and Data Recovery (CDR) functions. ... |
Software to Offer Comprehensive Solutions for Hosted Disaster Recovery Sites Using Al-Bawaba The partnership between eHosting DataFort and Double-Take® Software, a leading provider of data recovery solutions, offer customers a single solution to ... |
 Bobsguide (press release) | UK SMEs in data recovery failure CRN - UK Some 600 SMEs from France, the UK and Germany took part in the study, which was carried out to gauge the differences in backup and data recovery practices ... UK firms failing to backup data |
Spending to increase on disaster data recovery solutions Purchasing.com If you want to ask your peers in supply chain what they think about spending on disaster data recovery services and solutions, why not start a conversation ... IT disaster recovery goldmine |
 VentureBeat | Google lures business with free backup and data recovery StrategyEye By Editorial Google is enticing business customers to its cloud-based Google Apps suite by offering automatic backup and data recovery at no extra cost. ... Google adds free cloud 'backup' to Apps, feature that reduces risk of data loss Google Introduces Disaster Proof Backup To Protect Apps Data |
 Computerworld | Achieving Rapid AIX Data Recovery for Credit Union Core Processing Applications Computerworld Continuous member service is an important deliverable for credit unions, and the continued growth in assets and members means that the impact of downtime is ... |
Data Backup Solution: Why You Need a Backup Plan in Place - Part 1
Is a data backup solution part of your computer plans? Do you have a way to protect yourself if something goes wrong with your computer or data? Computers are a useful part of our lives but we don't always protect ourselves from their loss be it fire, theft or hardware failure.We often don't consider how fragile our computer data really is.
Backup Your Data Or Lose Your Life!
Oh the perils of collecting those precious photos on your PC for years, only to have your hard drive crash one day, and not have made a SINGLE BACKUP COPY of any of your priceless pictures. Well, now is the time to backup your hard drive.
Hard Drive Crash? The Essential Data Recovery Report
Your worst nightmare just became a horrifying reality. You keep hearing that little voice in your head mockingly shout "you should have backed that stuff up" The voice keeps echoing throughout your head as you perform a quick inventory all of the important information that you just lost?.
How to Effectively Back Up Your Data
What to backup, and what to loseThe oldest "computer expression" is that there are two kinds of computer users, those that backup their data and those that will. Often, it takes a "data disaster" to compel otherwise responsible people to make a regular habit of backing up their data.
Computer Data Recovery Options
Losing files on your computer can be a frightening experience if the files are of importance to you personally or professionally. Computer data recovery techniques include the most simple of operations, like simply retrieving an accidentally deleted file, to very complex file retrieval procedures that only professionals should attempt to do.
Backing Up Personal Computers
Backup on business computers is typically not the user's concern unless it's a small business. A business should have a policy in place for managing backups especially due to Sarbanes - Oxyley.
Data Recovery - You Can Get It Back!
Data recovery is a process whereby you can save data and files you accidentally deleted, had eaten by malicious software or viruses, hardware failures, corporate espionage and many more scenarios. Most people believe that when the hard drive crashes their world ends also, but that's not usually the case.
The Best Data Recovery Choice For You
The best defense against a loss of data is a really solid and faithful backup routine of important files to reliable media. It's also a good idea for the media to be removable and portable if possible so that even if something happens to your whole computer for any reason, the data is protected by being in a totally different physical area.
Data Backup Solution: Why You Need a Backup Plan in Place - Part 2
In the first part of this article series, I talked about the three main threats to the data on your computer. I talked about the need for a data backup solution that protects your data properly.
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - The Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan
Essentially, the plan addresses the who, what, where, why and when of recovery. Goal number one is to reduce the risk profile of the business.
Sea-Front or Action-gate
June 25, 2005Seagate Technologies' web site now indicates the company offers data recovery services. Further investigation shows the shipping address, the place to send your subject drive for data recovery service, actually belongs to ActionFront Data Recovery.
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery - Reducing Your Risk Profile
Like all plans, there is an ultimate goal to achieve. The goal in a business continuity plan is simply that: to continue your business in the face of a disaster or a disruption.
Online Data Backups for Newbies
How long have you been doing business online? Whether you are new or an old timer you need to understand the one important truth of the e-world. That being that the largest threat to business survival is data loss.
Data Backups - One Key to Business Survival
Your customer data is a precious resource that can literally be worth its weight in gold! If used properly, it can be mined over and over for additional sales and referrals. Do you use this gold mine to increase the profitability of your business?You should! It can mean the difference between business survival and failure.
Data Backup for Beginners
It's 10pm. Do you know where your data is?Data.
How Secure Are Online Data Backups?
Processing DATA is what all businesses do. Protecting data is what SMART businesses do.
I Lost It! Simple Guide To Recovering Corrupted Images And Files
WinUndelete http://www.deprice.
Protect Yourself Before Your Hard Drive Crashes
Almost everyone who has used a computer has experienced a hard drive problem at some point. Are you prepared to lose your data? If your hard drive crashes right now, do you have an action plan to follow?Most people get complacent about protecting the data on their computers.
Are The Words Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning Rolling Off Your Lips?
It might be more fun to talk about those free online business cards that are saving the company money, or those nifty designer business checks that are helping to solidif your branding efforts at the next staff meeting, but what really should be rolling off your lips are the words "business continuity and disaster recovery planning". Nothing is more important to a company than having a comprehensive recoveery plan in place prior to when disaster strikes.
5 RAID Data Recovery Prevention Tips
If you have spent the time to increase your computer's performance by setting up a hardware RAID array, you owe it to yourself to invest a little extra time and effort in maintaining the hard disks in your setup. Following these tips will help limit the need for data disaster recovery in the future.