MARCH 31 / WORLD BACKUP DAY
Ten minutes can save ten hours.
Ten days.
Ten weeks.
Ten months.
Backup and redundancy problems rarely announce themselves when they are easy to fix. Sometimes what was lost can be recovered. Sometimes the last usable copy is days or weeks old. Sometimes the photos, messages, files or access you assumed were protected simply aren't coming back.
World Backup Day is March 31. Use it as an annual reminder to spend a few minutes checking the information and systems you would hate to discover weren't protected.
Backup isn't just copying files.
Useful protection means thinking about more than whether a folder is syncing. Consider each of the following:
- Important files and records
- Photos and other irreplaceable information
- Website content and configurations
- Domain and DNS information
- Business email
- Account credentials and recovery access
- Where backups are stored
- Whether backups are still occurring
- Whether storage is full or synchronization has stopped
- Whether the backup can actually be restored
- Who could recover the system if the usual person were unavailable
Take ten minutes.
Choose something important. Then ask:
- 01Where does it live?
- 02Is there another usable copy?
- 03When was that copy last updated?
- 04Is the backup still running?
- 05Could I actually restore it?
- 06Who else knows how to recover it?
- 07What happens if the primary copy disappears today?
You don't need a plan for every possible disaster.
You need fewer things that can disappear without a plan.
World Backup Day is an annual awareness campaign observed on March 31. worldbackupday.com