3-2-1

No, not the 1970’s and 80’s TV show where cack fingered host Ted Rogers (a former Butlins RedCoat would you believe!) invited couples to get through a quiz, decode almost indecipherable cameos and avoid winning a ceramic dustbin based on the shows real star (for me anyway) Dusty.

Unfortunately, you need to look elsewhere (try https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-2-1 including some classic examples of the madness that was TV in my youth) for your kicks, because the 3-2-1 I’m referring to here is the strategy you should adhere to in backing up your data.

So, try to hide your disappointment and read my take on the tale of woe that Kings College London experienced in October last year.

The background to all this has been closely followed by The Register and those of you who are LinkedIn to me will have seen my posts over the past months questioning various aspects of the detail as it escaped.

Now, we have a leaked (?) report from PA Consulting with some typically ‘El Reg’ commentary to brighten your day (the comments section alone is worth a read).

I won’t delve into the report or the precis of the contents – I’ll leave that to you – however, I will add my 10 cents worth because I know KCL aren’t alone in this.

We all have data, that’s a given, however, what we do with it can determine if we succeed or fail if things go wrong, and they invariably do.

1. Now, I know you spent a lot of money on the shiny storage box, but for goodness sake do not partition off a chunk of it for backups. If that hardware fails you lose everything and your backups. Genius. Not.
2. If you find a critical update that should be applied to anything, it should be applied. That includes firmware. Firmware? Ok, you have hardware (the bits you can kick) you have software (the bits you can swear at when they don’t work) and you have firmware which is low level software that lets the hardware run the other software so you can swear at it. Firmware causes the text to scroll up the screen when you turn your computer on and before you see the penguin, flag or apple depending on your preferred vendor. It also contains bugs which are updated from time to time.

Almost anything you plug in and use contains firmware, so switches, routers, mobile phones, computers and printers (in the interest of being unbiased, other devices are available) and manufacturers often update these. Your support company should, but probably won’t unless you ask them, update this for you.

1. If you see an error message deal with it. My home network is riddled with error messages and I ignore them. I then moan like crazy when the whatever it is finally fails and I have to fix it properly. Some error messages are important though and ones suggesting your tape backup failed are pretty urgent. You never know when you need them and it is sods law that the Friday afternoon you go home early and didn’t run the cleaning cartridge through the system before pushing the next tape in is the start of the weekend where a dragon pops round and lays waste to your building.
2. Understand what needs to be done and do it. You do need to backup your data, it is critical. Why are there so many companies offering to help you do it? Because its important and lots of other people want to do it properly.

And that brings us full circle to Ted Rogers and dusty bin (and I never anticipated typing that today as I drove to work!)…

The 3-2-1 backup rule implies that you should:

1. Have at least 3 copies of your data
2. Keep these backups on 2 different media
3. Store 1 backup offsite 

3 copies of your data because it is important, 1 that is live and in use, another copy on your network so if something is deleted you can get it back quickly and another in archival format – either on tape or using our Cloud Backup Managed Service.

2 different types of media because if one type fails you have the other type to fall back on. It’s like having a bicycle and legs. If you can’t cycle, there you can walk. You still get there. Or a bus or a taxi. Or an aeroplane and a horse… your choice.

1 backup off site because the site might not be there in the morning. And if you must backup to tape, for goodness sake read the storage instructions. You wouldn’t leave a chicken in the boot of the car over a summer weekend and expect it to be edible? Tapes are much more delicate if not treated well, but, not bad if the simple instructions are followed. Oh, and they aren’t left on the tube… You know who you are…

It seems that for various reasons KCL broke a lot of these rules and paid the price for it in that a lot of data was irretrievably lost. And if you relay on your data for income that can cost a lot more than the invoice costs you send out.

In all seriousness, there is a very simple way to understand if you, or your third party support company, are doing the right thing; just give us a call and talk. We might suggest a visit, but, we will understand your environment, business drivers and processes and evaluate them for you. We can highlight risk areas and suggest solutions. All for free.

Why not sleep well tonight knowing your data is safe.