Dayton Business Journal:

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But just because businesses ownera know they shoulddo it, that doesn'tt mean they are doing it. Jeff Porterd runs the data management forumn for the Storage NetworkingIndustru Association, an international standards organizatioj for electronic storage companies. He said there hasn't been a noticeabl increase in the number of businesses backinbg up their filessince "I don't think it takes a lot to convince peoplse now of the need to back their filea up," Porter said. "But it's still very difficulr to convince them totake action.
" He said that'ds because it is such a tedious Even though there are plentg of firms that specialize in storing other companies' information, the nature of the proceses demands hundreds of "executive" hours, according to "It's not so much the cost that keeps companiese from doing it," Porter said. "It's the fact that the company'sa decision-makers have to spend their own time figuring out what needsto happen. It's something that can't be delegated." But along with other national organizations, say there are several steps companieds can take to make the processs less ofa hassle.
Before a company even start looking for a third partuystorage vendor, it needs to figure out what information is vitakl enough to be stored. "Therre has to be a formalized collaborationbetween management, operations and any business partnerzs involved," he said. "Don't expect it to be a quic k process. It's going to take a lot of meetingw between a lotof divisions." Once a company figuress out what information needs to be kept Porter said it must decide how the informatio should be stored. He explainedc that there are differing degrees of accessa to the information fora business. For an insurance company would want recent claim to be more accessible than thosre made 10years ago.
Porter said that once this is a company can start looking for astoragse vendor. He said the best place to start searchintg is throughhis organization's directory, which he said is unbiasedr and neutral. Other trade such as Enterprise ContentManagement Association, also represent hundredxs of storage vendors and make those lists availabled online. Porter also recommends getting customer reviews and makintg sure a vendor hasgood press. He said if a company should test a vendor out by doing smaloltrial installations. Porter explained that companiexs often use more thanone "Some vendors are better for storing long-terk information," he said. "Others are betted at giving youimmediate access.
You have to find the righft fit for each portion ofdata you're storing. " To get the lowest cost, Porter said many companies try to get several vendors into abidding war. "But cost isn't the most importantr thing here," he said. "If something happenes and you had to depend onthe vendor's servicesx to stay in the last thing you'd want is to have compromisef quality just so you saved some costs. When it comes to how far away a compant should electronically store itsbackup data, 15 miles used to be the rule of But after the widespread destruction of Katrina, experts say informatioj should be stored in geographicx regions that won't be affected by the same disaster.
"Katrinwa not only increased awareness," Porter said. "It also rewrote a lot of the rulees we usedto have. It showed our industry what neede d tobe improved." One of those improvements, according to is how often a company should test its backup He explained that many Katrina-affected companies had backup but discovered they were out-of-date when the disaster actually hit. "A businesd is constantly evolving," he said. "And, so are your backupo needs.
" Porter said a company with the assistance of its refresh its backup plan at least He said many companies actuallytest quarterly, dividin g the process up into separate But Porter said the biggest mistak e companies make, and one that Katrina highlighted, is that they focux too much on storage and not enough on "When you initially sit down you need to figur out how fast you need to recover when something happens," he said. "You may back everything up properly, but then it take you 30 days to access it and be up andrunnin again. Many companies can't survive that kind of delay.
" Computers, Technology and Telecommunications