Data Backup, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: What’s the Difference?” – Part 2: Determining What You Need

In our last blog, we talked about the differences between the terms Data Backup, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, which are commonly – and mistakenly – used interchangeably today. This week we are covering how you determine what you need, now that you understand the differences.

In Part 1, we explained that Data Backup is about saving data, Disaster Recovery includes what to do with that data and how to get back from a major event, and Business Continuity is really about continuance or the timing of a recovery. So now that you know what they are, how do you figure out what you need?

In order to figure that out, you need to understand four additional terms:

Recovery Time Objective or RTO: The amount of time it takes to get a system back to a useable state (future)

Recovery Point Objective or RPO: The amount of work you can afford to lose (past)

Retention: Versions of recent historical backups kept available for restore

Archiving: Usually a searchable system for storing rarely accessed data

To figure out what your organization needs, you need to ask yourself these three key questions:

1. Do you have a copy of your data? – Data Backup
2. How do you go about bringing that copy of your data online? – Disaster Recovery
3. How do your users access the data? – Business Continuity

The good news is that Evolve IP has cloud-based solutions for Data Backup, DR and BC. In order to engage in a discussion about these products, we encourage our customers to consider the RTO and RPO of their various systems and data sets.

For more in-depth information on this topic, and how to determine your organization’s needs, watch the video of our recent round-table discussion “Data Backup, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: What’s the Difference?”

About Scott Kinka

I've spent almost my entire career devising new and simpler ways for companies to acquire and integrate technology. While all of the tech talk these days is about the cloud, I was doing this when it was called ASP (application service provider) or on-demand. Before I joined Evolve IP as Chief Technology Officer, I served as Vice President of Network Services for Broadview Networks and ATX Communications. I've been involved in application development, hosting, messaging, networking, unified communications, contact centers, and security. My mission (and my specialty) is acting as a translator between technology and business needs. I've spent my entire life in and around Philadelphia, having attended La Salle and Temple University for my undergraduate and graduate studies. When I'm not acting as a tech nerd, I'm taking requests at the piano or I'm out on the soccer field. But if you see me there, call me Coach K.