Five Ways Image-Based Backup is Better for Your Business

Think for a moment about the data your business generates on a daily basis. It’s probably a fair amount, but it’s actually only a tiny portion of all the data generated worldwide.

The creation and storage of data is happening at a staggering rate. It’s estimated that by 2020 (just three years from now) there will be 1.7 megabytes of new information created per second for each person on the planet. What’s more, a third of this data will exist in the cloud.

Image Based backup is better

As we move through this brave new world of data generation, it’s important to protect that data. Like cash flow, data is a critical aspect of business operations. How would your business operate if you didn’t have access to your data? Fortunately, this is where your backup strategy can work in your favor. The right type of backup will help to mitigate downtime and allow you to continue to operate, even if your business is disrupted by a catastrophic event.

The best backup strategy by far, and the one that Lieberman Technologies recommends, is an image-based backup.

What is Image-Based Backup?

At its most basic, the preservation of data has two components: backups and restores.

Imagine being able to take a snapshot of all your data and then saving it. That’s essentially what image-based backup does. It preserves a copy of a machine’s operating system, including system state and application configurations, as well as the data associated with that machine. The information captured in this copy is saved as a single file known as an image. Each image represents a single point in time, which allows a restore of a specific file at a specific point if necessary.

Typically, multiple servers store copies of these image files, in the event that one or more servers are inaccessible.  If a business experiences a natural disaster or falls victim to ransomware, they can restore the image backup prior to this event and pick right up where they left off. Image-based backups allow this to happen quickly and with minimal downtime.

Five Benefits of Image-Based Backup

  1. Faster recovery

When you experience a data disaster, you want to get back up and running as quickly as possible. Because image-based backups are full images of data on a workstation or server, recovery is a matter of identifying a point in time for restoration.

  1. Recovery regardless of hardware

If equipment fails, restoring data from an image-based backup is not dependent on replacement with identical hardware. This allows a business to upgrade equipment if necessary instead of searching for compatible older devices.

  1. Granular control of backup

Image-based backups allow you to restore something as singular as a corrupted file on a workstation or something as extensive as an entire server or branch office.

  1. Remote recovery

Data disasters often don’t have the courtesy to occur while someone is on site to handle them. With image-based backup, you can restore data without needing to be on-site. In the event of a disaster that damages your facilities, you can be back up and running at a different location with minimal disruption.

  1. Management from a central location

IT management can be tricky in companies with branch offices or remote locations. Image-based backups allow for the management of company data from a central location. If a data disaster occurs at an outlying location, recovery can take place without IT staff needing to travel to that location. Each remote office benefits from the same high standards employed at the main office.

Protecting Your Business Data with the Best Kind of Backup

Downtime is devastating to businesses that don’t properly prepare for it. The data generated by most businesses is as critical to their success as the product or service they provide. Protecting that data is a crucial component to business continuity.

An effective business continuity strategy includes a backup solution that provides your business with rapid access to its data in the event of a disaster. If you want to know more about image-based backups, contact Lieberman Technologies. We can help you develop a business continuity strategy that allows your business to remain in operation no matter what challenges you face.