Data availability is a top priority for businesses today. Data availability is the state of having access to the data needed to do one’s job. This includes accessing the data in a timely manner, in the correct format, and with the appropriate permissions. Data availability is essential for all businesses but is especially critical for those in the financial services and healthcare industries. The best practices for using data availability include regular backups, cloud services, and a solid disaster recovery plan. Keep reading to learn more about the best practices for data availability.
Data Protection
Data availability is having data when and where you need it. This includes both the ability to access data quickly and easily as well as ensuring that data is not lost or corrupted. Ensuring data availability can be challenging for businesses of all sizes, but several best practices can help.
The first step in protecting your data is understanding where it’s stored and how it’s used. This requires a comprehensive inventory of all systems and applications that use or store data. Once you have this information, you can begin to put in place safeguards to protect it.
One common method for protecting data is using RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks). RAID combines multiple hard drives into one logical unit or storage device, allowing for greater storage capacity and improved performance. When used with appropriate redundancy levels, RAID can protect against drive failures, resulting in less downtime and data loss.
Another critical safeguard against data loss is regular backups. Backups should be created on a schedule that meets the needs of your business and should include all systems and applications that contain critical information. In addition, backups should be tested regularly to ensure their accuracy. Data corruption can also lead to lost or inaccessible data. One way to help protect against corruption is through proper storage media management practices. These include using quality media products from reputable manufacturers, keeping media clean and dry, storing them in appropriate conditions, and ensuring they are appropriately labeled.
A disaster recovery plan is essential to ensure data availability and data protection across your organization. Many factors can affect data availability. One of the most common is a power outage, so it’s important to have a backup power plan. This could include a backup generator or an uninterruptible power supply. Your plan should also include procedures for restoring critical systems and applications following a disaster event such as fire or flood damage. Having a plan in place will help minimize the impact an outage has on your business operations. Organizations should also consider using cloud-based services for data storage and backup. Cloud-based services can help improve data availability by providing redundant storage and backup options.
Define Your Availability Requirements
When defining your data availability requirements, you need to understand the applications and data that are most important to your business. You then create a plan for how you will protect these applications and data from outages. Once you have defined your availability requirements, you can start looking for solutions that meet these requirements. You may want to consider using a cloud provider or an on-premises solution.
Create a Reliable Data Architecture Plan
The first step in creating a reliable and available data architecture is to test and validate your plan. This includes testing your assumptions about how the system will be used and simulating failures and outages to see how the system reacts. One of the most critical aspects of validation is confirming that your backup and recovery plan works. You also need to ensure that your team is trained on using the new solution and is prepared for any potential outages.
You should also perform due diligence on any vendors or services you plan to use. Review their service level agreements (SLAs) to ensure they meet your requirements and ask for customer references to get an idea of their track record. When selecting vendors, you should consider their financial stability and business continuity plans.
Address Data Corruption and Loss
Data corruption can occur when there is a problem with the storage media or when information is improperly written to the disk. This can lead to lost data, which can be costly for businesses. The best way to prevent data corruption and loss is to use multiple redundant copies of your data and reliable backup and recovery methods. You should also ensure that your software is up-to-date and that you have robust security measures. By following these best practices, you can help ensure data protection, and businesses can minimize the chances of data loss and ensure that their data is always available when needed.
