Backup Migration Considerations

You’ve got every right to be concerned if you are in the position of moving your organization to a new backup solution. Your company’s data is at stake, and there’s few assets that are more important to a business. Usually organizations don’t opt to change backup software because they want to, rather it’s more likely that they’ve been pushed into the situation due to a specific issue. Whatever the reason, sometimes change is necessary and for the better.

Possible Reasons for a Backup Migration

1. Organization has adopted new technologies that the backup doesn't support
2. Technical support is lacking or non-existant
3. Current solution is too slow / not completing within backup window
4. Current solution is unable to scale along with the data growth
5. Backup solution is no longer supported or being updated
   

Of course there are many other reasons that it might be time to make a change. Maybe you haven’t even settled on your new backup solution yet, and that’s OK. There’s plenty of preparatory work that can be accomplished in the meantime.

Analysis

The first thing to do is take a long hard look at what you’ve been doing for backup until now, regardless of whether it’s meeting your needs or not. Do you know where all your data is currently stored and is your backup process with the current solution properly documented? A process should be in place which separates data for critical operations from data destined for long term storage. And regarding data retention; is it time to make adjustments to ensure regulatory compliance?

You’re also going to want to analyze your current hardware, bandwidth and storage infrastructure and decide if it is going to meet the needs of your new solution for the foreseeable future. If moving data to the cloud is new territory for you, then significant cost analysis and testing may also be in order.

Testing and Training

When we talk about testing, it goes well beyond making sure that a new solution meets your minimum requirements. A period of training gives system administrators an opportunity to get comfortable with the new solution which will be absolutely necessary for replicating old backup routines or building superior ones in this environment.

Forced change can lead to poorly implemented solutions and a lack of preparedness. But embracing change as an opportunity to reexamine your most likely data-loss scenarios, and preparing your restore response, can make the difference between a quick recovery and significant damage

We invite you to download a whitepaper that aims to make your transition to a new backup as smooth as possible..

Download NovaBACKUP’s Tips for Backup Solution Migration today for a closer look at the things you should be thinking about well in advance.

NovaBACKUP’s team of backup engineers work side-by-side with system administrators, assisting with backup solution migrations so that customers are never left to “go it alone”.

Start testing a NovaBACKUP solution in your environment today.