Document Management and Data Backup

It is amazing how often data backup is left off the planning list when it comes to Document Management, Enterprise Content Management and Digital Imaging. For larger scanning projects, creating 600MB per 4-drawer file cabinet can wreak havoc on even a robust backup system.

When planning for backup, there are several areas on which to focus:

Size of Data Repository - You need to take into account the size of your repository today, and perform some projections to estimate the size as years go by. This will help decide which backup technology you will need to choose to support your backup and restore operations.

Speed of the Backup Technology - This is so important, and yet often overlooked. You can have massive backup storage capabilities, but if you only transfer 1 MB to tape every hour, your backups will never finish. When examining backup options, do some quick pencil math, and figure out how much data transfer you will require to complete the backups.

Recovery - How will you recover your data in the case of a disaster? Remember, if your server room burns down, and you were using a $5,000 tape drive to backup, you will need to have another $5,000 tape drive to recover data once you rebuild your server room. Other technologies can offer recovery capabilities without requiring a specific piece of hardware to recover your data.

Testing - Always test both backup and recovery to make sure your data store is complete. Also, perform some testing before you go live to uncover any issues you might have in other areas, sucsh as network bottlenecks, etc.

There are many areas that are vital in planning for a Document Management System, and backup and recovery are essential.

For more specific information on backup options, I have another article on specific backup technologies Document Management Data Backup Options