In today's unpredictable business landscape, safeguarding data and ensuring business continuity have become paramount. Christina Wood, the Director of Product Marketing at OpenText, sheds light on crucial elements for building a resilient data backup and recovery plan. 

The Evolving Threat Landscape: The frequency of cyber-attacks is alarming, averaging 2,200 per day, or roughly one every 39 seconds. In the face of persistent cyber threats, geopolitical tensions, extreme weather events, and supply chain disruptions, a reliable and modern backup and recovery strategy is essential.

Key Elements of a Robust Strategy:

1. Plan with Restore in Mind:

• Understand regulatory compliance requirements.
• Classify data into limited categories.
• Consider stakeholder and insurance company requirements.
• Acknowledge that all critical data, regardless of location, is in scope.
• Keep the recovery process simple to ensure effectiveness even in panic mode.
• Be aware of potential costs if the restoration process fails.
• Regularly test recovery procedures.

Clearly define restore Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) based on specific requirements, including Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO).

2. Know the Requirements of True Backup:

• Adhere to the 3-2-1 rule: keep three copies of data, store on two different types of storage media, and maintain at least one copy offsite.
• Consider volume, performance, and budget constraints.
• Be cautious of tools lacking reliability and protection against misuse or theft.

For efficient and secure backups, consider direct transfer from the original data source to the backup target, eliminating the need for intermediate servers. Read also "10 Reasons for Backing Up Your Cloud Applications with OpenText Data Protector 24.1".

3. Follow Recovery Best Practices:

• Ensure the virtualization layer, authentication tools, and encryption keys are in order.
• Test regularly to validate restore and recovery processes.
• Simplify operations with a central console offering multiple restore options.
• Choose enterprise-level backup and recovery software with extensive integrations.

Self-Assessment: Evaluate your backup strategy:

• Are backups securely stored?
• Is your backup stored in a protected format?
• Does your solution consume excessive resources?
• Do you have well-defined and regularly tested restore plans?
• Is your restore process ready for panic-mode scenarios?

By addressing these key factors and embracing modern backup and recovery strategies, you can safeguard your data and ensure business continuity in an unpredictable world. See also success story "Surviving Disaster: How Connected Backup Shielded a Pharmacy from Two Ransomware Attacks".