Today I want to talk about backups. I’m not going to get into all the details about RPO and RTO but just the overall 50,000 foot level sentence that can help you make decisions about what you need.
Back in High School I used to work on older Diesel powered Mercedes Benz for my best Friend’s Dad, Kent. Kent had a way of teaching, he would explain things but often he would make you think about things and in his words “Dig Deep”. Boy it was frustrating back then to hear those words when you only wanted some help but now I realize he was always trying to teach me something and he know I would learn more when I figured it out myself instead of being helped or told how to do it.
I learned many life lessons over those summers but I often come back to the most important lesson he taught me with a simple sentence “What is the worst than can happen, and can you live with it?” If I had only known back then how that sentence alone could help you easily make a hard decision. Today I can’t remember what it was about, I’m sure it had something to do with deciding about doing a repair on my old Mercedes 240D now or later but I use that sentence all the time both in my personal and professional life.
Now this is a technology blog so lets cover the tech side. If I only do full backups once a day and the worst happens can the company live with it? If the answer is yes you are good if its no you need to dig deeper and setup a more comprehensive backup plan. Now that is an easy example but it can be applied to anything you do. Ask the question before you run an update, ask it when making changes, ask it when planning backup structure and schedules.
So I ask you now. What is the worst that can happen and can you live with it?
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