93% of companies that suffer a data center loss or failure for more than ten days file for bankruptcy within a year.

According to Uptime Institute’s 2022 Data Center Resiliency Survey, 80% of data center managers and operators experienced some outage in the past three years. Notably, over 60% of these failures resulted in losses exceeding $100,000, with 15% incurring costs over $1 million.

A 2023 analysis by ProSource indicates that downtime costs have risen to approximately $9,000 per minute, with larger organisations facing losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour.

If that doesn’t spell trouble yet, let’s get a close look at these data loss facts:

• 50% of data restore attempts fail due to improper backup management, and the failure rate for complete data backup is 75%
• Less than 10% of businesses back up their data daily
• According to Uptime Institute’s 2022 Data Center Resiliency Survey, 80% of data center managers and operators experienced some outage in the past three years. Notably, over 60% of these failures resulted in losses exceeding $100,000, with 15% incurring costs over $1 million.
• A 2023 analysis by ProSource indicates that downtime costs have risen to approximately $9,000 per minute, with larger organisations facing losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour.

Hence the question: Is your database secure and reliable?

Automated database backups are an essential solution for modern enterprises. Relying solely on humans, who are error-prone and inconsistent, for your data backup might lead to unintended consequences.

Read on to learn more about why you need an automated database backup.

What is an Automated Database Backup?

Simply put, an automated database backup is a process of backing up and storing the architecture, operational state, and data without user involvement. The automated process is typically scheduled at a time when access to the data and services is minimal to reduce the impact on the business.

With enterprises leveraging hybrid, on-site, and cloud server infrastructures, simple manual solutions for protection are not sufficient. It has never been enough to merely have a server admin manually monitoring your data center, backing up the data and operational procedures, or securing your entire architecture. You need an automated solution that’s consistent without bias and errors.

Why Are Automated Backups Important for Your Business?

Now that you know what an automated data backup entails, let’s find out why businesses need it:

• Disaster recovery: 23% of enterprises have had at least one server outage resulting in loss of business revenue, according to Spiceworks. In the midst of these, having a solution on hand to mitigate the situation is a no-brainer. When there’s data loss, the fear of data recovery failure becomes a serious concern. An automated backup and data recovery ensures that all data is safe and available without experiencing massive amounts of downtime or interruptions in workflow.
• Data migration: For businesses planning to migrate to new software or tech, you want to do so without losing data, customers, or revenue. Migrating your data from one source to another becomes easier when you have a backup in place.
• Data security: The primary importance of any backup is to protect data. No enterprise wants to experience data loss or damage without having the necessary recovery process. Even with that, you’ll find that most enterprises with manual backup procedures fail to do so daily, resulting from neglect and, eventually, human errors.
• Audits and Accountability: When you fail to secure your data, you essentially fail your customers. An automated process provides step-by-step documentation and historical logs. You will have confidence that backups are consistently being performed.
• Save Time: If you’re not quick to respond to server data issues with timely and reliable backup software, you’ll lose credibility and may even end up in legal trouble. With an automated solution, you can quickly address database issues and take action accordingly.

The Backup Process: Secure Your Infrastructure

There are a couple of procedures that occur during a backup process. Let’s have a look:

• Stopping services: Some services require stopping before performing a backup. Here, the backup software disables these services from performing database updates while the backup is being performed.
• Backup creation: At this stage, the backup is carried out based on your requirements, which may include tables, full databases, and/or files.
• Starting services: After the backup is completed, the previously stopped services are started as required.
• Compression: Backup compression can significantly reduce the size of your data, resulting in faster file transfers and less device I/O usage.
• Encryption (as required): If required, you can encrypt the data on the backup for better security and protection from theft, misplacement, and other forms of data compromise.
• Storage: The backup would ideally be stored on additional storage devices used for keeping backup data. This storage device is typically external to the system where the backup is taken. See the 3-2-1 Back Rule for an efficient technique of backup storage.
• Rotation of old backups: Backup rotation involves deleting an old backup whenever you create a new one so that you maintain a fixed number of backups. Backup rotation schemes include First In First Out and Grandfather-Father-Son.
• Notification of results (success/failure): Fine, you’ve backed up your data, but how do you know if the entire process was a success or failure? With the automated database backup software, you’ll receive notifications on the backup status, ensuring that you’re always one step ahead in protecting your data.

Automate and Schedule The Backup Process

AttuneOps is a server automation software that you can use to automate your database backup processes. For instance, you can use AttuneOps to back up a MySQL database on Windows and perform daily, weekly, and monthly rotation cycles.

Additionally, you can leverage other business-critical features on AttuneOps to make your enterprise workflows more efficient. Some of these include:

• Oracle patch management
• Server health monitoring
• Server compliance checks
• Server patch management
• Powershell automation
• Agentless configuration management

To learn more about how you can effortlessly back up your database, get started on AttuneOps.

Automated Database Backups : Frequently Asked Questions