You're designing a database backup strategy. What's the most important thing to keep in mind?

A third consideration is the security of said backup. Backing up your baseball card collection is way different than backing up the patient records at John's Hopkins Hospital, the VA. NORAD or Sony pictures. The question "How bad would things get if these backups were stolen and restored on systems outside of my company without my knowledge or permission?" That pit in your stomach is your answer and the clue to how diligent you must be in this situation

Additionally, Rehearsing the restore activity from time to time will help the team in touch with all the steps. This is crucial where there is attrition in the team or when there are new joiners. Rehearsal should be one of the objectives.

The heart of a solid backup plan lies in defining clear recovery objectives. This involves setting specific goals for how quickly you need to get your systems back up (Recovery Time Objective, RTO) and how much recent data you can afford to lose (Recovery Point Objective, RPO). These benchmarks are vital for aligning your backup strategy with the overall business continuity plan.

The most important question is - when you need to restore the backup - will you be able to do it within RTO/RPO limits ? In cloud the vendor will do this but on-prem think the following edge cases. 1. logistics - bandwidth to restore 2. Extra backup copies if media is damaged. 3. Check for corruption - your data may have a corruption that was backed up - no point restoring that. 4. Cybersecurity - if you have been attacked with ransomware, chances are they encrypted your backup also.

There will always be some loss of data. This is due to differential backup frequencies. In enterprise-scale applications, even a few seconds of outage can cause the loss of thousands of messages. Replay of ETL processes is an important aspect of full data recovery once the Backup is online.

It's like deciding on the right safety gear for a hike. Full backups are your comprehensive gear, capturing everything but taking up more space and time. Incremental backups are like packing light, saving only recent changes and being kinder on storage. Differential backups find the middle ground, noting what's changed since your last full gear-up. Each has its place, depending on the terrain (or data landscape) you're navigating.

This is all about balance. Imagine trying to decide how often to check the weather forecast when planning an outdoor event. Backup too often, and you might bog down your system; too infrequently, and you risk being caught in a storm. The key is to match your backup frequency to the importance of your data and how much change it sees.

Keeping your backups in a secure, yet reachable spot, away from your main data stash, is like having an emergency kit in both your car and your home. If something goes wrong in one place, you're covered because you've got a backup elsewhere. Cloud storage or dedicated off-site spots can be great options, offering both security and flexibility.

It's like doing a trial run of an emergency drill. You want to be sure that, when the time comes, everything works as it should. Regularly testing your backup process is the only way to catch any snags before they become real issues, ensuring your safety net is strong and reliable.