Celebrating World Backup Day - What’s MFT Got to Do With It?

Right after the beginning of Spring, and before we celebrate April Fool’s Day, there’s another holiday that is incredibly important to recognize. One that specifically celebrates your data…World Backup Day.

World Backup Day is a globally recognized day that reminds us to backup our important files—and emphasizes good data hygiene. Data loss is a common issue that organizations and individuals face because of human error, cybersecurity issues, or even natural disasters.

Just as it’s important to train employees to practice good cybersecurity behavior, it’s equally important to emphasize the value of regularly backing up the company’s data.

How can you ensure your backup is up to date, especially when integrated with your file transfer processes? And what does your file transfer environment have to do with your backup process?

Good news: Most managed file transfer (MFT) solutions work well with backup processes already in place. Most MFT technologies integrate with and leverage a variety of data storage platforms like those offered by Microsoft, NetApp, or Hadoop. The process of backing up data can be easily facilitated by a MFT solution, through automated data transfer workflows.

Related Reading: What is Managed File Transfer (MFT)?

For example, if a healthcare organization has a process in place that securely sends an electronic health record to another facility where additional testing or care is taking place, there may be an automated rule to store that file locally at the testing facility. Keeping data safe when in transit or at rest is essential, especially when complying with regulations like HIPAA or HITECH.

A common misconception with any backup process is that just because you’ve backed up, your data will be safe and secure.

It’s critical to check the configuration of data storage and backup processes with any MFT solution that is implemented, to ensure that your data is not being put at risk anywhere in the process.

Just like any IT best practice, it’s important to test a backup regularly and ensure that it’s working correctly. Regular testing and validation is essential before relying on a backup tied to the data exchange environment, data transfer and storage processes. Trusting data like proprietary product details, customer history, payment methods, etc. to a MFT solution managed backup process should include regular maintenance and upkeep.

If you already have a backup process in place, with or without a MFT solution, today is a good day to consider auditing your processes to make sure the most important systems and data are tied to the appropriate backups and are accessible or usable, should you need them.

Three Backup Audit Best Practices

1. Typical best practices require that the SITE root be included in the corporate backup strategy. Enterprise or basic backup solutions normally run on a schedule and create copies or incremental updates to a backup set.
2. Best practices also dictate that your hosting operating system be backed up. In most cases the Intel or Windows Server Administration Team has a predefined standard for backup and recovery of the server OS.
3. A MFT solution’s configuration and settings are normally scheduled for application backups. However, if you don’t already have this set up, you can use the MFT solution logic to create archives or backups of individual files.
   1. Pro tip - just keep in mind that backups may not be included on all components of a MFT solution. The Hosting OS, MFT Configuration, and SITE or Root Storage all get backed up individually.    

Are you concerned that your backup system might not be supporting your environment?

A MFT solution can be a great addition to simplify, automate, and secure your backup processes. Learn more about how Globalscape Enhanced File Transfer (EFT) can enhance your data exchange environment. And if you just have questions regarding MFT and backups, be sure to reach out to the Globalscape Support team. We also have a number of articles in our Knowledge Base that can provide more specifics on our solutions and backup.

Happy World Backup Day from Globalscape!