Backup Cycle Example

Organise your backup strategy based on weekly and monthly cycles.

The weekly cycle will ensure you can call on your information as far back as 3 weeks and your monthly will allow you to call back on your data as far back as 12 months. The cost of backup media can be insignificant compared to the costs of data loss or an extended recovery.

Daily: Backup every day Monday to Thursday (this should include Friday if the practice is open 6 days per week or Friday and Saturday if the practice is open 7 days). Each day's media will be overwritten on the same day next week.

Weekly: Take a full backup at the end of the working week. This backup is executed on Friday, Saturday or Sunday depending on the days worked per week. Ensure you have media for Weeks 2 and 3 (and Week 4 for 5 week months). Each weekly media will be overwritten on the same week next month. The last week of the month (Week 4 or 5) you will need a monthly backup

Monthly: Take a full backup for the last working day of the last week of the month. This may be a Friday, Saturday or Sunday depending on days worked. This end-of-month media should be labelled with the name of the month and securely stored.

Example: The backup cycle below is for a 5 day working week and caters for a 5 week month. One extra Media would be required for a 6 day week, an extra 2 for a 7 day week.

• Rotate backup media on Monday to Thursday (4 media required)
• Have 4 Weekly media available (to accommodate 5 week months)
• Have 12 Monthly media.
• 20 media required for 5-day working week, 21 for a 6-day week, 22 for a 7-day week.