When was the last time you checked or updated your backup software?
Having a backup solution in the first place is, of course, a positive thing. It adds a layer of resilience to your business, ensuring you can recover from any incident with speed. This is a great practice to have in place and means you can focus on running your business and providing your services to your clients.
However, just having a backup solution isn’t enough in the long term.
Looking after a backup solution can be complicated. It involves several different components, that all need regular attention, maintenance, and updates.
Client machines, Backup Servers, and Storage devices all need to be kept up to date with the latest software and security patches. Some will also need an Operating System that has the latest patches. Hardware devices will occasionally need firmware updates.
Why You Should Be Doing Backup Software Updates
The older a software gets, the more of a security risk it can be, due to the software’s code being exposed to the public for longer. This potentially gives people with malicious intent more time to work around the security in the coding.
Updating your backups software helps to mitigate this.
Another benefit of having all your backup infrastructure on the latest versions is that components will talk to each other in the most efficient manner, which can give you better performance.
Combined this will give you the best Reliability, Security, and Performance for your backup solution.
What Should You Check For Updates?
Below is a small summary of some of the key areas you might want to make sure are updated to the latest versions. Bear in mind, you might need to check compatibility issues between the versions for different parts of your infrastructure.
Client Machines
- Client backup software or agent
- Operating System
- Anti-Virus
- Security
Backup servers
- Operating System
- Backup software
- Anti-Virus
- Security
Storage devices
- Operating System / Firmware
- Anti-Virus
- Security
If your backup software is not up to date, then you should consider a managed backup service. These services are aimed at helping Service Providers deliver backup services to their own clients. Typically, the updating, monitoring, and reporting will all be done by the Managed Backup Provider.
Backup Update Checklist
We have created a free resource that gives some information on updating your backup, and also gives you a checklist, that you can use. With the goal that if you can tick off every element on there, then most aspects of your backup should be up to date!
You can get this checklist here: https://hahosting.com/backup-up-to-date/
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