A few piece of advice on taking backups

We understand that taking timely backups is necessary for your organization. Here's a piece of advice on taking backups:

• The more important the data that is stored on the computer the greater the need is for backing up this data.
• A backup is only as useful as its associated restore strategy.
• Storing the copy near the original is unwise, since many disasters such as fire, flood and electrical surges are likely to cause damage to the backup at the same time.
• Automated backup and scheduling should be considered, as manual backups can be affected by human error.
• Backups will fail for a wide variety of reasons. A verification or monitoring strategy is an important part of a successful backup plan.
• It is good to store backed up archives in open/standard formats. This helps with recovery in the future when the software used to make the backup is obsolete. It also allows different software to be used.