Take it from this sleep deprived, first-time father: Don’t let another World Backup Day come and go without understanding the risks. Otherwise, you may end up learning your lesson the hard way. Like me.
It’s been nearly 365 days since the last World Backup Day, and we’ve got a lot to discuss.
Let’s see, I completed my annual rewatch of The Sopranos. I took a deep dive into the SEC’s new cybersecurity rules and the nature of “materiality.” My wife and I finally agreed on a new sectional for the living room. What else …
OH YEAH AND WE HAD A KID.
Like I said, it’s been quite the year. Oh, you thought I meant discuss, like, the modern data landscape and the increasing relevance of World Backup Day? No, you’re right. I apologize. Don’t worry, my fellow WBD-blog enthusiast. You’ll get what you came for — eventually.
But, first, you should know that as a freshly-minted parent, I’m obligated — mentally, emotionally, spiritually, biologically, contractually, and any other “-allys” you can think of — to insert my child into any and every conversation, no matter how unrelated they appear to be. Listen, I know that’s frustrating, and maybe even a little confusing. But I don’t make the rules, nor do I fully understand them.
All I know is, one day a doctor placed that beautiful baby girl in my hands and said, “She is the only thing you can think or talk about from now on. Doesn’t matter if it’s your birthday, Christmas Day, or World Backup Day.” At least I think that’s what happened. My memory is a little hazy these days, though I can’t imagine why.
Regardless, there is a method to my madness. You see, if my foray into fatherhood has taught me anything, it’s the importance of having a backup plan.
World Backup Day, 2024
While many of the best ideas — like my daughter, for example — are meticulously planned and artfully crafted from the beginning, others germinate seemingly by accident. World Backup Day is one of those.
As the story goes, WBD was born out of regret. The idea came about when some poor soul took to Reddit (as poor souls are prone to do) to lament the loss of a hard drive, which, tragically, had not been backed up. If only they had been more prepared …
From that simple, yet visceral post emerged a global effort to prevent such regret. That is why we now set aside March 31 — the day before April Fools — to remind all who will listen to be prepared for data loss and theft. As they say: Don’t be fooled into not backing up your data!
As WBD stretches into its second full decade of existence in 2024, individuals and organizations alike would be wise to heed its call to action. In fact, World Backup Day and the vigilance it promotes is more important now than ever before. Trust me, I would know.
I’m a dad now, remember?
What’re the Chances?
There are seven steps between my daughter’s changing table and our tub. Just seven. I know because I’ve counted them. Each night the two of us make this quick journey, her in my arms, on our way to bath time. The seven steps almost always come and go without incident, or really much thought at all.
The key word there, of course, being “almost.”
When my daughter was born, my wife and I agreed upon a certain daily division of labor in order to keep our lives (sorta) functioning. Bath time became one of my nightly rituals, and on most nights it’s a joyous one. I splash, my daughter giggles (and splashes), and we sing along to Taylor Swift. But early on it presented a rather strange dilemma — one I had never had to consider before because I never had a kid before.
This is parenthood in a nutshell. It’s also where I truly learned the importance of having a backup plan. You see, I had run into an order of operations problem. Do I skip the changing tab and bring my daughter straight to the tub — which could get messy and require more arms than I currently possess — or do I change her and make the trip from table to tub, braving the seven steps with her in my arms and in nothing but her bath time attire? I think you know where this is going.
I won’t deny it — I knew the risks. My wife, to her credit, pointed them out on more than one occasion. I was playing with fire, she said. “Oh, I know,” I would reply. “But it’s only seven steps! What’re the chances?!” Talk about famous last words. Sure enough, one evening it happened. Babies wear diapers for a reason, apparently.
Laugh at my brazenness turned foolishness all you want, but this is exactly how so many of us treat our data. We play with fire, saying things like “What’re the chances?!” only to get burned. There are steps we can take to ensure our data is protected. Backup and recovery plans to put in place. The puzzling part is why so many of us don’t.
For example, recent 11:11 research revealed that despite working diligently to evolve business needs and battle increasing threats to critical data like ransomware, disaster recovery solutions and testing remain somewhat of an afterthought for many organizations. The report, “When Plan B Goes Wrong: Avoiding the Pitfalls of DRaaS” surveyed 150 technical and business decision makers from organizations drawn from a wide cross-section of U.S. enterprises. The objectives were to establish what DR systems organizations currently have in place, how often plans are tested, and whether enterprises are confident in their ability to recover from disaster as swiftly and easily as possible. The results were, well, quite unsettling.
Despite two-thirds of those surveyed experiencing an outage within the last 12 months, just over half had a documented, company-wide DR plan in place. Barely half of those surveyed were testing annually, some at even less frequent intervals. Seven percent did not test their DR at all.
Take it from me, a father who got peed on because he didn’t think it would happen to him. This is why WBD exists.
Mo Data Mo Problems
The first WBD was celebrated in 2011 — or 34 iPhone models, 27 Marvel movies, three U.S. Presidents, one pandemic, and my first-born child ago. Suffice it to say, our world (mine in particular) looks a lot different these days. As does our data.
For starters, we have a lot more of it now. From 2011 to 2023, the total amount of data created worldwide increased by 115 zettabytes, according to Statista. That total is expected increase by another 65 zettabytes, reaching more than 180 by 2025.
(For reference, a zettabyte is a billion terabytes. Think about it this way: If every terabyte in a zettabyte were a kilometer, it would be equivalent to 1,300 round trips to the moon. Go ahead and multiply that by 92 and you’ll start getting a sense of the amount of data we’re talking about.)
As data increases, so does its value to us. Medical records, financial statements, confidential employee information, classified government documents, pictures of your pets, all of it living electronically somewhere. A pessimist might choose to frame this another way: The more data we have, the more data we have to lose. As the Notorious B.I.G. would say, “Mo Data Mo Problems.”
Today, the pain associated with losing data — because of human error, hardware failure, natural disaster, or theft — has become almost ubiquitous. Even my 85-year-old grandparents (generally) understand the importance of backing up their photos to the cloud. While losing family photographs can be frustrating, even saddening, the financial, legal, and reputational ramifications associated with data loss can be catastrophic for businesses, governments, and other large organizations.
And here’s the final rub: As the amount and value of data increases, so will attempts to steal and/or compromise it. Those who pay attention to recent headlines already know this to be true. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, global cybercrime costs are expected to grow by 15 percent year over year. By 2025, the damages are predicted to reach $10.5 trillion annually, up from $3 trillion in 2015. That would represent the greatest transfer of economic wealth in human history — exponentially larger than costs associated with natural disasters and more profitable than the global sale of all major illegal drugs combined. Yikes.
Back(up) to the Basics
The unfortunate truth of our time is this: It’s not a matter of if, but when, we will experience some sort of data loss.
Data can be accidentally deleted or become corrupted. Viruses, physical damage, or formatting errors can render it unreadable by both humans and software. Cyber attacks are not only growing in sum, but also sophistication and severity, with criminals finding new and creative ways to reach our data.
It increasingly looks like data loss — at least for a time — is inevitable.
In light of this reality, remember my bath time mistake, or rather, remember just how important the message of World Backup Day actually is. The need for secure, reliable backup and recovery has never been more paramount, especially for critical industries like healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, government, education, and transportation. There’s simply no room for “What’re the chances?!” scenarios that end in data loss and regret.
Backups can truly make a difference when protecting your critical data. To get started, organizations should ensure that they’re abiding by the golden rule of data protection: the 3-2-1-1-0 rule of backups.
This rule stipulates that you should keep:
- THREE copies of data
- On TWO different types of media
- With ONE backup copy offsite
- And ONE copy that is offline and immutable
- While verifying that your backup has ZERO errors
As data loss events become more unpredictable, the need for an air-gapped/hardened backup target has also become a must-have. Many ransomware varieties or malicious processes will now attempt to delete or encrypt backup data. Ensuring your organization’s backups are protected from such threats is vital. The good news is that with a little extra initiative, there are reasons to believe that our data can be protected and retrievable when needed. Luckily, today’s backup and recovery solutions are simple to manage, affordable, flexible, and non-intrusive.
So let’s end this WBD blog where it began: With me struggling to not talk about my kid. Listen, I totally understand if your first instinct is to tune out my new-parent blathering. That’s exactly what I would’ve done before having a kid of my own.
(Wow. *momentarily overwhelmed by existential self realization* I guess Harvey Dent WAS right: You do either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. I guess it figures that villain would be a tech blogger.)
Ignore my parental advice and musings if you must, but please don’t dismiss the importance of backing up your data. If you do, well, let’s just say it could ruin a whole lot more than bath time. This World Backup Day, make sure you have the right backup and recovery solutions in place. Protect your data wherever it lives with 11:11 Systems. You won’t regret it. Trust me, I’m a dad.
For more information: 11:11 Cloud Backup.
