When Did You Last Backup Exchange 2010 - Or Are You Courting Disaster?
If your company has successfully undergone an Exchange 2010 migration in recent times, you will no doubt be impressed with the functionality, flexibility and reliability of the new platform. Exchange 2010 offers companies a greater degree of operational flexibility than ever before, allowing workers to securely access their critical business communications easily, while providing stringent integrated information protection, control and compliance tools.
Given the lofty aspirations of the system and how much it has helped businesses improve their efficiency, it is easy to see why so many companies have not only moved to this new platform, but also why many more want to do so in the near future. It is vital, however, to understand that while Exchange 2010 is certainly a step forward for business (when compared to the 2007 or 2003 versions), migrating to this platform and maintaining your own business security once your company has migrated are still areas worthy of serious consideration.
If you own a company that is considering migrating to Exchange 2010 in the near future then there is much to consider. Not only do you need to ensure that your company suffers as little downtime as possible during the switch, but also that key systems (particularly email), remain usable during the process. In addition, archiving data, email security and ensuring a reliable service to clients remains a priority.
Fortunately, businesses can buy into cloud service companies that offer the perfect solution in maintaining a workable level of IT; ensuring business can continue, while the upgrade to Exchange 2010 takes place.
Once the transfer to Exchange 2010 has been completed, a company can start to profit from the improvements and benefits that this new system brings to its end users, administrators and the organisation. Despite that, there are still important decisions for a business to make, particularly about the crucial decision to backup Exchange 2010.
Of course, there is a real need for businesses to ensure they have made back up copies of their data. IT failures can and do happen and having regular, updated backups of your key information, systems, email data etc, is still the best safeguard a business can have against a disaster (such as losing priceless, and often highly sensitive, data and information on employees and customers).
Initially, many users may not understand how to backup Exchange, but Microsoft has worked hard to simplify and expedite the process considerably for businesses. Backing up a system in the past often took a great deal of IT expertise, time and effort and as such, many users would neglect to back up their critical information as often as they should, only to regret it later when a hardware failure or virus rendered their key information irretrievable.
Exchange 2010 now includes a specific plug-in for the Windows Server Backup program. This enables you to make VSS-based back ups of Exchange 2010 data quickly and easily. Furthermore, Windows Server Backup can be used to restore your Exchange 2010 databases if required.
It is important to note that to back up and restore Exchange 2010 data; you must use an Exchange-aware application. The application needs to be able to support the VSS writer designed for Exchange 2010. In addition to Windows Server Backup, other software, such as Microsoft System Centre Data Protection Manager, or other third party applications designed for VSS writer can be used.
In addition to data back up, Microsoft Exchange also offers the ability to recover specific databases and server recovery options, meaning that however you choose to use Exchange 2010 in your company, the tools are available to ensure that you can back up and be able to retrieve the data needed to function in the event of an emergency.
