Break the Ground to Data Classification
The tier-based approach to storage and backup is not only cost-efficient and clever, it will also help you take better IT decisions and make a shortcut to better IT performance. Read this short guide to data classification, based upon our best practice at B4Restore.
Does your organization have transaction data that requires maximum performance and zero latency? Then a tier-based approach will offer you the most powerful media and connection for that specific data.
On the other hand, if you have large volumes of important data that doesn’t require urgent access, you might want to store and archive this data correspondingly, in order to keep your hardware and operation costs down.
For data driven and digitized organizations, a tier-based approach is the right way to go.
Data Tiering Means Assigning a Value to Your Data
To classify your data, you will need to take several aspects into account and ask yourself some rather inconvenient questions:
- Could I delete these data without having a negative impact on my activities?
- How long could I tolerate not having access to these data?
- Should I lose these data, how old would the latest acceptable backup version be?
The key differentiators for data tiering are cost, performance, security, and capacity.
A Framework for Data Classification
To many companies even a top-level data classification can be challenging. To make things a little easier, at B4Restore we use this simple framework to break the ground:
Use Case: E-Commerce Business
To put the data classification framework into perspective, let me give an e-commerce business as an example.
- Business-critical data for an e-commerce business would apply to website data and related transactional data. This data is extremely important for business continuity.
- Business performance data would apply to applications and databases, for instance ERP system and administration tools. It would still be impossible for the e-commerce business to carry on without it, but in contrary to the business-critical data in tier 1, a downtime for some hours or maybe even a day without access is tolerable.
- Business capacity data for an e-commerce business would apply to documentation, product information, old files that are no longer in use.
Backup-as-a-Service Makes You Benefit from Data Tiering
One of the major benefits that make Backup-as-a-Service powerful is the instant access to the best technology available for your specific data. The tier-based approach.
Furthermore, Backup-as-a-Service is very cost-efficient, because the data center’s enterprise-class top performers are only put into play if and when the nature of the stored data requires it.
That being said, some aspects should apply to all data: data protection, security and compliance. And for compliance issues, we would recommend storing your backup data in national data centers – ISO27001 data centers with separation of duties. This is the best way to ensure that your backup data is always stored offsite in redundant setups.
Contact us
Want to learn more about data classification or Storage-as-a-Service and Backup-as-a-Service? Fill out the form, and we'll get in touch within a short time. Or you can contact CCO Jesper Juul at jju@b4restore.com.
