Backup Cycle Example

Organise your backup strategy in weekly and monthly cycles.

• the weekly backups ensure you can recover information as far back as 3 weeks.
• The monthly backups ensure you can recover data as far back as 12 months.

The cost of backup media can be insignificant compared to the cost of data loss or an extended recovery. The number of backup media required is:

• 20 for a 5-day working week.
• 21 for a 6-day working week.
• 22 for a 7-day working week.

Daily backups

Backup every day Monday to Thursday, plus:

• Friday if the practice is open 6 days per week.
• Friday and Saturday if the practice is open 7 days per week.

Each day's backup media will be overwritten on the same day next week.

Rotate the backup media on Monday to Thursday. 4 backup media are required.

Weekly backsup

Take a full backup at the end of the working week. This backup is executed on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, depending on the days worked during the week.

Ensure you have media for weeks 2 and 3 (and week 4 for 5-week months) as explained above.

Each weekly media will be overwritten on the same week next month. On the last week of the month (week 4 or 5), perform a monthly backup.

4 backup media are required to accommodate 5-week months.

Monthly backups

Take a full backup of the last working day of the last week of the month. This can be a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday depending on the days worked. This end-of-month media should be labelled with the name of the month and securely stored, preferably off-site.

12 monthly media are required.