In today’s digital era, it can be a very big challenge for individuals as well as businesses. As everything from important documents to financial transactions and photos to videos, everything is stored on digital storage mediums.
The server DATA recovery is a process where lost or corrupted data is retrieved back to make sure there is no permanent data loss. The process is useful in recovering data, which is lost because of any issue like accidental deletion to hardware failure or crash.
As the penetration of digital is, one can’t deny the increasing importance of Server DATA recovery. It helps to prevent data loss of any kind of data be it financial data, personal data or any sensitive information, thus make sure the business house face minimum or zero disruption in business process and can continue operation and in the case of individuals, they can rest assured that all their personal files/data is not lost permanently.
Let me dive deep into the otherwise technical world of server data recovery, starting with its importance, how it is done, what to take care of,etc.
Reasons of data loss in servers.
There could be many reason which could result in data loss in servers like human errors, hardware failures/system crash, erroneous software updates. So understanding the underlying reason is the first step in designing effective strategy of prevention and/or data recovery in the event of any loss.
Let’s discuss the first reason the hardware failure in Server.
Hard Drives, which are the primary storage device on servers, are always prone to mechanical or electrical failures, which can lead to data loss or corruption. The reason behind hardware failure can be anything as mentioned earlier like, mechanical failure or malfunction, electrical issue or damage due to electrical surge, ageing of the hard drive (Use of hard drive for a longer period than it should be used), physical damage due to any human made or natural disaster, environmental conditions, failure of other hardware components like RAID controllers, SMPS (Power supply) Motherboards, Network NICs (in case of network storage) etc. All these reasons alone or series of events can cause data loss or corruption on servers.
Next is software related issues in Servers.
Often server data loss happens not because of hardware failure but because of software glich or issue. This could be anything like operating system crash, application errors or crash, database corruption etc. This can mainly happen due to any bugs in software, erroneous or incompatible updates, or any errors made by users during configuration or maintenance or any virus/malware/ransom ware attack, all these can lead to server data loss or corruption.
Next is human errors.
This is one of the most important and one of the major reason of Server data loss, which can be prevented with proper training and attention. Human errors are like accidental file deletion or overwriting, improper or no backup, inappropriate maintenance or configuration by server engineer, intentional deletion of file by any current, or ex employee are some of the major reasons of human errors.
Last in this article but not the least is natural disaster.
Natural disasters such as earthquakes, flood, fire, electrical power surge or any manmade disaster like explosion etc. can also lead to server data loss.
For the business or individuals whose data is important should have idea of these possible reasons of data loss, which could help them in designing and implementing robust data backup and protection strategy in first place.
Effects of data loss
There can be many effects on the businesses / individual in the event of data loss, like business process interruption, financial loss, loss in reputation, some legal challenges (if data is of value for other person or the business / individual is liable to keep it)
The main effect is interruption in business process, which leads to other losses as repercussion or result of the interruption, especially when the data, which is lost is critical for business process like, customer information, financial data, important documents related to production/operation or other business process, losing these information can lead to a temporary shutdown in the business as employees and/or concern person are not able to access it for smooth business process.
All these ultimately can lead to financial losses for the business, top of that recovering lost server data can also be a costly affair as it would require some specialized tools as well as expertise in handling the server / hardware during the process of data recovery.
The server data loss can also have long term effects like losing the reputation due to business shutdown to losing customer confidence in case of business which is more relying on shared information by customer with the business. This could also lead to legal liabilities and fines as well. All of these can ultimately hamper the business’s reputation as well as brand image in the market. The business house would not only feel it difficult in attracting new customers but would also feel it challenging to retain existing customer in this competitive business era.
So in nut-shell value of information stored on servers are one of the most important asset, which often includes intellectual property, business plans and strategies, customer records as well as financial and other business operational records, and losing it can have heavy impacts on business and can also be matter of business survival. This leads all the businesses to perfectly plan their data handling and disaster recovery processes or strategies.
How to prevent DATA loss in Server?
Preventing DATA loss is one of the most important aspects of IT expert in any business organization and by implementing best practices for possible data loss scenarios, one can achieve fair amount of protection against data loss.
One of the highly recommended, most important and must required practice is to have reliable, robust and possible automated backup strategy with multiple backup copies. There should be automated incremental backup procedure, where backups are stored on central server as well as multiple locations.
The backup strategy must include all the required components like, user documents, files, databases, application files, operating systems as well as software configurations.
In addition to the backup strategy, it is important to periodically run operating systems, software, application and firmware updates, hardware diagnostics, replace old or outdated hardware and/or software. In SMEs and large business organization where there is a big IT infrastructure, having VAPT (Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Testing) audits and implementing suggestions based on audit can also be crucial in safe guarding data and preventing any loss.
Implementing RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive/Independent Disks), which provides redundancy and fault tolerance is also a good option to look for, choosing right configuration of RAID from different RAID configurations like RAID0, RAID1, RAID5 etc. as well as choosing from options like hardware based RAID, software based RAID, firmware based RAID etc. is crucial for IT experts.
It is also important to regularly evaluating disaster recovery plans and update as necessary with best practices. Training employees as well as IT Team about management and disaster recovery protocols and practices also helps in minimizing the possibilities of data loss due to human errors.
All these together helps organizations to make sure their data is safe, can be easily restored/recovered in the event of loss or disaster and would have minimal to zero impact on their business processes.
How Server Data recovery is done?
In the event of DATA loss, recovering DATA loss becomes an issue/event of utmost priority and there are numerous ways of recovering DATA depends on the reason of DATA loss as discussed earlier.
The first response in the event of DATA loss is to identify the underlying reason as well as the extent of data loss, this can be done by various strategies like thorough examination of server hardware, software components, log analysis, diagnostic tests user inputs etc.
The outcome of above mentioned help to plan the next series of actions.
The data recovery can be divided in 2 major sections, 1 is logical data recovery, physical data recovery.
Logical data recovery process is a process of recovering lost data from media where the storage hardware is absolutely fine and in working condition but the data loss happened due to issues like, deletion, software glitch, update issue, malware attack etc. In this scenario the data recovery is achieved by using specialized data recovery software, data recovery algorithms as well as thorough scan of the storage media and extracting data files. Which process to follow for logical data recovery, depends on data loss scenario and cause and effect analysis. It also involves intervention or help of professional data recovery professional or organization for successful data recovery.
Physical data recovery is a process where data needs to be recovered from the damaged storage media, this process requires removal of the hard drive(s) and/or storage medium, opening and handling it in clean-room environments, replacing failed components with working one and extracting data once the medium is in temporary working condition. It also involves creating forensics images of storage medium, and special algorithms for extraction of data. All this process requires highly skilled and experienced engineer and organization along with clean-room facility and shouldn’t be tried as DIY methods.
After successful recovery of data using any of the recovery method, next step is to restore it to server or newly installed storage device in pre-data loss conditions, which involves file transfer, backup, data migration etc. depending on the type of data and the environment in which the data is being restored.
The person working on data recovery must have to have thorough knowledge of what is being done for recovery to make sure there is no further damage on the storage medium (like opening in non clean-room environment) and should also document every little detail and information for future reference, compliance and troubleshooting requirements.
The successful data recovery process can be a time consuming and costly affair, which requires involvement of professionals but is necessary for minimal disruption to business process and IT and server infrastructure.
How to choose right DATA Recovery service provider?
When there is any event of Data loss in Server and requires help of external entity or an expert, choosing a right and professional data recovery organization is of top most priority and crucial for the business, because choosing a wrong one can lead to permanent loss of data and can be futile for business.
The things to take under consideration while choosing professional data recovery service provider are, the professional experience the organization have, the expertise in understanding and handling server hardware and latest technologies, the skill level of team, LAB infrastructure and past track record.
It is also essential to check for organization’s reputation, customer satisfaction ratings and reviews and testimonials, case studies, turnaround time, DATA security and privacy protocols (to make sure there are robust measures for protection of confidential data) etc.
These things would help in choosing right data recovery service provider organization in the event of data loss.
The cost of the server Data recovery is also another important aspect, but it should not be one and only factor for choosing DATA recovery service provider and above mentioned other parameters are also to be checked before choosing a right one for the job. It is also an added advantage if the provider is able to provide post-recovery support and guidance on how to prevent future disasters.
Careful analysis and evaluation of all these parameters and factors can really help in selecting experienced and right data recovery service provider organization for your server data recovery needs or any kind of data recovery needs.
Benefits of choosing professional DATA recovery service provider.
Choosing a right data recovery service provider can be a boon to the business as it comes with expertise, specialized knowledge of data recovery domain, latest and updated technologies, the experience leads to in-depth understanding of all types of storage technologies, server hardware, storage mechanism, complexity of IT and storage infrastructure, which helps them in tackling the most complex data loss cases effectively and successfully recovering DATA from any kind of storage mediums like HDDs, SSDs, NVMes, DAT/TAPE drives including RAID arrays and other types of storage mediums.
The successful DATA recovery chances and recovering DATA in it’s original format and pre DATA loss conditions are very high in choosing professional DATA recovery service provider compared to in-house or DIY (Do it your own) kind of data recovery service providers or efforts.
The turnaround time, efficiency, accuracy, data confidentiality and privacy are added advantage as they have robust security, handling and operational procedure in place.
Spending on for data recovery by hiring data recovery service provider surely has cost involved to it but mitigates the indirect losses, which could occur to organization in the event of permanent data loss. So in the event of server data loss, the advantages and indirect benefits of hiring a professional server data recovery service provider can be the best choice.