The goal of backing up data is to be able to restore it. That seems obvious enough. However, there's an endless stream of horror stories about unreliable backups that cannot be restored. In order words, an organization consistently performs backups. However, when the organization needs to restore lost or corrupt data, the technicians discover the backups are corrupt and can't be restored.

One organization required daily backups of a critical database. Backups were scheduled to occur in the middle of the night. Each morning, technicians removed the tape that held the backup and inserted a new tape. They then labeled and stored the backup tape.

Then the inevitable happened. The database became corrupt. No problem, they thought, because they have backups. They retrieved these backup tapes and discovered that most of the backups had not succeeded in over a month. The problem was new tapes that weren't compatible with the backup system. These new tapes were rotated into the mix, but none of the backups on these new tapes succeeded. Ultimately, technicians were able to find a good tape. They restored most of the database, but a lot of data was lost - forever.

You can easily avoid this common problem by performing test restores. A test restore attempts to restore data from a recent backup. If the test succeeds, the backup is good. If the test doesn't succeed, the backup process needs to be addressed. Many backup plans include details and scheduling for test restores. (p. 377)

1. Read Restore Horror Stories (Gibson & Igonor, 2022) prior to answering assessment questions 3 and 4.
   1. How do documented back-up and recovery procedures help achieve RTO?
   2. True or False (explain your answer). To achieve an RTO of 0, you need 100% redundancy in your IT system, application, and data.
   3. Review the "Restore Horror Stories" scenario given from the textbook. What is most important when considering data back-up?
   4. Review the "Restore Horror Stories" scenario given from the textbook. What is most important when considering data recovery?
   5. What are the risks of using your external e-mail box as a back-up and data storage solution?