Unless your business is planning on returning to carrier pigeons or the postal service (it’s debatable which would be less efficient), chances are your business has an Exchange Server. Protecting its data with effective Exchange backup software should be a top priority, because it’s not just lost emails that you have to worry about. When a mail database gets corrupted it’s everyone’s problem – that’s one restore you really don’t want to fail.
You need to be certain your Exchange backup software is doing its job, because if you lose this data it’s your business that’s going to suffer.
There’s a lot more at stake here than just losing those chain emails you keep getting spammed with. You’ll lose more than cat memes and self-help articles. And yes, you’ll finally have your inbox cleared of all those reminders that LinkedIn wants your money, but it comes at the cost of the leads, contacts and client communications that are vital to your business. That’s a heavy price to pay to finally stop reading “Get a free month of LinkedIn Premium.” It’s not even worth being shot of Grumpy Cat.
In this article, we’re going to dive into why your Exchange backup software needs to be in tip-top shape – and how to make sure it is.
What if you lost your databases? 2 worrying hypotheticals
Lisa is the Systems Admin for The Firebugs’ Online Warehouse (FOW) – an eCommerce business where pyromaniac customers fulfill all their fire starting needs via email order.
Lisa is pedantic with her backups. She backs up diligently and has a solid offsite backup plan in action.
The worst happens: a bulk-order of Thermite ignites and the entire FOW head office is burned to the ground – Exchange Servers and all. Lisa starts to question the sanity of what her company actually stocks, but as far as the Exchange Servers go she isn’t too concerned. She starts working to get the offsite backups brought in and her systems back up and running. Smooth sailing.
Then the company’s CEO asks her for a couple of specific emails from a few months back. These emails are vital to the business and a major client will be lost if they aren’t recovered immediately.
Lisa doesn’t think it will be a problem; after all, she’s backed up everything. Then she realizes – there are over 10 years of emails backed up and the Exchange backup software she’s been using doesn’t have a Granular Restore function. It’s going to take days at the minimum and the client will be lost. Come to think of it, her job might be lost as well.
When your Exchange server (or any IT infrastructure, for that matter) takes a hit, the number one thing your business wants to avoid is downtime. Downtime is costly and the more of it you have the worse off your company will be. Having Exchange backup software that addresses all of your needs and works to get your company back to normal operation as quickly as possible is vital.
In the silly example above, what Lisa needed was an Exchange Granular Restore function, but she hadn’t considered it ahead of time so her software didn’t have it.
Beyond specific functions, the moral of the story here is that you need to be sure your Exchange backup software will be able to provide the services your business needs. If your Exchange backup software isn’t pulling its full weight, it’s going to equal downtime for your business when it can least afford it.
As fictional Lisa learned, a fantastic backup strategy isn’t enough if your software simply isn’t up to scratch.
Even worse…
Picture a successful b2b company called Judge, Jury & Confectionutioner (JJC). They sell candy in bulk to top-tier law firms. Everyone knows lawyers have seriously sweet teeth, so it’s a crowded marketplace with fierce competition. Email lead generation and contact lists are vital to the business’s survival.
An employee, Sam, recently messed up a multimillion dollar deal that could have seen JJC sell 1.2 tons of Gummy Bears to Johnson, Heckle & Jeckle – a major client. So naturally, Sam got the boot.
On his last day, rather than shake a few hands and leave with dignity, Sam decided to burn his bridges with napalm. He was tech-savvy and fully aware of the importance of email to the business, so he went into the Exchange Server and deleted a year’s worth of client communications, contacts and business leads.
Now here’s the problem: JJC management hates spending money on anything that won’t send a lawyer to the dentist. About a year ago, JJC migrated its Exchange to a dedicated server, but hadn’t got around to setting up a backup software license for the new hardware. So in spite of a year’s worth of warnings and complaints from their IT department, LLC didn’t have Exchange backup software.
Now, we’re sure your business wouldn’t get itself into this mess in the first place. You probably do your best to make sure you don’t hire unbalanced staff. You almost certainly make sure that only trusted personnel can get administrative access to crucial IT infrastructure. You absolutely have backup software in place on ALL your live servers, no matter what the situation… Yes, of course you do.
But let’s imagine for a moment that the insane scenario outlined above had happened to your company. Okay, forget the “candy to lawyers” stuff – what would happen if your business lost the Exchange Server’s data it depends on? Nothing good, we’re willing to bet
Given time, your business would eventually rebuild its client lists and contacts – but what would that downtime cost you? How many clients would you lose to competitors? How many people-hours would be put into chasing lost leads instead of generating new ones? The fact is – Exchange backup software matters. It’s the safety net that ensures if something goes wrong, your business doesn’t suffer.
The simple truth is that when it comes to IT, something will go wrong at some point so you have to be ready for it. Honestly, Murphy must have dabbled in Systems Administration at some point…
