The success of information backup systems does not rest on IT administrators alone. Rather, a well-designed backup system comes about only when several key factors coalesce-business involvement, IT acceptance, best practice designs, enterprise software, and reliable hardware. Enterprise Systems Backup and Recovery: A Corporate Insurance Policy provides organizations with a comprehensive understanding of the principles and features involved in effective enterprise backups.

Instead of focusing on any individual backup product, this book recommends corporate procedures and policies that need to be established for comprehensive data protection. It provides relevant information to any organization, regardless of which operating systems or applications are deployed, what backup system is in place, or what planning has been done for business continuity. It explains how backup must be included in every phase of system planning, development, operation, and maintenance. It also provides techniques for analyzing and improving current backup system performance.

After reviewing the concepts in this book, organizations will be able to answer these questions with respect to their enterprise:

• What features and functionality should be expected in a backup environment?
• What terminology and concepts are unique to backup software, and what can be related to other areas?
• How can a backup system be monitored successfully?
• How can the performance of a backup system be improved?
• What features are just window dressing and should be ignored, as opposed to those features that are relevant?

Backup and recovery systems touch on just about every system in an organization. Properly implemented, they can provide an enterprise with greater assurance that its information is safe. By utilizing the information in this book, organizations can take a greater step toward improving the security of their data and preventing the devastating loss of data and business revenue that can occur with poorly constructed or inefficient systems.