Why You Must Backup Your Data
If you think disaster can't happen to you, think again! Although modern-day computers are generally reliable, inevitably, at some point during the life of your computer, you will suffer a hardware malfunction that will cause data loss within Alexandria.
More often than not, human error is to blame for data loss; an operator makes large, incorrect changes to your data, or, in a moment of distraction, data is accidentally deleted. Although you can always replace broken computer components and reinstall the Alexandria application, doing so will not retrieve lost data files.
Your only options for recovering lost data when you have suffered from hardware malfunction or human error are to either re-enter your data by hand or to recover it from your most recent backup copy—and then update only the data that had changed since the last backup was made. The more current the backup of your data, the less data you will have to re-enter.
Far too frequently we get contacted by customers hoping we've somehow stored a copy of their pre-crash data so that they won't have to start from scratch. Some of these customers had backups, but they turned out to be damaged, or, when attempting to recover their backup, they accidentally erased it!
Because of these occurrences, it's very important for Information Technology Service departments to ensure that they have a backup strategy in place so their library data is secure, and that they always have a current backup of their most recent Alexandria data files. With adequate backup procedures in place, only small amounts of information will ever be lost, even after the worst conceivable failure.
Your backup procedure for Alexandria should copy the entirety of your Alexandria Database. Some automation systems only backup your transactions on a daily basis. Although this technique results in a fast backup, it's not complete, and recovery can take much longer than a full backup.
If you make a backup copy of your Alexandria Database at the end of each day, you'll be able to recover all the changes you've made through the end of that day; you can then recover the data quickly and easily, should it be required.
Although Alexandria has a built-in Archive function that saves a copy of your data in an Archive folder, this is not useful if the hard disk where the data is stored is damaged, as the Archives in that location will be damaged as well. Therefore, we suggest frequent data backup, and taking copies of your data to a safe site away from your library, and/or backing up to a cloud storage service.
What is cloud storage?
Cloud storage is a model of networked computer data storage where data is stored on multiple virtual servers, generally hosted by third parties, rather than being hosted on dedicated servers. Hosting companies operate large data centers; and people who require their data to be hosted buy or lease storage capacity from them and use it for their storage needs. The data center operators, in the background, virtualize the resources according to the requirements of the customer and expose them as virtual servers, which the customers can themselves manage. Physically, the resource may span across multiple servers.
Cloud storage services like Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, etc., automatically sync specific folders on your computer to folders to a remote server in the cloud. It's a great way to protect your data from theft, fire, or other disasters. Configure Alexandria to keep at least 7 archives (a week's worth), then download the desktop app for your preferred service and configure it to sync your Archive folder. Presto! Automatic cloud backups. Just make sure you've got enough storage space in the cloud to support your data! |
Archive vs Backup
An Archive is not a backup. An Archive is a copy of your live Data folder, created by Alexandria. You can use the Archive as a backup once you've moved it to a secure location.
For a copy of your database to be considered a backup, at minimum it needs to be moved off of the hard drive running Alexandria. This way if the computer running Alexandria is damaged or otherwise inaccessible, the data you backed up will still be available to you. Backups should also be stored offsite so in case of a catastrophe they won’t be affected. This is another reason the cloud-based backups are so attractive.