Bare Metal Recovery, or BMR, is a technique for restoring a computer system to
completely different hardware. Traditionally, backup methods required the operating system and backup software be installed on new hardware, and then configured, before your software and data restore could begin. This is not the case with BMR. Modern backup software that supports bare metal recovery creates ‘images’ of your computer system in
scheduled intervals. These images can be restored to new hardware, even when hardware is completely unlike the previous hardware, which is where the term ‘Bare Metal’ originates.
Bare metal recovery is most valuable after an unrecoverable hardware
failure, theft of a mission critical computer, destruction of your business premises or even a planned hardware replacement. The time saved by not having to install and configure the operating system and backup software, will reduce downtime dramatically. Once the
replacement hardware arrives, the recovery process using a traditional backup solution could take 2-3 days, compared to as little a 4-8 hours with BMR.
At DCR, we use and recommend a product from Arcserve, a company we have trusted for over 20 years. Arcserve UDP, delivers an image based backup saved to both onsite and offsite locations, with a Bare Metal Recovery option. We recommend the backup images be saved to storage devices made by ioSafe. ioSafe hardened vaults are fire proof, water proof, drop proof and are available in a variety of capacities to meet the requirements for all sizes of backup storage.
Backups are the insurance policy for your data. Before deciding how much to spend on a backup solution, ask yourself these questions: How long can I wait to get back up and running? A week? A day? An hour? How much data can I afford to lose and still be okay? One day? A week? A month?
Whether you do image based backups to hardened vaults, tape backup, cloud backup, or a combination of these, your backup is one of the most critical aspects of your business continuity plan and can prevent an unpreventable disaster from turning into a business
ending event. Choose wisely.
