What's Your Backup Plan for your Data?

What's Your Backup Plan?

Imagine for a moment that you've been working on an important document for several days. As you continue to work you've unfortunately decided to save the document locally on your computer desktop. Then suddenly the unthinkable happens and your computer crashes. All of your hard work has now been lost and is no longer recoverable. This is a story that is familiar to many of us and is one example of why backups are so important.

Losing work is something that none of us here can afford. Considering this, what is your current backup plan?

Here at Wayzata Public Schools, we encourage our users to take advantage of a few best practices we have available to ensure you're taking the proper precautions to not experience data loss.

Step 1: Determine what data of yours is sensitive

This often includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. documents that you're creating for work and are going to be relying on to be up to date and available.

Data that is of a personal nature (music files, video files, pictures, etc.) is often something you'll want to keep separate from District data/devices and build your own backup strategies for.

Step 2: Save sensitive data to the proper location

The most flexible option we have available to us is to utilize Google Drive.

This is a web-based application that is accessible from any device (Mac, PC, iOS, etc.). By saving things to Google Drive you're able to not only ensure that it is backed up as changes are made to the document, but also that it will be available to work on inside and outside of the Wayzata Public Schools network.

Reminder:

Please be aware that there is also data that is too sensitive to be saved to Google Drive. This would include any personal identity information, such as Social Security Numbers, driver's license numbers, medical information, insurance information, etc.

For data that is too sensitive for Google Drive, we also support the use of encrypted physical USB drives or the District storage system.

Please use your best professional judgement and review District policy when deciding the types of documents that will be saved in Google Drive.

Routinely test your backup solution to ensure that you can restore data.

By saving your documents to Google Drive you'll be able to ensure that not only are your documents being backed up, but that they'll also be available anywhere you need them. Please see your Tech Para or email helpdesk@wayzataschools.org if you'd like more information on how to use Google Drive.