Managing Database Backup and Recovery

Management of the corporate database is arguably one of the most mismanaged areas in information technology today. Database technology has evolved from historical glass house foundations of the past into the point and click implementations that come right out of the box today. Where databases and systems were once carefully designed, implemented, and deployed, they are now installed, loaded, and deployed without regard to basic effective design. This chapter addresses the concepts necessary to formulate a method to protect, back up, and in the event of failure, recover, perhaps the most important aspect of a business, its database. Without proper preparation, planning, and testing an entire database infrastructure can become the target of lost devices, indices, degraded backup mechanisms, and corrupted data.