In the scope of Veeam, one of the things I love about being a software provider with a strong lineup of partnerships is that Veeam can dial up so many combinations of the 3-2-1 Rule. This means of the 2 other copies, the different media is a must-have and the versatility to restore needs to be considered.įor the organizations I talk to nowadays, I see the most critical data sets having 4 copies when the production data is also included. Some people don’t like to include the production data as a copy in the 3-2-1 Rule, and it’s worth bringing that up. This has 3 different media, so it actually exceeds the criteria. Disaster recovery off site (Copy 3, media 3).Backup data on a Veeam repository (Copy 2, media 2).Some of the most primitive implementations would have the 3-2-1 Rule as follows: For some data, I’ve personally managed 5 copies! And in today’s world, there may be more than 3 copies in the mix. I’d argue this starting point is a requirement to have the resiliency you need nowadays. In the scope of Veeam and backup data, this is a great starting point. It can address nearly any failure scenario.It does not have any specific technology or hardware requirement.However, let’s not forget the base rule’s best attributes: With this base rule outline, now we can upgrade it to work with modern critical data. With so much of our life and livelihood stored in digital form, and with the threats of malware increasing, it’s important for everyone to have a framework for assessing vulnerabilities.“ It started in an era of 30GB hard drives and CD backups and has scaled nicely to a world of 18TB drives and ubiquitous cloud storage. Over nearly 20 years, 3-2-1 has been a great tool to evaluate data risk exposure. In fact, the “rule” itself was simply a synopsis of the practices that I found among IT professionals, as I was writing my first book. “ While my focus has been primarily on digital media, the 3-2-1 principles are pretty universal.

Even though this rule is flexible and timeless, I reached out to Peter for a quote on the 3-2-1 Rule nowadays and he offered this: This was a rather important innovation for the photography world and has deep implications into other technology disciplines and stays timeless to this day. The 3-2-1 Rule was first concepted by U.S. The 3-2-1 Rule, as I like to explain it, states the following: In this blog post I’m going to explain the 3-2-1 Rule and show you the way to upgrade it to a more modern and resilient way of thinking! What is the 3-2-1 Rule? Here at Veeam, we have been advocating this rule for many years to help organizations ensure recoverability when it is needed most.

Veeam backup to tape best practice