Database Backup System for Banks

Table of contents

Chapter one, Introduction
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background to the study
1.2 Statement of the problem
1.3 Objectives of the study
1.4 Research questions
1.5Purpose of the study
1.6 Scope of the study
1.7 Significance of the study
1.8 Limitation of the study
1.9 Operational definition of terms
1.10 Research methodology

Chapter two, Review of related literature
2.0 Introduction
2.1 The Conceptual framework
2.1.2 The Theoretical framework

Chapter three, Research methodology
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Research Design
3.3 Population of study
3.4 Sample size
3.5 Sample procedure/ Technique
3.6 Instruments for Data collection
3.7 Process of Data Collection
3.8 Method of Data Analysis
3.9 Validity of the instrument
3.10 Reliability of instrument

Chapter four, Data presentation, analysis and interpretation
4.1 Introduction
4.2.1 Demographic data of respondents
4.2.2 Analysis of Respondents’ responses on questionnaires variable
4.2.3 Discussion and interpretation of findings
4.2.4 Summary

Chapter five, Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Summary
5.3 Conclusion
5.4 Recommendations

Reference

DEDICATION

This project is dedicated to Almighty God who is the fountain of knowledge, and to my family for their support. I therefore pray that the Almighty God who is gracious and merciful should abundantly bless and protect the

Abstract

This study, Disaster Recovery Database Backup System Model and Banks’ Survival, examines the role of effective and efficient database backup system in the life of financial institutions with Zenith Bank Plc as the case study. This study resulted from the fact that “Zenith Bank ”

faces a significant amount of responsibility as a new generation private gone public bank. According to experts in IT “Even if an ATM is down for two hours, it becomes a huge issue and customer complaints start to pour in” Thus, continuity becomes very crucial in the financial services industries. The general objective of the study is to examine the role of improved disaster recovery database system model in bank survival and business continuity. Zenith Bank is used as a case study because of its success story in terms of Information Technology applications. In carrying out the study quantitative and qualitative method of sample collection were used while questionnaires were distributed to 120 respondents from the ‘Bank ’ and its subsidiary Zenith Medical Centre all in Abuja. Likert-type scale is used to obtain respondents’ opinion, while Friedman Chi-square is used as statistical tool to critically analyze the responses. The findings include: banks are database services organization, therefore, need disaster recovery database backup to continue in business in the face of threats and incidents. The conclusion is that Zenith Bank should continue to put in place improved disaster recovery plan in line with global best practices. The recommendation includes; other banks should put effort to have effective and efficient database backup system model in order to prepare for incidents, and the CBN as the regulatory umpire should direct financial institutions in Nigeria to put in place good and reliable disaster recovery database backup system model because ‘the shrewd one sees disaster and proceeds to hide himself”. The study suggests that there should be research to identify areas prone to disaster incidents in Nigeria both in physical attacks and cyber attacks.

Key words: Disaster, Recovery, Database, Bank, Zenith Bank

Chapter One,

Introduction

1.1 Background to the study

One of the Scripture in Proverb Chapter 22 verse 3 posits that ‘The shrewd one sees the danger, and conceals himself but the inexperienced keep right on going and suffers the consequences.’(New World Translation of The Holy Scriptures, 2013) Today, more than ever dangers in form of disaster lurks on all geo-political zones of Nigeria, more than ever the aftermath of climate change is changing the nature of living and working in Nigeria, more than ever dark cloud of insecurity in Nigeria is on high-red-alert.(www.opinionnigeria.com assessed June 14 2019 All organizations, institutions both public and private cannot deny the challenge of unforeseen disasters both natural and man-made.

To illustrate:

In 2012, there was great over flooding of the Niger-Benue river coasts that affected communities in the area and the Bar Beach of the Lagos areas. Properties worth millions including bank gadgets were wrecked and destroyed. There is also the issue of insurgent in North East, gunmen attacks in all corner of Nigeria especially in Zamfara, Kaduna Yobe and Kastina States. The results have been disruption of businesses, social life and other daily activities. Banks in these areas sometimes are worst hit (The Guidance, The Sun, Leadership, Punch Newspapers 4th September, 2012).

Besides, constant power outage, and inconsistent power supply from the vendors affect businesses nationwide. It is not uncommon to see businesses operating with alternative power supply through the use of power generating-sets that are also prone to power failure.

In the events of such failures one sees the return of “overcrowded banking halls”, delay businesses accompanied by murmurings and complaints of frustrated customers. At such points the “customer is king” phrase becomes obstinate. The result is usually the creation of bunch of customers who look elsewhere to conduct their businesses, thereby, exposing the banks to systemic failure.

The problem of disaster is not only restricted to Nigeria but also faces businesses globally. According to Yuga Chaudhari (2009), “HDFC Bank’s Disaster Recovery Journey”, ‘From Asia to America, Britain to continental Europe and from Russia to South Africa the story is the same.’

To illustrate further, on September 11, 2001, the terrorist attack destroyed the world Trade Center in New York, which was the most highly concentrated financial area in New York. This attack not only destroyed the twin towers, but also ruined the financial system. (Wold, Geoffrey H. “Disaster Recovery Planning Process” posted 7 Nov. 2013 accessed May 9, 2019). Wold, further stated that ‘Banks located in the world Trade Center went through an unprecedented disaster. The company’s back-up facilities which were too close to the primary facilities were disrupted as the primary facilities”. As a result of the experience, www.moose.com quoted earlier observed that ‘there is significant increased focus on the disaster recovery plan in the USA and globally’.

Furthermore, in 2012, hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast of Manhattan, where is the location of Wall Street. Many banks’ Head Office located in that area were affected losing millions of dollars while some faced extinction and business discontinuity affirmed Margaret Rouse (www.searchdisasterrecovery.com ‘disaster recovery (DR) posted by assessed June 14 2019).

More so, in an age of real-time systems, global operations, and customers who expect always- on performance, reliability and security have taken on new importance. Technologies to assure 24 x 7 operations get better all the time, but every increment of capability comes with additional infrastructure complexity and additional management challenges. Thus, making the wrong decision in designing or maintaining infrastructure or in responding to incidents- which is the focus of this study- can severely harm a business. www.ukessays.com ‘Disaster Recovery Plan For Standard Chartered Bank Information Technology Essay’ May 12, 2016 assessed on June 2, 2019)

Figure 1, Point of sell outlet (POS), bank agent

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Sourse:field survey, 2019: Bank Agent outletfor banking services transaction Millions ofsuch outlets exact workload on backup facilities across banks.

The proliferation of bank services, where millions could use their cell-phones and at the comfort of their homes execute financial transaction to the Point of Sales (POS) agents littered on every streets and plazas (see Fig I), the tasks of banks become enormous and stringently challenging. The interface between main bank shops and the numerous POS outlets is a database relationship that also need interconnectivity with one generated by the bank. Despite the benefits derived the situation expose the financial institution to incidents ranging from increase transaction volume to intruders- cum- hackers attacks. (Nigeria Interbank Settlement System-NIBSS websites assessed June 2, 2019.)

More over, the financial sector is an area that is being hit particularly hard by data breaches. Everything from ransom-ware to phishing emails has been thrown at these organizations in the hopes of achieving a big payday, and some attacks have been successful. In early 2016, the U.S. Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council warned the industry about the flood of new threats stemming from ransom-ware. The media Infosecurity Magazine noted that most ransom- ware masquerades as an official looking government sanction, and hackers gain $400,000 a month on average from using these techniques. Many organizations end up paying the fine to gain back data access because they see no alternative. However, backups are the best answer to these threats. Since ransom-ware encrypts everything on a particular device, banks can simply wipe the hardware and restore it to working order using their backups. This thwarts the attackers and prevents the business from having to pay anything to access its information. (Lynda M.; Robert D., F. Warren, (2015) Corporate Information Strategy and Management (9th ed) Text and Cases ‘Managing Diverse IT Sourcing’)

Subsequently, emergencies can come in many forms as mentioned earlier, and it will be vital for financial institutions to be ready for anything. In 2002 for example, the Federal Reserve of the USA made a point to establish regulations in this sector in order for these organizations to recover quickly from a September 11- type event. Network World reported that in that survey 54% of people said they either know someone, or have themselves recently lost data. Most of those surveyed were individuals. When one consider how many businesses have hardware that gets lost or stolen each year as well initiative stemmed from widespread halt of Wall Street processes that came as a result of the Sept 11 fallout one is constrained that say the backup of data is vital. (www.studymoose.com posted April 14 2017 retrieved on June 8, 2017)

Contrary to that believe Wall Street was unable to get back online due to inadequate backup plans, which affected all of its interconnected systems. To make it worse, many other financial institutions that had been impacted had not tested their backup systems, leaving them in dark as well. The effects were enormous then and could still be (Chrstine Spisto. 2014).

Banks, for one, are an essential part of everyday life - and every other business depends on them for effective and efficient operation as a going concern (Yuga Chaudhari, 2009). Thus, if data is compromised, it can affect a significant number of people. In order to protect this information, financial institutions look into backup solutions. These systems not only can help companies bounce back from attacks, they can also minimize the effect of disasters and support business continuity .

Tracy Rock (2016) argues that “in the finance industry, disasters are especially dangerous. Disruptions to a single bank’s operations have the power to tarnish the brand and disrupt entire markets. Data losses can compromise the financial information of thousands, even millions, of customers. To avert such, www.studymoose.com “Disaster Recovery Planning in Banking Sector” posits that a bank business continuity plan must account for every disaster possible, along with proper protocols.

Be that as it may based on the above www.novastor.com ‘Reasons Why Banks Can Benefit From Backups, 11 April, 2017 opines that ‘the key responsibility of a database administrator (DBA) is to prepare for the possibility of media, hardware and software failure as well as to recover databases during a disaster.’ Thus, should any of these failures occur, the major objective is to ensure that the database is available to users within an acceptable time frame, www.novaster.com concludes.

Therefore in view of the important of database in the financial industry and in view of the various threats and challenges which the industry has seen and would as a matter of fact still face disaster recovery backup database system model becomes the vehicle which the shrewd managers could use to conceal themselves from database calamities.

1.2 Statement of the problem

No matter how available and secure IT stakeholders make a company’s infrastructure, manger can expect incidents. Infrastructure incidents present a rare business challenge: a need to solve problems under the pressure of a ticking clock (Chrstine Spisto. 2014). Though these incidents are rare, the stakes are often high when real-time incidents occur. Managers’ actions in a crisis can make a huge difference to the well-being of a company. The ability of managers to handle incidents contributes to a large extent the business continuity of such firms.

Banks especially are prone to various disasters such as: chronic security problems, system outages, malicious activity frequently confuses or corrupts the servers and routers that maintain Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and pathway information, resulting in parts of the internet not working for days, power grid collapse amongst others. These disasters have the potential of closing bank businesses and by extension bank’s customers’ too. In such incidents database are lost and may take days or even weeks to restore. This paralyzed business activities.

The overall cost to banks from these disasters is overwhelming and often time challenges their survival. Therefore, an adequate disaster recovery database system model becomes imperative in order to enable banks restore database and kick-start business in minutes after disaster.

1.3 Objectives of the study

The general objective of this study is to examine the role of improved disaster recovery database system model in bank survival and business continuity. The specific objectives include:

1. To critically examine the various disaster database challenges faced by banks.
2. To examine what recovery plans are in place to effectively handle database disaster when they occur.
3. To posit ways of check-mating the incidents of disaster before, during and after disaster.
4. To compare Bank’s position towards disaster to global best practices.

1.4 Research questions

In pursuance of the above objectives, the following research questions become imperative in this study:

1. What are the various database challenges facing banks today?
2. To what extent has BANKS been able to plan for disaster recovery database system model?
3. What are ways of check-mating disasters before, during and after disaster?
4. What are ways of improving Bank’s disaster database recovery method in compliance with global best practices?

1.5 Research hypothesis. The following hypotheses would guide this study:

1) Hoi- There is no significant relationship between disaster recovery database backup and “Bank” challenges.
2) Ho2. There is no significant relationship between bank’s plan to avert database disaster incidents and its survival.
3) Ho3. There is no significant relationship between disaster recovery database system model and Bank’s business continuity.
4) Ho4 There is no significant relationship between disaster recovery database system model in Bank’ and global best practices.

1.5 Purpose of the study

The purpose of the study is to assess the activities of Banks with regards to disaster database recovery plan in the face of ever challenging and increasing streams of disaster in Nigeria.

1.6 Scope of the study

This study is about backup in computer systems as it relates to data: disaster recovery database system model and banks’ survival. Although instances of other disasters- local and international- are used yet the focus is on examining what Banks have done in order to create an enviable firm among its contemporaries and darling consumers of bank services, The study “Disaster recovery database backup system model and Banks’ Survival ( A case study of “Zenith Bank”) covers issue related to disaster recovery with database backup model as the focus.

1.7 Significance of the study:.

Banks are an essential part of everyday life, but if data is compromised, it can affect a significant number of people. In order to protect this information, financial institutions should look into backup solutions. These systems not only can help businesses bounce back from attacks and disaster, they can also minimize the effect of disaster and support business continuity (Nelson, S., 2011).

The study would enable the various stakeholders see the need for improve and an efficient cum- effective data base backup. The regulatory authorities would see the need to enforce and encourage the policy of database backups in the financial system; the government through the legislature should be informed through the study to see the need to enact laws that would enforce disaster recovery database backup system. Banks are the staple of society and banks thrives on data which when compromised all else would be at the brink of despair. Thus, stringent effort is needed by all to execute disaster recovery plans (DRP) that would ensure banks’ survival hence this study.

1.8 Limitation of the study

The greatest impediment to this research is difficulty in accessing information from direct stakeholders of IT in the “Bank”. Confidentiality and secrecy carries the day. Be that as it may, to overcome this obstacle the researcher took up exploring the internet, banks bulletins, and IT firms records in order to conduct a robust study.

1.9 Research methodology

In order to carry out this study effort will be made to gather materials relevant to the research from appropriate sources. The research is willing to use both doctrinal and empirical method. The survey with the use of a questionnaire and interview would be employed in carrying out the research (Oppenheim, A.N., 2013).

Chapter Two

Review of related literature

2.0 Introduction:

In this chapter the study takes up various attempts at discussing the issue of planning for disaster incidents, what is disaster? What are ways of handling it by various management’s and IT scholars? The approach adopted is the content and methodological review of literature. The chapter is discussed under the following subheadings:

2.1 Disaster and backup

2.2 Conceptual framework

2.3 Theoretical framework

2.4 Review of previous literature

2.5 Zenith Bank Plc, “The Bank”

2.1 Disaster: Leon, A.( 2011) posits that ‘A disaster is a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a community or society and causes human, material, and economic or environmental losses that exceed the community’s or society’s ability to cope using its own resources.’ Though often caused by nature, disasters can have human origins according to (International Federation or Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) www.ifrc.org

A disaster is a serious disruption, occurring over a relatively short time, of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources (Christine Spisto, 2014).

In contemporary academia, disasters are seen as the consequences of inappropriately management of risk. These risks are the product of a combination of both hazards and vulnerability. Hazards that strike in areas with low vulnerability will never become disaster, as in the case of uninhabited regions (American Heritage Dictionary, 2016).

The English Dictionary of Contemporary English, (2018) defines disaster as ‘a state of extreme ruin and misfortune” This dictionary further classify it as ‘an event resulting in great loss and misfortune.”

This definition from English Dictionary is more appropriate to the disaster this study scribed for that is ‘event resulting in great loss and misfortune.’ The reason is that many IT base disasters may not be natural disasters as it were alone but ‘events’ such as mayhem from hackers (yahoo-boys), Viruses, Worms, intruders among others.

In view of the above disaster is unavoidable and it is also all encompassing. Be that as it may, there is need for plans to recover in the event of incidents.

Disaster recovery involves a set of policies, tools and procedures to enable the recovery or continuation of vital technology infrastructure and systems following a natural or human-induced disaster. Disaster recovery focuses on the IT or technology systems supporting critical business functions, as opposed to business continuity, which involves keeping all essential aspects of a business functioning despite significant disruptive events. Disaster recovery can therefore be considered as a subset of business continuity (Applegate, et al (2015).

There are various likely natural disasters in the environment. These include: earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, hurricanes, floods, wildfire, and Man-made disasters: Accidents, Power- outage, Telecommunication Outage, Arson, Civil disorder, terrorism and war.

Need for disaster recovery planning (DRP)

These days, organizations must be prepared for everything and anything: from cyber-threats to natural disasters. A DRP is a detailed process foundation, focused on resuming critical business functionality while minimizing losses in revenue (or other business operations).

A proactive DRP is vital according to www.netapps.com (2017) because business managers forge how hard it is to think clearly under the intense pressure of a sudden and unexpected disaster event, especially one that has the potential to severely impact the success of an organization. With the number of threat vectors looming today, it is critical to protect one’s organization against future threats and prepare for recovery from the worst.

On “Backup” Kissell, J. (2007) posits that in ‘information technology, a database backup is the copying into an archive file of computer data that is already in secondary storage so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event.”

According to Kissell backups have two distinct purposes. The primary purpose is to recover data after loss, be it by data deletion or corruption. Data loss is said to be a common experience of computer users. A 2008 survey found that 66% of respondents had lost files on their home PC. The secondary purpose of backups is to recover data from an earlier time, according to a user- defined retention policy, typically configured within a backup application for how long copies of data are required. The backups represent a simple form of disaster recovery, and should be part of any disaster recovery plans. Nelson, (2012) contends that backups by themselves should not be considered a complete DRP. The reason according to another commentator is that not all backup systems are able to reconstitute a computer system or other complex configuration such as a computer cluster, active directory server, or database server by simply restoring data from a backup.(Synder: 2019)

www.technopedia.com defines database backup as the ‘process of backing up operational state, architecture and stored data of database software. It enables the creation of a duplicate instance or copy of a database in case the primary database crashes, is corrupted or lost. It further explains that database backup is a way to protect and restore a database. It is performed through database replication and can be done for a database or a database server.

More so database is created and performed to ensure a company’s compliance with business and government regulations and to maintain and ensure access to critical and essential business data in case of a disaster or technical outage.

Be that as it may, IT specialists posit that “since a backup system contains at least a copy of all data considered worth saving, the data storage space and managing the backup process can be a complicated undertaking.” (Nelson, S. 2011) Further analysts opine that information repository model may be used to provide structure to the storage and that there are many different types of data storage devices that are useful for making backups. There are also many different ways in which these devices can be arranged to provide geographic redundancy, data security, and portability.

2.2 Conceptual framework. The conceptual framework for this study is based on the concept of “a stitch-in-time saves- nine’ effects. The adoption of this framework is the enable the researcher to present a more holistic assessment of the topic under consideration, “Disaster Recovery Database Backup System Model and Banks’ Survival” There is Nigerian proverb which when loosely interpreted is ‘that which is surrounded by enemies, seen or anticipated, guards itself at all times.’ That proverb when applied to this study entails that proactive measures should be put in place to avert or reduce the effect of disasters especially when incidents are inevitable given the pervasiveness of threats. Thus, the concept of a-stitch-in-time saves- nine is deemed appropriate for the study.

The above is in line with Austin, R. D. (2013) assertion that “The economic consequences of ignoring or failing to take effective action in the area of securing database through backup may be dire- the proverbial ‘nine’ lost. A disaster recovery plan is a part of organization’s overall bank business continuity plan. It represents the processes and procedures for recovering one’s technology infrastructure including network, document management system, core system etc. It focuses on the technology that supports bank operations and the steps needed to return one’s technology to normal operations after an incident. Before data are sent to their storage locations, they are selected, extracted, and manipulated. Thus many different techniques have been developed to optimize the backup procedure. These include optimizations for dealing with open files and live data sources as well as compression, encryption, and de-duplication, among others. More so, every backup scheme should include dry runs that validate the reliability of the data being backed up. Thus, it is vital to recognize the limitations and human factors involved in any backup system model.

The basics of a backup system: Experts (Cornford, 2013; Yuga, 2009; Deborah, 2008) argue that ‘any backup strategy starts with a concept of an information repository. The backup data needs to be stored, and should be organized to a degree. The organization could be as simple as a sheet of paper with a list of all backup media such as CDs and the dates they were produced. Nowadays a more sophisticated setup includes a computerized index, catalog, or relational database. Different approaches have different advantages.

Types of repository methods

There are various methods involve in backing up data bases. These are considered as follows:

Unstructured: An unstructured repository may simply be a stack of tapes or CD-Rs or DVD-Rs with minimal information about what was backed up and date. This is the easiest to implement, but probably the least likely to achieve a high level of recoverability as it lacks automation (Coughlin, Tom.2011)

2.3. Theoretical framework

On the issue of DRP some commentators are of the view that the plan is more of budgeting and sponsoring “redundancy”. This group finds no reason why one should spend funds on speculation and an imaginary event that may never happen. According to them managers should rather invest on known projects. Others argue otherwise. These advocates include: Applegate, L. M. (2009) who posits that “Responsible managers must build defenses to secure a company’s information related assets” -its data, infrastructure components, and reputation- against escalating threat.

Robert Bronner, (1997) opines that “Disaster recovery plan is an important part of bank business continuity plan. It is a process or set of procedures that help firms prepare for disruptive events. According to Bronner ‘the goal of the plan is recover and protect a business IT facilities, such as the network, document management system, and core system, in the disruptive events.’ Those events include both natural disaster such as earthquake, ‘tsunamis, hurricane and manmade disasters such as power outage. Analysts maintain that it is impossible that a bank can always avoid disasters, so the disaster recovery plan plays an important role after a bank suffer a disaster. Careful plan would help the bank to minimize downtime and data loss to ensure some level of organizational stability and an orderly recovery after a disaster will prevail. This advocate of DRP observed that banks were among the earliest adopters of information technology in the business world. The widely use of information technology in the bank system forced a new industry- ‘the disaster recovery industry.”

www.studymoose.com averts that ‘the disaster recovery plan is important to the bank, because the benefits it can obtained from drafting of a disaster recovery plan. The basic benefits according to studymoose.com of a disaster recovery plan include:

1. Providing a sense of security
2. Minimizing risk of delays
3. Guaranteeing the reliability of standby systems
4. Providing a standard for testing the plan
5. Minimizing decision-making during a disaster
6. Reducing potential legal liabilities
7. Lowering unnecessarily stressful work environment

Coughlin, Tom. (2011) asserts “Disaster recovery plan is a critical proactive approach to banks.” According to Tom ‘this is because the objective of the disaster recovery plan is to protect the bank does minimize loss during the disaster, planning is vital to the disaster recovery plan.’ The type of disaster recovery plan can vary, but all of them follow three basic measures; (1). Preventive measures, (2) Detective measures, and (3). Corrective measures The purpose of the first measures is to prevent a disaster from occurring. This measure is focus on identifying and reducing risks. Preventive aimed to stop a disaster before happening. These measure try to identify the risks before it happens and reduce the happen ratio. To achieve the prevention purpose, the measures may include keeping data backed up and off site, using surge protectors, installing generators and conducting routine inspections (IDG Communications, 2019).

Detective measures on the other hand are used to find the presence of any unwanted events among the IT infrastructure. They focus on the unfound new potential threats. The measures include installing fire alarms, using up-to-date antivirus software, holding employee training sessions, and installing server and network monitoring software.

The third measure is the system which is focus on restores a system after a disaster or otherwise unwanted event takes place and it is called corrective measure. These measures include keeping critical documents in the Disaster Recovery Plan or securing proper insurance policies (Nelson, S., 2011)

This researcher welcomes the three measures but supports the first that is preventive measure which is the thrust of this study after all it is that prevention is better than cure as it were.

Databases and the Database Approach

In a traditional file-based approach, each application has its own separate files to store relevant data. This may make it easier to develop each individual application, but it may cause longer term problems. It is likely that data will need to be shared between applications, and storing it many times will be wasteful and will lead to inconsistencies (Coughlin, Tom.2011). It has therefore become standard in business to approach data storage using a database approach rather than a file- based approach.

The principles behind this are to store data in an integrated and coordinated manner, so that many users or application programs can share it. Items of data should be stored only once. This will allow improved control of information, avoid inconsistencies and allow security to be carefully managed. On the negative side, a database approach requires careful design, and if done poorly, may allow data errors to propagate among every application that uses the database. Leon, A. (2015) posits “If your bank stores your email address just once, and all applications use that single record when they want to contact you, but it is not entered correctly or is corrupted, then you will get no email from the bank.”

Thus, when designing a database, the data to store has to be carefully assessed and the way it is stored carefully designed to take into account the needs of all the various users and the various requirements they may have (Leon, A.,(2015).

The database approach is supported by using software called a database management system (DBMS). This software takes care of the details of storage of data, and provides the user or the application programs with a simple interface through which they can request items of data and return them for storage. Such interfaces are provided for programs to use as they run and for individual users who wish to extract some information directly from a database on an ad hoc basis (Dean, T., 2009) 2.4. Review of previous literature

Coughlin, Tom.2011) argues that “Database backup is the process of backing up the operational state, architecture and stored data of database software. It enables the creation of a duplicate instance or copy of database in case the primary database crashes, is corrupted or is lost. Backups help to restore computer devices during the process of disaster recovery and restore data after files have undergone damage or deletion.” Database backups, therefore, are essential for protection against data loss that can completely disrupt business operations. www.techopedia.com More so Yuga, C. (2009) opines that “A backup is a copy of data from your database that can be used to reconstruct that data.” Yuga further asserts “Backups can be divided into physical backups, and logical backups. Physical backups are backups of the physical files used in storing and recovering your database, such as datafiles, control files, and archived redo logs.

Margaret Rouse (2017) on the same pedestal posits that “Backup refers to the copying of physical or virtual files or databases to a secondary location for preservation in case of equipment failure or catastrophe. The process of backing up is pivotal to a recovery plan (DRP)”

According to Rouse, Enterprises back up data they deem to be vulnerable in the event of buggy software, data corruption, hardware theft. A database is a collection of related data stored in one place with minimum redundancy. Most business applications record the day to day business transactions through these databases.

Amit Diwan (2018) opines that “database backup basically means that a duplicate of the database information and data created and stored in backup server just to be on the safe side. Transaction logs are also stored in the backup along with the database data because without them, the data would be useless.

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