Backup and Recovery

NES utilizes multiple online backup vaults to store data. The data vaults are geographically spread out to ensure the survival of CSU's critical information. Each backup vault is a self contained unit. It requires no additional hardware or software to access its contents.

While we will make a "best effort" attempt at recovering an individual's accidentally deleted content, our primary purpose for backups is to recover from a system failure. Our file servers store up 60 days worth of daily snapshots. This allows individuals to recover data from previous versions on their own.

Faculty, staff, and student mailboxes have a Deleted Item retention of up to 365 days depending on the mailbox database. Usually, when you delete an item from a mailbox folder such as your InBox, that item will be moved to the Deleted Items folder. If you use Outlook to delete an item from your Deleted Items folder, Outlook will prompt you to confirm that you want to permanently delete the item. If you choose to, then that item will be moved to what is commonly referred to as the Dumpster. The Dumpster is where the deleted item retention comes in to play. The Deleted Item retention policy determines how long items remain in the Dumpster.