A production environment cannot be conceived without a backup policy. Not having a backup compromises overall productivity directly or indirectly related to the database. It is pretty evident that your job and that of the people responsible for the operation will be compromised as well. Performing a backup is a must do task in all production environments, but testing the backup doesn't seem to be as important for some corporations. Testing a backup is as important as performing the backup itself.
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A useless backup is equivalent to not having a backup at all. At the least, it wastes time that could have been used to formulate alternate strategies.
When asked about a backup policy most declare they have one implemented. On the other hand, when asked about a test policy, very few hands are raised. Then, what is the acid test for every backup? Most of the times the answer is: it is required after a real life failure scenario. The reason why most people don't implement a test policy...