It’s hard to keep your company safe from danger — hackers, accidents and natural disasters happen every day. Here are some questions you may be asking yourself:
After more than 20 years in IT service, we learned a thing or two. It all comes down to a well-planned data backup strategy. Here’s what businesses new to this idea need to know.
Data backup is the process of protecting business information from both physical and digital risk.
Check out 6 Ways to Protect Your Technology From a Hurricane for more ways to save your data!
REDUNDANCY : The method of having duplicated information, including backups for backups.
Example: A business can have both onsite and offsite backups.
What if something happens to your backups? We recommend our clients back up their important data both locally and offsite.
Even if a flood or fire destroys your onsite backups, your offsite/remote backups are safe. This data backup strategy ensures you can keep working with no hiccups.
Compare these two businesses:
BUSINESS 1:Business 1 decided to take a risk and not back up their data. Hackers breach their network, locking their files and demanding a $2,000 ransom.Business 1 has no choice but to give into the hackers’ demands to get their data back. Not only will Business 1 have to pay the ransom, they’ve also lost time and the trust of their consumers.
BUSINESS 2:Business 2 understands the value of backing up data. They’ve done their homework and determined the best way to back up data is on a local server and the cloud. Hackers breach Business 2’s network, locking their files and demanding a $2,000 ransom.Thanks to working backups, Business 2 isn’t held hostage by the hackers. They can access their backup files from the cloud and continue working while the ransom mess is dealt with.
Making calculated moves is just part of business. But don’t gamble on security.
“What’s the risk of losing my data versus the cost to back it up? Is the security worth that much?” Security and peace of mind is worth it.
Just like when you lock your front door, when you back up your data, you protect your company against risks such as data breaches, data loss, and data stealing.
What can backup solutions do for your business? Backup solutions can:
"SCALABILITY : The ability of a company to sustain or better its profitability or efficiency when its sales volume increases."
People buy things when they know they can trust the product or service. If your business loses consumers’ trust, it will lose customers.
With the proper backup system, your business will continue to operate even if something happens to your data.
Data backup can minimize or even eliminate product or service delivery halts, which helps you maintain that consumer trust.
If your employees can’t access the files they need to work, your business can’t run. Costs from that downtime can really add up. Not only will you lose money, but you’ll lose critical time as your employees try to catch up on their responsibilities.
The worst-case scenario for a business without backup plans is hackers. Once they have breached your security, hackers can take control of your data and hold it for ransom. To get your data back, you could have to pay enormous amounts of money.
A company with a data backup plan avoids this problem all together.
Your IT environment has a great impact on your business and its ability to grow. There’s computer space, server rooms, and more to worry about. With cloud storage, you need minimal IT space in the office. That’s space given back to your business.
It’s more important than ever to access information anywhere. Are your employees set up to work from home? Do you hire remote workers? Are there unnecessary complications when you try to work anywhere outside the office?
With the cloud, your team can access business data anywhere they have an internet connection. This promotes a better work-life balance among employees. Happy employees means higher job satisfaction and productivity.
Learn the 4 Ways To Improve Company Culture with tips on how to keep employees happy for the long term!
You can lose everything when you don’t have backup data. Businesses with no backups can:
Before we talk strategies, let’s go over some data backup terminology. There are 6 key terms that you should question any data backup provider about.
Make sure you know all the questions you should ask a managed service company at How to Choose the Best IT Provider.
Each strategy has its pros and cons, but all three make data recovery much easier. Talking to a local IT company can give you a good perspective on which strategy is right for your business.
Learn more about the differences between Public and Private Clouds by understanding Which Cloud is Best for Me?
Anything can happen. Without proper backups, your data could be lost forever. Backup data, whether through cloud backups, hardware backups, or software backups, ensures you have a failsafe for life’s unknowns. The certainty backups give you allows your company to continue with confidence.
Find more strategies to protect your business against disaster. Check out IT Disaster Recovery Plan: Your Back Ups Aren’t Enough