Improve your backup routines

Don't run the risk of loosing your business data

Data backup is crucial for securing the continuity of your business. The possibility of loosing valuable files are present at any time, and even if you are very careful you cannot guarantee that one of your employees won't suffer data loss. According to statistics; every year 43% of computer users loose irreplaceable files. Records show that around 13 % of new hard-disks crash within the first year. The best defense against loss of critical data is proper data protection.

What if you have all backups on one computer - then your business data will be gone for ever if your company experience hard-disk crash, power surge, theft, virus, fire, flood, tornadoes, earthquakes and hurricanes .., . or if you accidentally delete files.

Still you are having paper copies of business data, you say? Well, copying is not adequate data protection; what will you have if your business premises burn down to the ground?

The loss of critical data can be financially fatal for your company.

And in addition, businesses are legally obligated to keep certain data records for a certain number of years – and if they do not, it can lead to prosecution and penalties if vital data cannot be provided upon request.

Data backup is not always a number one priority when you run a business, but it ought to be on the top of the list.

How can you ensure that all your data is backed up securely?

You will need to establish a data backup system.

Archive your business data regularly

• First; identify the critical data that needs to be archived
• Use data archiving and backup methods on a regular schedule

Create data backups on reliable media

Create physical data backups of your business data at least once a week, or even more often if your business generates large amounts of new data daily. When it comes to backing up your data, pick more than one way to preserve your data. Choose the backup techniques and technologies that best align with your business needs and that automate as much as your backup efforts as possible:

• CD-Rom
• Tapes
• External hard drives
• Online automatic backup services that offers both the convenience of a regular backup routine and the security of replicated off-site data protection

Off-Site Data Backup Protection - Ensure that backup copies are safe

Keep updated data backups in a physically secure off-site location. Many businesses keep their data backup copies in security boxes at banks, at home, or at the homes of family and friends. The only businesses that should keep their backups on-site are the ones with fireproof indestructible safes.

If you have experienced a hard-disk crash you can of course reinstall software programs, but recovering the details of correspondence or transactions is impossible when those files are lost.

Maintain backup logs

so you can track your backup activities.

Revisit your backups

Revisit your backups, restore risks, procedures and technologies to ensure they are adequate as business needs and conditions evolve.

Dispose of backup media carefully

Ensure that they are physically destroyed so that their contents can't be read by unauthorized people.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Remember backup of email files as they are usually NOT part of the backup data files!