Data is a precious commodity in today’s world, and as a business, you handle it in a thousand ways every day — even if you don’t realize it. Protecting that data is more important than ever now, with all of the events that have been happening in the last couple years. After all, you’d be devastated if you lost yours, wouldn’t you? The question is: What can you do to ensure that it’s protected?
This is where data backups come in.
Disaster comes in many forms — it could be something as simple as a typo in the wrong place, or it could be as huge as an actual, well, natural disaster. No matter what your business is, the data you handle is the core of your operations. Customer information, financial figures, product information — lose any piece of that data and you can bring your business screeching to a halt.
Here are 6 common ways data loss could occur:
- File corruption
- Virus and malware attack
- Human error
- Site-related disasters
- Hardware failure
- Theft — both internal, and external
Another thing you should keep in mind: simply backing up your data sporadically isn’t going to cut it. Sure, a back up of old data is better than nothing at all, but your data is changing on a daily basis. Why waste all that time re-entering and repopulating all the new data that your months-old backup doesn’t have? How can you even be sure you’re not missing vital chunks of information when you’re doing that?
Setting up a regular, timely backup plan for your data saves you time, money, frustration, and heartache. It keeps your business running smoothly, money flowing in, and your customers and fellow businesses happy!
You need to prepare for the worst.
Having data backups done regularly is a great step towards protecting your business’s precious data, but that alone isn’t enough. What happens if a flood, hurricane or fire destroys your entire building and everything in it — including your main working servers AND your backup servers? Sure, you had backups, but now they’re gone!
In order to create a good disaster recovery plan, you need to think of all the ways you could potentially suffer a loss of your data — or ways to access that data — and make sure you have a way to combat that. In fact, it’s better if you have more than one backup plan, just in case the first one gets messed up or becomes infeasible due to circumstances.
Working with a qualified and capable Technology and IT company is going to be the biggest step you’ll want to take when you start creating your disaster plan. They’ll have the knowledge you need in order to make the best decisions for your business and data, as well as being able to help you implement your plan the second disaster strikes.
When you look at it, having a good disaster recovery plan isn’t just about protecting your business’s data. You’re protecting your business itself, your employees, your investors, your customers, and every other company you’re tied to or have done business with. You’re protecting the hard work and dedication that went into building that business. You’re protecting the trust that your customers, employees, and colleagues have in you. You’re also protecting all the future interactions your business is going to have — customers, colleagues, and future hires into your company.
When you have a good disaster recovery plan, you’re telling everyone that you take your business seriously and you care about their future — and yours. You’re helping to prevent having to close your business down, which happens quite often to companies that suffer data losses with no plan in place to get things back up and running. You’re also giving yourself piece of mind, knowing that you’ve things handled in case the worst happens — a lot like car, home, or life insurance!
Data loss can happen to any business at any time — have you protected your data yet?