Backing up Computer Data

Effectively backing up computer data is critical to your business success. Do you have a computer data backup system in place? Don't put your business at risk with ineffective backup computer processes.

The following article on Protecting Your Data has been contributed by Tom Chalker from Take-Back-Your-Data

Computer Data Backup

In the event of a computer breakdown or an office fire, you might be able to recover your year-end financials from your accountant or your banker, but what about your customer database or the history of your suppliers pricing?

How much time would your employees have to expend to recreate the marketing materials you have accumulated over the last year?
Here’s a sobering statistic:

“60% of companies that lose their data will shut down within 6 months of the disaster.”

Purchasing brand new computer equipment does not necessarily guarantee data safety. A Google study revealed that computer hard-drives were most likely to fail either in the first three months of their life or after two years of use.

Backing up computer files

How to protect your data

Your staff can perform regular data backups of your ‘Documents’ folder of each computer to DVDs or USB Sticks

You can subscribe to an on-line backup service which transfers the contents of selected folders from each computer for storage offsite.

The former approach seems cheaper, but you must factor in the time spent performing the backups, and more importantly, the management effort of ensuring they are performed regularly and that the media is stored safely off-site.

The latter approach, the on-line backup service, automatically protects your data and typically costs less than $20 per month –less than the two hours you and your staff would spend over the same period of time. The initial setup of the service might take an hour or so, but that’s a one-time effort.

Is it safe?

There are two things to watch for when assessing a potential service:

Make sure the product encrypts your data before it leaves your computers (as opposed to merely providing a ‘secure channel’ to transfer the data to their facility)

Don’t choose a service that offers to manage your ‘encryption keys’ for you. The keys should only be held by you.

The right data protection solution can give you peace of mind that your business is safe from a data disaster. As a bonus, some solutions may also allow you to access your data remotely, either from home or on the road.

If you would like to learn more about the pros and cons of different strategies, please visit Tom's site at take-back-your-data

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