As we have discussed in the past, having a robust and reliable plan to back-up and secure your data is one of the most important things you can do to protect your business. In fact, some studies have indicated that a small business which suffers a significant loss of their data has only a 10% chance of survival. With that sobering statistic in mind, let’s take another look at what you can do to protect your data.
With many companies moving to cloud-based services for off-site hosting and storage, business owners are finding that the need for physical back-up is decreasing. Still, a physical data backup remains a useful option for many reasons, and can still act as a key component of your business continuity planning.
Did You Know? Due to the critical nature of business data, experts recommend that organizations utilize two or three methods of data backup.
Back-Up Storage Options
The workplace has changed dramatically in the last decade. Employee laptops or personal devices routinely leave the premises; while many organizations simply allow their employees to use their own computers at home. These computers may be utilizing one or more physical devices, which may be used for data back-up. More often, however, they are simply a means of transporting data easily.
External Hard Drive: An external hard drive is just like the storage mechanism inside your device or computer, and can store any type of file. Some external drives are portable and can be carried and moved, while others are designed to sit on your desk. The external drive is easily synced to the host device via a USB cable, allowing files to be saved. You can keep the drive connected, or do regular backups and remove the external drive to a different location for more protection.
Flash Drives: Flash drives are also known as thumb drives or jump drives. These tiny drives can be held in the palm of your hand, making them an exceptionally easy way to store and transport data. (You may wish to provide employees with flash drives which can be affixed to their ID lanyard or keyring. )
The storage chip in a thumb drive utilizes flash memory, which can be erased and reused. The flash drive direct connects through a USB port. Although this option is very popular due to the ease and portability, the smaller drive does generally offer less storage capacity than an external drive.
Ensuring Backup Reliability
Both of the above solutions can be easily managed by your employees. However, this may present your company with a glaring vulnerability – human error or forgetfulness. People are notoriously remiss when it comes to backing up their files and applications, a fact that IT managers can attest to. Compounding the problem is the fact that a hard drive can fail at any time, and with little warning.
Therefore, you may wish to put processes in place which ensure backup on a regular basis. One option is to set a regular time for company-wide backups to be performed.
As noted earlier, experts recommend at least two methods of backup in order to be most secure. Even if your staff utilizes external or flash drives on a regular basis, consider saving your information to the cloud as well. Cloud-based solutions allow for your employees to access and save data and programs on a remote, secure offsite server, instead of your computer’s hard drive. An experienced managed services firm can help you to determine the best offsite storage options for your organization.
How to Most Effectively Use Physical Backup
There is no denying the ease and flexibility of saving and carrying data via a portable drive. Still, these methods are also more vulnerable to loss, damage, or theft. Therefore, physical backups should never be relied upon as a sole means of protecting company data. In fact, experts believe that in this day and age, your company’s physical data backup solutions should only be used to augment your digital and cloud-based data backup.
For more information and advice as to how to best back up and protect your valuable data, contact the expert team at Suncoast Business Solutions today.
