Businesses today generate a lot of data. Things like newsletters, spreadsheets, images, and more are all generated and stored at an astounding rate. But without the correct backup system, your business could see a disaster. In this post, we discuss why your business needs a backup strategy, as well as best practices.

Studies show that only 3 out of 4 of businesses typically recover from a crippling data loss that lasts more than ten days. This could be anywhere from a server crash, to a failed hard drive, or even datacenter down times (anyone else remember Amazonageddon 2017?). Yet, despite the dangers, almost half of businesses in the US do not have an effective data strategy.

Data Loss Statistics

Data loss is something that no business ever wants to go through, but unfortunately, it does happen. No business is immune to hardware failure, natural disasters, or even human error. 

• The leading cause of data loss is due to hardware failure/server room failures - a whopping 44%.
• Natural disasters account for the least amount of reported data losses at only 3%.
• Only 4% of business workstations are regularly backed up.
• The average cost of one hour of downtime is between $25,000 to $50,000.
• Each year, over 600,000 laptops are lost or stolen in airports.
• A study by Google found that one out of every two hard drives will fail every five years.
• 77% of businesses that have only one backup source have found failures, causing significant data loss

With these disturbing numbers, it's no wonder that data storage is number one on the priority list of most businesses.

Developing an Effective Data Strategy

As soon as your business begins to store information, it needs a backup strategy. It is your responsibility to protect confidential client, business, and transaction information. Ask yourself these difficult, but important questions: "How long will my business survive without network access? Without telephones? What would we do without our computer systems, appications, and business data?" -- you will quickly realize just how important a lot of your data really is.

What Data Should Be Backed Up?

In short, all of it. It's best to be safe in cases like this, but if you have a finite amount of storage, you should keep duplicate copies of legal documents, client information, transactions, and other critical business information. The best way to decide on which information you should store versus risk is asking, "What do I do on a daily basis? Which programs do I use? What content do I access?"

One of the companies I'd worked for had experienced significant data loss in the form of a server crash. I wasn't aware of how many different types of files I had to access until I couldn't any more. Redoing reports from scratch was a nightmare, and we'd lost a lot of material."

- Anonymous

Data Backup Best Practices

Protecting your business can be easy if you follow these data backup best practices:

Backup Often

We can't stress this enough: every day is world backup day. Backup early, backup often. Even a power blip can cause hours or days of data to be lost if you don't backup regularly.

The 3-2-1 Rule

The 3-2-1 Rule is one of data backup's necessities to prevent data loss. In short, the 3-2-1 rule is to: keep at least 3 copies of your data on 3 separate devices, have your data on at least 2 different types of devices, and make sure at least 1 copy of your data is stored off site. 

Test Your Equipment

If you have onsite equipment such as a server (or even external hard drive), don't forget to test it periodically to be ahead of the curve. If your devices are showing early signs of failure, replace early to avoid any potential data loss.

Have a Disaster Recovery Plan

No one wants to think about the worst case scenario, but you need to be prepared if something catastrophic does happen. Keep a hard copy of this one; if it were on your server and it fails, the point of the document would be moot.

Common Data Storage Options

There are dozens of types of storage options available to businesses that can be used separately or in tandem. This is only a sampling of the options available for your business, but should give you a good idea of what could work for your business.

1. Cloud-based storage: Often used interchangeably with the phrase remote backup, this is where your data is transferred through the Internet to a data center with encryption via username and password. The data is then accessible through any other computer with an Internet connection.
2. Direct Attached Storage (DAS): DAS is digital storage that is attached directly to your computer or local network. Things like external hard drives or local servers are considered DAS.
3. Network Attached Storage (NAS): A NAS is a type of dedicated file storage system that is connected to a network. The biggest benefit to a NAS system is the immediate availability of the same files to a multitude of users simultaneously.
4. Offline methods: Also referred to as a cold backup, an offline backup is where your data is downloaded offline and unable to be updated. Examples of this type are CDs, flash drive, and sometimes external hard drives. This type of backup is typically the safest for sensitive data as it isn't as easy to overwrite data unwittingly.
5. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) backup: An FTP backup is where the backup is sent via an FTP through the Internet into an FTP server. Typically this server is hosted offsite in a data center, which is referred to as offsite backup.

 Still not certain on which backup solution is best for you? You can always reach out to one of V-Soft's data experts and have a free consultation where you discuss your needs. Our experts will then craft a data roadmap for your business and share their findings with your business. All of this for no cost and no hassle--and we'll even buy you lunch for your trouble. Ready to find out more? Click here to set up a meeting.