Data backup is a huge concept in the world of business. It seems like everyone is doing it, and you may be following suit, but have you ever asked yourself why? What could go wrong if you didn’t maintain current backups of all of your files? In reality, it’s very unlikely that anything major will ever happen, causing you to lose most or all of your files, but if it were to happen. it would be a huge disaster for your company, leaving you closed for several days, at the very least. In some cases, it could even lead to you closing your doors forever. Here are a few things that could cause something so terrible.

Natural disaster

One of the worst possibilities is a natural disaster. A fire or a tornado could destroy your office building. A hurricane or earthquake could destroy some or all of the buildings in the area, including any data storage centers you may have near you. This is one of the main reasons that it’s so important to keep at least one backup copy off-site. A great way to do this is through the cloud, because your data will be stored at different places around the country, and hopefully immune to any single natural disaster.

Employee error

Unfortunately, people aren’t perfect. You’re employees don’t know everything there is to know about computers, and eventually, one of them will make a mistake. It will probably just be accidentally deleting the file they were working on, or turning off a computer while it’s updating, but in the off-chance that an employee were to accidentally delete a whole set of files, such as all of the accounting records from the last five years, chaos would follow, unless you have a good backup waiting to repopulate the system.

Hacker attack

There are some pretty bad people in the world. Some of them want access to your data, and some just want to hurt your company, for whatever reason. Although preventing these attacks is a conversation for another time, it’s important to remember that a hacker attack, whether or not it’s intentional, can destroy files, often important ones. Preventing these attacks is very important, but because you can never be absolutely sure that it will never happen, it’s also important to prepare for the possibility.

Virus

Although a hacker could intentionally use a virus to get into your system, there are also numerous very harmful viruses circulating that are no longer attached to any person. All it takes is for an employee to open an e-mail that shouldn’t be opened, or the download of a software that isn’t what it says it is. Some of the worst viruses have the potential of wiping out an entire system. It would be very unfortunate to lose your entire file system all because someone opened an e-mail, but it is always a possibility. Make sure you are prepared.

Fault in hardware or software

Although computer equipment and software is general very well designed, it can never be perfect. Servers will eventually get old and break. Depending on which part goes bad, you may immediately lose access to the files stored there forever. Software isn’t perfect either. After all, it was designed by a human. Although software bugs usually cause small annoyances, such as a slow computer, or having to redo something, there is always the possibility of a major bug going unnoticed.

As you can see, there is a number of things that could go wrong, potentially erasing part, or all of your file system. Make sure you’re prepared by creating backups of your entire system. For help with this, or anything else, contact us. We’re here to help.

If you run a business, you probably know by this point how important it is to back up your data. You know that not backing everything up could easily result in a loss of data, and that a loss of data could mean any number of disasters, from a loss of continuity to a complete shut-down of the company. Given this, you may already have a backup system set up, but whether or not you do, there is always something else to learn. Here are a few tips and tricks on how to most effectively and efficiently back up your data.

Do it

This is the most important thing that can be said about data backup. This is not the time to do lots of research and spend six months designing the perfect plan. You’ll be better off doing a little rough research and picking something as soon as possible, because you never know when disaster will strike. You can always update your plan later, when you’ve had more time to think about it. It may be a little extra work, but it will be a lot less work than trying to recreate all of the data lost because of data loss occurring before you had a chance to start anything.

Follow the three and one rule

The three and one rule says that all of your data should be stored in at least three different places, and at least one of them should be off-site. This means that you could store two copies of your data in the same closet, but the third copy needs to be in a completely different facility. Imagine that a horrible disaster struck your office. Obviously, the primary copies of your data would be destroyed. Where could you put that third copy, that it would still be safe and retrievable?

Automate as much as possible

Set up as much of the backup process as possible to be automatic. The computer won’t forget to upload when it’s time, or accidentally save files to the wrong place, or write over files that shouldn’t be written over, but humans make mistakes. The more you can get the computer to do, the safer your data will be. It will also be much easier on you if the computer does it for you rather than having to spend time and energy doing it manually.

Consider using a company

Consider hiring a company to take care of your backups. All you’ll have to do is connect your files to them and they’ll take care of the rest. They’ll make sure that everything gets uploaded to the correct place at the correct time. They’ll also make sure that the data is safe. Most of these companies base their storage in the cloud, which means that many copies of your data will be stored in many different locations, all over the United States or farther.

Do routine audits

Every so often, maybe every quarter, take a fresh look at what your data backup system looks like. Most of the time, it will still be running just fine, but every once in a while, you’ll find that something isn’t functioning like it’s supposed to, or you’ll realize that you need to change something to fit your needs or keep up with the times. Unfortunately, backup systems are not something you can ignore and expect to work forever, but as long as you audit your system routinely, you should be able to keep everything in order.

Do you have more questions about backing up your data? Feel free to contact us. We’re experts, and we’re happy to help you with anything that you need.