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Data Backup Solutions

Does Your Business have a Reliable Data Backup Solution?

Did you know that many business do not back up their most important files and information? Did you know that 60% of the companies that lose their data will be out of business in the next six months? Did you know that 34% of businesses fail to test their backups and when they do 77% of the businesses find data backup failures.*

If you were to lose all of your most important business files and information, how would you feel? Most likely, you would be devastated.

Every week, we see hard drives fail or tough viruses that can wipe out all information. There is one virus, which is called the Cryptolocker, which can encrypt all data on a server or a computer and there is nothing that can be done to recover it. Also, power surges, hackers, fires, floods and unhappy employees are some other reasons that businesses can lose their most important information. Given these threats, it is amazes us that many businesses do not even protect themselves with a proper backup.

Data Backup Options

There are many small business data backup options to make sure your business is protected. You can backup locally to a device on your network or attached to your server/computer. You can also do a remote or online backup to the cloud. There are pros and cons of each approach. Many times, it is best to combine both to ensure the best protection for your business.

Local Server and PC Data Backup Pros and Cons

Local data backup to an external hard drive or network attached storage device gives you the advantage of having a copy easily available if you need to restore something. Unfortunately, this type of computer backup does not protect against some viruses, fires, floods, hackers and unhappy employees deleting information.

Online Storage Backup Pros and Cons

Remote data backups can protect you against some of the threats that local backups cannot. Usually, they are easy to set up and automate. They have become very secure and reliable. One negative of online backups is that it can be time consuming to restore information from the web. Depending on your quantity of data and Internet connection, it may take a long time to download the files you want. In some cases, online backup companies will load your information on an external hard drive and mail it to you to speed up the process.

Another negative of online data backups is that they are usually only good for backing up files. They do not allow you to back up everything (Operating System, programs and files) on a server or computer.

Other Options

Besides these options, we normally recommend having an image backup to speed up recovery time. An image backup takes a snapshot of a server or computer at one point in time. This speeds up the recovery time because all you have to do is restore the snapshot. This can be a great option for some businesses, like accounting firms, which cannot wait all day for a server to be rebuilt. Within an hour or two, a server can be up and running with an image restore.

Besides image backups, there are a lot of other exciting new types of backups for businesses. We have a new technology which can lead to very little downtime, if a business server experiences a hard drive failure or another disaster. Those using the affected server will barely notice any change from normal activities.

Act Immediately

Because of the many possible disasters that could occur, it is important that you set up or double check your small business data backup now. It is also recommended that you have several backups to have as much protection as possible. While one backup may fail, another may be working properly.

It is also essential to check your backup regularly. Once they are set up, server or PC backups may fail for a variety of reasons. We have seen cases where business thought they had a working backup and discovered that it was not working properly, sometimes for 6 months to a year. Often times, it is easy to correct any backup issue.

Consult a Pro

If you are unsure which backup solution for small business is the best for you, please feel free to consult a qualified IT professional like us.

Check out these useful references:

Small Business Data Backup Statistics: Boston Computing

Small Business Data Backup Study: Business Backup Practices Are Inadequate

PC Backup: The Beginner’s Guide to PC Backup

Backup Software Reviews: 2014 Best Server Backup Software Reviews

* Source: https://www.bostoncomputing.net/consultation/databackup/statistics/