Do you have a plan to protect your business information in case of disasters? Unfortunately, not every company does the work to create a backup plan. And when 20% of businesses experience some sort of data loss every five years because of a disaster, you need to do whatever possible to protect your company’s information.
Data backup is one of the most critical parts of your IT infrastructure, but getting up and running isn’t always straightforward. Check out the blog below to learn why data backup and recovery are worth doing and how you can develop a backup system of your own.
Why Is Data Backup Important?
It’s not easy to invest money in data backup services when you don’t understand what they offer. Check out the points below to learn why working with a data backup company makes sense.
Greater Security
Security has been a growing concern for businesses over the past decade. As more companies move online, they need to do more to protect themselves from online threats. And when there were more than 293 million records breached in 2021, that means securing your data.
A rogue virus can completely wipe your data from your company’s computers. Since your computers are connected to a network, those viruses can spread and infect every machine connected. If you end up with ransomware, your files will get locked and held for ransom.
That’s why a backup solution provides better security. While you do still need to protect your business as much as possible, you won’t need to worry as much about data loss.
If something bad ever does happen, you can feel secure that you can quickly restore lost data.
Store File Versions
Data loss isn’t the only reason you should back up your business files. People will inevitably modify files with the information they believe is correct. However, that doesn’t mean the changes are always accurate.
Unfortunately, there are some situations when it’s challenging to return to previous file versions. You have to go back into the file and redo everything that’s wrong. If it takes too long to catch the mistake, a system without version history won’t be able to restore the previous version either.
The good news is that many online backup systems have version history for your files. You can see the last several file versions and quickly restore one of those versions. That means you can roll back information to a previous date without doing manual work.
Quick Recovery Time
One of the biggest problems with losing data is lost productivity. Data your employees rely on to get the job done must always be accessible. If something happens that results in data loss, much of your team won’t be able to function.
Every minute that data is gone is money your company loses. That’s why you need systems in place to return that data and return to normal.
A cloud data backup and recovery solution gives you that ability. You can log into your cloud backup solution whenever you want and select every file you want to restore. This functionality occurs with a few clicks of a button, so you don’t need to spend much time restoring your critical business files.
Simply decide which data is most important and start the restoration process there.
Comply With Regulations
A backup solution isn’t just an excellent capability to have in many situations. Many industries are held to a higher standard when it comes to data. It’s the law in those industries to back up your data in a secure location.
Take the financial industry, for instance. You have countless regulations depending on whether you’re processing transactions, storing money, or other financial activities. It’s your responsibility to protect your customer data from hackers and data loss.
Your data backup and IT services solution will give you the protection you need. Visit Be Structured here to learn how an IT solutions company can help you create a backup solution to meet your regulatory requirements.
How You Can Start Backing Up Data Today
Now that you understand all the benefits of a data backup solution, you need to learn how to implement one in your business. Follow the steps below to create a data backup plan that protects your vital data.
Identify Critical Data
The chances are good that you don’t need to back up all the data on your computer systems. Take people who store personal data on their desktop computers, for instance. That can add up to a lot of data and add zero value to your backup.
On top of that, it wastes backup space that you pay for. If you want a more robust backup that doesn’t cost a fortune, you must focus on the most critical information your company stores.
Only store data on the backup systems that your company needs to operate. That includes information you regularly access and data that doesn’t change.
Pick a Backup Medium
You have a couple of choices when it comes to backup systems. Each has pros and cons, so you’ll need to learn about each one.
The first is a physical backup. You store data on tape drives and transport your data off-site. Your information is offline, so it’s secure against hackers.
However, restoring this data takes time since you need to retrieve it yourself.
The other is a cloud backup system. You can automatically back up your data to a cloud server on a schedule. As a result, you can access your data anytime and restore your files with a few clicks of a button.
Some companies use both methods as extra security. It’s a great option if you have sensitive data you can’t afford to lose.
Find a Backup Vendor
It’s time to choose a backup provider once you determine how you’ll perform backups. You need to count on your backup provider to offer security guarantees and uptime, so you can’t make this decision lightly.
Check each backup provider to see what options they offer. Are they a hardware vendor that offers tape backups? Do you have cloud backup solutions that provide desktop software that can automatically back up your files for you?
You’ll also need to look at pricing. The more information you have to back up, the more space and money you’ll need. Some backup companies also offer additional features for more money, so look at the features you get for the monthly fee.
Create a Backup Schedule
The next step to creating a backup plan is determining how often your backups happen. This will depend on how often you use your data and its importance.
Take files that you modify every day, for instance. You’ll need to back up this information daily if you want to be up to date when you restore your data.
However, files that don’t get used often don’t need to be backed up that often. It’s fine to do these backups weekly or monthly to avoid excess internet usage.
A lot of backup software allows you to back up data on different schedules, so see if that’s an ability you can use.
Test Your Backup System
You shouldn’t just trust your backup solution once you have it set up. Everything may appear to be working, but you may run into a situation where it doesn’t work right, and you end up unable to restore your data.
You need to test your backup system to avoid this problem in the future. Examine your backup files once you start backing up data. You must ensure all the files you need to back up are in your system and that things are being backed up on the proper schedule.
You also need to test your restoration functions. Files may not always correctly back up to cloud servers. It pays to do test restorations to ensure the files you restore will be correct and not corrupt.
Don’t just do this one time and be done with it, either. Regularly test your backup system to ensure nothing goes wrong with it in the future.
Don’t Wait to Start Using Data Backup Services
Data management is one of the most important parts of running a business today, so you can’t afford to take half measures to keep it safe. Unfortunately, there will be times when bad things happen that cause you to lose information.
The question is, do you have systems in place to protect your data when this happens? If you don’t, invest in data backup as soon as possible to start protecting your company’s information.
Do you want to learn more tips to help manage your company’s IT infrastructure? Learn more IT tips by checking out the blog.
