By now, all business owners should be aware of how important it is to perform regular data backups. Your vital documents could be destroyed in any number of ways. This is even a good idea for most individuals. We all have important emails, docs and photos that we would hate losing.
Has This Ever Happened To You?
You’re one of those cautious people who does make regular backups of your hard drive and phone. Then one day, your phone falls into the ocean while on vacation. Or your laptop is stolen at the airport. Now what?
You buy a new phone or laptop then sit down to install all your old files. But guess what happens? Your external hard drive has become damaged. Your thumb drive keeps giving you an error message. All that data and you can’t gain access to it! Regardless of how scary and unsettling this is for individuals, now imagine you’re a business owner and this same scenario unfolds.
Your IT department makes their backups daily. Then one day, an employee opens an email that contains a malware virus. All your data is destroyed within moments. You rush to the IT department, confident that everything can be restored within a few days. But when the IT guy tries to reinstall your database, something goes wrong. The backup won’t work! When an individual loses all their data, it can be heartbreaking. But when a business owner loses all their data, it can end in bankruptcy.
In addition, you not only need a backup of the data, but you will also need a way to virtualize the backup image locally quickly and off-site in the event of a disaster especially when it comes to critical data like a server or special user. These are complex issues that business owners often leave to their IT department, but you can’t always be certain they’re doing everything by the book.
Are You Asking The Hard Questions?
It’s so important to test your data backups. If you do care about all those documents and photos, then check to make sure that your backups will work if you need them. For the business owner, this couldn’t be more important. And you can’t just assume that your IT department is doing this regularly. Making sure they’re doing their jobs is essential. Even the best-laid plans sometimes fail. There should always be a contingency plan in place.
When it comes to business, that means backing up your data several times per day. And it should be backed up onsite and offsite. But those backups must be viable. Will they work in the time of need? Make sure by making it company policy to not only perform the backups, but test them as well. This is something that all IT professionals should know and do without being told.
It would be great if everyone did their job every day the way they were supposed to. But if you’ve owned a business for very long, you know that this isn’t realistic. As the company owner, it’s your job to double check these important tasks.
Why You Need Reliable Data Backups
Just turn on the news and you’ll see why data backups are so important. These are some of the most recent and the worst:
- In November of 2018, Marriott and Starwood properties lost 500 million records to hackers. They lost the personal information of half a billion customers. If you’ve ever stayed at a hotel, then you know the type of information that you must give them. They want your driver’s license number, your car’s license plate number, your home address, where you work—the list goes on. If you’ve ever stayed at a Marriott, then there’s a good chance all your personal information is for sale right now on the Dark Web.
- In September of 2018, Facebook lost 50 million records of Facebook users. They would not acknowledge precisely what was stolen but finally admitted that hackers did have access to anything posted at Facebook for 50 million of its users. You’ve got photos, personal info, and no telling what else on Facebook. Could hackers have pics of your family and friends?
- In August 2018, T-Mobile lost the data for 2 million of its users. They confirmed that the data did not include billing information but it did include account info, names, addresses, email addresses—no telling what else.
With startling data breaches like this occurring each year, we should all be more proactive about our data backups. We must make them regularly and we must test them to make sure they will work if need be. There’s just no other way to get your laptop or phone data restored in case of emergency. And for a business owner, the stakes are high. It’s not just photos and letters from friends and family; it’s your livelihood.
Are Backups Easier With The Cloud?
If you own a business, make it standard operating policy to test these backups each day. If you work with a good managed IT service, then that’s their job. They know how important this is and most will be performing and testing backups regularly. It’s still a topic you should address with them. If you’re using the cloud to back up your data, then this can be a safe and reliable way to make sure that your database will be there when you need it.
Do You Need Some Professional Guidance?
Your managed IT provider can manage, monitor and maintain a cloud-based Infrastructure more manageable. They will often see issues and resolve them before they cause trouble. This means fewer interruptions to your business operations and less downtime. Using a centralized cloud-based location means less time going back and forth with your managers to acquire and verify the information. There are lots of great reasons to choose the cloud and dependable data backups are just one of them.
Talk to your IT department or your managed services provider to get more information about this critical topic.
