Contrary to popular belief, keeping your most precious business belongings at the office is not the safest place for them to be. Large corporations often take their financial reports and move them offsite for the sake of privacy and archiving. However, they also make sure they do not leave any contracts they are involved in ‘on the books’. Very sensitive information has to be taken off the premises and stored in both online and real-world spaces. The reason for this is simple, commercial buildings may have good security but sometimes the real enemy is from within. It’s not uncommon for businesses to spy on each other, but getting employees to turn on their own business is not so farfetched. If an employee is about to leave your business and go to a rival, they might leave with a parting shot of getting their new boss a copy of your quarterly sales figures. Not good. This sort of this is the reason why some of the most important information in your business must find a place to be stored offsite.
Offsite storage practices
Bear in mind, that offsite storage is not an easy task. Firstly, it will cost you as real-world storage of documents is somewhat of an artform. Documents written hundreds of years ago are kept alive and well thanks to expert forensic safekeeping and maintaining of those documents. For businesses, they will need to utilize various techniques from such services. Secondly, you will need to determine where you store the documents. Will they be a short drive away or perhaps far from your office? Who should you tell about your hard copy versions?
If done correctly, you can keep your documents in very good shape. It’s wise to put your documents in plastic sleeves and into a hardback folder. The folder itself should be placed into a zip lock plastic bag. This will protect the documents, files and folders from dust and dirt over the years. It’s wise to store your most important documents such as contracts, asset ownership records and performance reports that you’ll use for receiving investment in a storage facility. Make sure the service you use for this offers insurance. Lastly, you should only tell you most senior and trusted employees where your documents are being stored. In the event you’re not able to carry on in your responsibilities, they can take over as and when needed.
What even qualifies?
By now you’re probably thinking two things. You didn’t even know that business document storage was a thing and what even qualifies for such careful storage in the first place? Incredibly precious documents that involve your history qualify. These documents will be keeping records that date back to when the business was first created. The owner, executives, C level employees, assets and investors etc, will all have their names and key roles written in black and white. This way you can use such documents in a court of law as proof of ownership and existence in the business registry of your country. Business contracts are also very sensitive material which you don’t want in the hands of the media or your competitors. Secret stakes and other investments must also stored properly so you keep them just that, secret.
A modern equivalent
These days offsite storage is not always done in a traditional real-world context. Instead these days you can get a quote for colocation services which allow you to rent out real-world space in a data center. It’s free to receive the quote, the company will match you with buyers that can provide you with cost-effective and reputable services. Colocation is when you have your own hardware and server space. Everything you need is provided such as cooling, power, bandwidth, physical servers and also security. Essentially, it’s an offsite yet online storage service which you can keep all your documents on.
These kinds of spaces are running all the time, they are designed to be disaster-proof. Even if power is cut off to the rest of the city momentarily, the servers will immediately begin running on emergency power. Security is always on the premises so even the most determined spy will have a hard time getting through the net.
Offsite storage is no joke, it’s a very serious matter for any business. You’re taking very prudent precautions and protecting your most important documents from being destroyed or discovered by prying eyes. Use both real-world and online services so your documents are never in just one form, giving you reassurance and added protection.
