Data loss can be caused by all kinds of different problems, from computer viruses to hardware failures, file corruption, or even fire, flood, or theft. If you’re in charge of business data, losing it could lead to critical financial, customer, and company issues. If this data is stored on a personal computer, you could important files that would be difficult to replace.
Image – free for commercial use
Types Of Backup Storage
Local/On-site
You can create backups and store your backups on-site, either on your own servers or on things like USB sticks. This can be convenient, as you will have constant access to anything that you need, but you won’t be able to protect your data if your network is attacked, or if your premises are hit by something like a fire or flooding.
Off-Site
You can store data off-site too. Whether you choose to print out important files, store them on external hard drives that are kept off-site, this keeps your data secure if your premises fall victim to a problem. However, this data is still at risk of being lost or getting into the wrong pair of hands.
Online/Cloud
By storing your data in the cloud, it will be kept safe whatever happens to your own network or physical premises.
There are lots of options for third-party cloud storage options, both free, paid, or free with paid extras. Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and iCloud are some of the most popular options.
Cloud backups can be run automatically or by your IT Support, which makes them very easy to manage.
How Often Should You Backup Data?
The only way to prevent your business from losing valuable data is to make regular backups. Important files ought to be backed up at a minimum of once a week, but ideally every twenty-four hours.
These backups can be done manually or automatically. A lot of automatic software options are available that allow you to make a backup of your data at a set time of the day or week, such as at midnight, or every Friday.
By backing up every day, you know you aren’t going to miss out on anything important, even if something happens overnight. If you’re backing up every day, you can make this easy to manage by running automatic backups to the cloud. If you’re managing your backup manually, this will be really time-consuming.
If you do choose to do this manually, you will likely need to prioritise what you back up. Decide what data is the most important. Most businesses will need to protect data like contact information, customer data, billing, bookkeeping, orders, website code, custom programming, and passwords. Your employees might also need to add backups of documents, presentations, spreadsheets, appointments, and emails. Some businesses will have more specific needs for what needs to be prioritized for the daily backup, such as blueprints, PDFs, company literature, or artwork. You can save all this on a USB jump drive, external hard drive, or burn it to a CD or DVD, instead of auto-backups to the cloud.
