It’s World Backup Day today and while there seems to be a day for everything these days, this one is important.
If world events have taught us anything, it’s that being prepared is essential. That’s especially true for businesses.
Your data is more valuable than the devices that access it. Yet many businesses will insure their devices but not insure their data with a backup.
Don’t be one of them.
Backup for life
According to this source, 30% of businesses lose data due to a server outage and 28% of ransomware attacks result in data loss.
While compiled from the US, there’s no reason to believe the UK picture is any better.
With the threat landscape changing all the time, the most viable solution to those threats remains the same as it has always been.
Keeping copies of your essential data.
You can survive malware attacks, ransomware attacks, theft, hardware failure, disaster scenarios and almost any type of threat if you have backups of your data.
It’s so important that there’s a national day to remind businesses to do it!
Cheap and easy data backups
A lot of resources that cover data backups make the process seem time consuming and expensive.
In reality, backups need be either of those things.
Use cloud backups combined with a manual process and you’re fully protected.
Keep one copy of your data on site in a fireproof safe or secure area. Keep another off site in secure cloud storage.
That way, you’ll always have access to at least one copy of core data.
The solutions can be incredibly simple.
Onsite backup solutions
For onsite backups, you could use a removable hard drive, tape or even a USB thumb drive.
We would recommend a dedicated backup device, but the important thing here is to have a copy of that data!
Keep the device inside a fireproof safe or a secure area with restricted access.
A removable hard drive can be bought for less than £100 depending on the storage size you need.
A fireproof safe will be more expensive but can also protect much more than your backups.
Remote backup solutions
For a remote backup, we can turn to the cloud.
Cloud backups are very accessible. They don’t cost all that much and can run automatically.
All you need to do is decide what to back up and when.
There are some very reliable cloud storage providers in the UK that don’t charge as much as you might think.
Some provide apps to automatically take complete or incremental backups of your data and securely copy it, encrypt it and transport it to the cloud.
Once stored, the data may be further encrypted and kept in secure locations around the country.
While the details are complex, the process is very simple.
Copy the data, encrypt the data and upload it.
Software will take care of the vast majority of that work so you don’t have to.
Backup and data security
Think of data backups in the same way you think of insurance.
You wouldn’t run a business without insurance. You wouldn’t buy expensive IT equipment without insuring it, so why would you not insure the data that equipment uses?
If there’s a lesson to take away from the current global situation, it’s that we must be prepared for any eventuality.
Even in the nice, comfortable United Kingdom. Anything can happen at any time.
Considering how easy it is to implement data backups and the potential penalties or losses for not having them, it’s a no brainer.
If preparedness is as simple and as cost-effective as cloud data backups, why wouldn’t you use them?
You can call our friendly team at any time and we’ll be happy to advise you around all things backup!
