We tell every business owner we come into contact with the same thing: If you haven’t done so yet, you‘ll want to establish a data backup strategy. Some businesses are really small, some operate in industries where the cost of backing up data is seemingly prohibitive to the success of the business. To the people that operate those businesses, we repeat: If you haven’t done so yet, you‘ll want to establish a data backup strategy. Let’s examine why.
Most business owners and managers have “too much” other stuff on their plates to concern themselves with the redundancy of their business’ data. Unfortunately, hundreds of businesses each year fail as a result of this lack of awareness. You can dot all your “i”s and cross all of your “t”s concerning the operational integrity of your business, but the moment some piece of data is lost that shouldn’t have been lost, your business experiences all the negative effects that could have been completely mitigated by simply backing up its important data.
Let’s dig in. Data backup is about as simple of a process to obtain as any. You simply need to give the IT professionals at Macatawa Technologies a call and explain how you need to back up your business’ data. Most business owners are surprised at how affordable the whole process is. That, of course is beside the point, as the Backup and Disaster Recovery solution we offer definitely will pay for itself, as data loss happens a lot more frequently than you may suspect.
What Happens When Businesses Neglect Backup
For those businesses that currently operate without a data backup and recovery strategy–especially if you’ve been in business for some time–you may think that it’s just another cost that you are taking on that will hurt your business’ ability to turn a profit. You may not think you have enough data that you think is important enough to warrant additional investment in protecting it. You are probably mistaken, however. You have important data, and if you lose it, you stand to lose your business. In fact, 94 percent of businesses that fall victim to a major data loss incident fail within two years of the incident. If you consider six percent of all computers will fail in any given year, it stands to reason that it’s only a matter of time before you are dealing with a data loss catastrophe.
What Types of Strategies Can I Use?
The BDR, which connects to your business’ computing network and backs up data incrementally and sends a copy of that data to the cloud has been found to be the most effective at ensuring that the backup is reliable and data is available for quick recovery. If you are worried that it may be overkill with your business’ current computing profile, you can create your own backup strategy with external hard drives or cloud storage. Regardless of what you choose, you will want to stick to what is known in the industry as the 3-2-1 rule. That is three separate versions of your data, two of which are stored onsite, with one stored offsite should something happen to your place of business.
If you would like to talk to one of our computer experts about the best way to move forward with data backup, call us to discuss it at 616-394-4940 today.
