If you run a business in Orange County or elsewhere, the loss of data can be nothing short of devastating. Documents are the lifeblood of most businesses, and when you suddenly lose customer records, financial statements, correspondence and more, the damage may be irreversible. The good news is, you can easily avoid this tragedy by setting up a system for backing up your small business’s data on a regular basis. Let’s discuss some common best practices and solutions to help you do this.
Keep Multiple Backups
As a good general rule, you should have at least three copies of every piece of data associated with your business—and at least one of those copies should be stored offsite. Redundancy is the key. You can generally keep the three copies as follows:
- One copy stored on your local computer (or the cloud, if you use cloud-based computing);
- One copy backed up to an external hard drive or server (can be on-site); and
- One copy backed up to an offsite server (e.g., through a cloud-based service like Backblaze or iDrive).
In this manner, you can rest assured that if you do lose data, you’ll always have a copy to refer back to. You may experience downtime during the recovery process, but at least you won’t go out of business.
How Often to Back-Up Data
How often you need to perform backups will depend on the type of business you have, how much new data you create in a day, and how much storage you have. Most small businesses can manage by backing up all their data at least once a day to their backup drive/server. (Most cloud-based backups will be ongoing.) Data-driven businesses like technology companies may need to back up more often to avoid losing hours of work.
Replace Hard Drives and Computers Before they Fail
Fact: Every hard drive and computer will fail at some point. Data loss is not a matter of if, but of when. The key to minimizing risk is to replace aging gear before it fails whenever possible. We can’t always predict when a hard drive will fail, but by establishing a routine of regular updates and upgrades, you can avoid most instances of data loss.
One great way to ensure you have a reliable backup system in place is through utilizing a managed IT service. NetServ’s managed IT can help you configure and schedule regular backups of your business’s data while making sure all your equipment stays up to date and in proper working order. To learn more, call us at 1-877-NetServ.