Small business and home office: Easy steps to back up your data

Let's start by throwing some scary numbers around:

·   "70% of small businesses that experience a major data loss go out of business within a year". – PWC

·   "94% of companies suffering from a catastrophic data loss do not survive – 43% never reopen and 51% close within two years." – University of Texas.

·   "50% of all tape backups fail to restore." – Gartner.

·   "96% of all business workstations are not being backed up". – Contingency Planning and Strategic Research Corporation

Don't let your company become a statistic. Create a backup plan today!

Company data is subject to many risks, from Ransomware attacks to hardware failures or even accidental deletion. However, the importance of each piece of information and its impact on the business varies greatly. As such, the first step is to identify and sort the data of different systems.

The challenge is not choosing the right storage, nor is it choosing the right software. The main challenge in any backup solution is designing the backup plan, the recovery plan, and the disaster recovery plan.

Those plans aim to reduce your downtime in case of an emergency, ensure business continuity, and increase your systems' resilience after each mishap.

The main steps of business backup are:

1.   Identify the type of your data and the storage locations:

1.   Some users may have company files mixed with personal files. (Check our blog about digital decluttering)

2.   Shared storage locations may have sensitive information stored by mistake.

3.   Some software you are using may require manual data backup (ex. accounting software).

 

2.   Identify the impact each type of data has on your business:

1.   Marketing files may have a low impact on operations and require less frequent backup.

2.   Old reports may have no impact on operations and thus require no backup.

3.   Critical systems may have a very high impact on operations and require hourly backups.

 

3.   Make sure your backup plan meets the below requirements:

1.   Files should have multiple versions.

2.   Data with the most impact on the business should have more regular backups and be available for restoration.

3.   At least one backup version should be offline (not connected to the network or the internet).

4.   Automation is vital, but manual checks are just as essential to ensure backup integrity. Regular "test-restore" is also critical to guarantee that information needed is there when it's needed.

5.   The backup procedure documentation and the plan's communication are also indispensable in preventing data loss and decreasing downtime.

Finally, it is essential to note the below:

1.   Online backup solutions that are affordable, are useful if combined with other localized solutions. (ex. www.wasabi.com & www.backblaze.com)

2.   Don't rely on one service, storage device or server to protect your data. Hardware failures are still widespread, online companies go out of business or get hacked and devices get stolen.

3.   There are many resources to evaluate any device's reliability (ex. HDD, NAS, etc.) or backup solution's service and support; make sure you do your research before committing to any of them.