While local data infrastructures and storage can be made more secure through different services and software, data loss can still occur. This is why a lot of experts stress the importance of keeping your data backed up so that you can easily access it. Modern companies are dependent on their stored data to provide their services, and losing it would spell disaster for the operations and future. With that being said, we’ve listed three key reasons why your business needs to back up its data and how you could go about this.
Why Should Businesses Backup Their Data?
Easy Recovery
Your employees are not immune to making mistakes — and even you are prone to slipping up every once in a while. As most cyberattacks have become harder to distinguish thanks to the development in cyber strategies, your team might unknowingly download malware that could harm or delete your data. Even with recovery software, it’ll be hard to recover the data, and oftentimes the data recovered is unusable or corrupted. If you regularly backup your enterprise’s data, there’s no reason for you to be worried about accidental incidents like these as a duplicate of your lost data is stored in secure storage.
Natural Threats
While bolstering cybersecurity has certainly taken front and center in company objectives and memos, it’s also important to remember that physical disasters can also cause a massive loss of data for your company. In fact, FEMA notes that 40% of small businesses fail to recover after a natural disaster — and this can be attributed mostly to infrastructure and data loss. If your backup data is stored in a disaster-proof place like the cloud, you can easily continue with operations after enduring a natural disaster.
Audits and Archives
Every year, businesses are required to dig through their records for auditing and tax purposes. One great thing about having a backup of your past data means that you can free up space from your in-house data center and keep previous records in a secure location — whether it’s a physical drive or a cloud vendor. This is of the utmost importance, as the IRS and regulatory commissions are very strict when it comes to screening your data records. Not being able to show your records due to accidental data loss can lead to non-compliance — and even worse, hefty fines.
What’s the Best Way to Backup Data?
Now that we’ve briefed you on the importance of backing up your enterprise’s data, we can now discuss the best ways to backup your data. Most businesses store their data — and its backup — in a local storage device. This could vary from external hard drives for small businesses and an in-house data center for huge organizations. However, IT specialist Deryck Burnett warns that storing your data in physical locations means it is prone to the same malware and physical threats that plague your non-backed up files. That’s why we’re partial to cloud storage for backing up business data. The great thing about the cloud is that all your files are stored in digital servers that aren’t infallible to natural threats. Moreover, a cloud vendor needs to pass certain certifications and regulations before they can offer a cloud storage service, so you’re sure that your data is safe from malware and cyberattacks. It also provides the added benefit of boosting collaboration, as the cloud back up solutions featured on Box allow teams to access the most current version of every single file you all share. This creates a more seamless workflow, while helping you ensure that your files are safe from physical and cyber threats. Before you think about using a cloud storage service, make sure that it offers consistent tech support, is at an affordable price, and uses the latest security encryption. At the end of the day, it’s up to you to choose how you’ll back up your enterprise’s data. But as huge companies like Google are investing their time and resources into making cloud computing services more secure, it makes sense to subscribe to services that are devoted to keeping your data secure.
