Backing Up Your Business Data

Does your company have a Disaster Recovery Plan in place? Does that plan include data backup and restoration? If not - and we hate to be the bearer of bad news - you might not survive a data-based disaster.

What does it mean to backup data?

Data backup involves creating a copy of your business’ data, which you can use in case something happens to the original data. For example, it’s stolen, lost, corrupted or just accidentally deleted by a member of your team.
Businesses should backup data regularly, on their personal computer, phone tablet, external hard drives or the cloud. Or a combination of the above, just to be extra safe.

Tempted to skip data backup and restoration?

We don’t recommend it. Data backup is so important because your company relies on it. With a proper data backup and restoration plan in place, you can get back up and running easier and faster in the event of data loss.
Ensuring you have backup data to fall back on should be a core focus of your overarching digital preservation policy. Neglecting this could mean hours - or even days - lost, since your employees rely on this data and technology to perform business-critical processes. This lost time could mean lost money as well as clients.

Your final burning question: How do I backup my business data?

Putting a disaster recovery plan in place now means peace-of-mind as your company moves forward. We recommend storing backups for at least three months, to ensure enough time to allow for data recovery.
There are a few backup options and tools on the market, so we’re going to discuss some of the most popular ones here.

External hardware
Regularly backup your data to an external hardware device and store it somewhere safe off-site, so that if anything happens to your premises (such as a flood or fire), you’ll know your backup data is safe.
You can use a purpose-built hardware appliance that includes a device you install and connect to your network. Otherwise, you may be able to back up to external USB drives or local disks if you’re dealing with quick backups or small amounts of data. Whichever option you go for, try to store backup data at more than one geographical location.

Software solutions
‍You can install software solutions on your own systems or on a virtual machine (VM). These solutions offer more flexibility than hardware devices, but may require you to install and configure the system. 

The cloud
‍According to a 2019 survey by Unitrends, 93% of small enterprises use the cloud for data protection. BaaS (backup-as-a-service) enables you to run backups, tests and restoration from your service provider’s cloud infrastructure. There’s no complicated software to install, no clunky tapes or devices, and your data is kept safe and accessible. 

Contact us for a data backup and restoration plan

Don’t wait around for disaster to strike. The IT Department provides IT consulting for businesses in Australia, that includes advice around protecting your data and avoiding any potentially damaging hiccups in the future. 

We’ll help you put the most appropriate disaster recovery strategy in place. Give us a call on 1300 10 10 40 to start protecting your data sooner rather than later.