Once again, we had a full house at our Lunch N Learn yesterday. The focus was Business Continuity; the systems every business must have in place to survive in the event of a disaster. When you think of all the parts of your business that are performed solely on computers, it is worth your time and effort as a business owner to learn how the latest technology can hep you. Marco shared some great information for small businesses with data worth protecting..isn’t it all? According to IDC, a leading market research firm, less than 40% of small to medium businesses properly and regularly backup their data. Even among those who do, many never test it to be sure it is restorable. It is these very businesses that can least afford to lose valuable time attempting to rebuild their lost, vital information. Off-site, secure storage of data is the easiest and most cost effective way to prevent such a catastrophic blow to a business. Off-site data storage has evolved in the last several years such that in the face of a natural or man-made disaster, your data can be shipped overnight to you and you are back in business. Multiple terabytes of data can be recovered with this method, unlike the days or weeks it would take to transfer large amounts of data over the internet. It is important to consider onsite and off-site storage of your critical data when designing a plan for disaster recovery. Common causes of data loss like human error (the most frequent cause) can be handled with your onsite backup. Whereas a fire, flood, theft or other catastrophic loss of data is protected by the off-site copy. Encryption is another consideration. Many businesses have the impression that the tapes they create of their data are sufficient protection. These tapes can be lost or stolen then put into another common device and your data is no longer secure. It is crucial that all your backups to be encrypted and require a special code that only you and your Network Specialist know. Having a secure, off-site backup of your business data will give you peace of mind, knowing that it is safe, and does not rely on you or your staff to make sure it happens. What was once a painful chore, can be automated, easy and reliable.
