Data backup is something that all businesses need in some capacity. The reasoning for this is simple: you can never predict the future, so your business’ life is never guaranteed… unless, of course, you plan for the worst. Today we want to share with you some best practices as they relate to data backup and disaster recovery, practices which we hope will give you the confidence that you can recover from even the worst-case scenarios.
Individuals are increasingly understanding the value of their data, and that is a good thing. Unfortunately, a lot of small and medium-sized businesses are operating today without any type of data backup protecting their business’ data, and that, of course, is bad. It is important that if you don’t have a dedicated data backup and recovery strategy in place, that you work to fix that immediately. Today we’ll tell you why.
While nobody wants their company to suffer a data breach, the nature of today’s workplace makes these occurrences harder and harder to avoid. In fact, chances are that you’ll eventually encounter one, which makes it important to prepare to deal with it when it comes about.
Here, we’ve outlined a few steps to help your business weather the storm:
Your business’ data is extremely important to the livelihood of your business and as a result, you need to have plans in place to protect it. Sure, you can invest in all the top notch cybersecurity tools and services, and they may keep you from getting your data stolen or corrupted, but what happens if something terrible happens to the servers that it is stored on? No level of threat detection is going to save a server if it is charred, under water, or its components are completely fried.
Imagine for a minute that you work in a small factory or machine shop. Some wind comes through and drops a 200-year-old maple tree through the roof onto the machines that you use to create your product. The devastation is total. If you have a second factory built to scale from the first, you could just ship your workers over to that one and keep productivity high. Chances are, however, there is no second factory. Your business is done until you can get the situation fixed. It could take days, weeks, or even months to get your business back on track; and if the stats are any indication, it probably won’t.
In order to function properly, the modern business needs data. With the predictions of serious cyberattacks, like ransomware, that have been made for the coming year there is no business that can neglect its data protections. Here, we’ll discuss what these predictions are, and what you need to do to prepare.
It’s true that managed IT service do a lot to make technology accessible to small and medium-sized organizations that wouldn’t typically look immediately to technology to fix parts of their business. One of the innovations that modern business has made is that they prioritize a smarter approach. Apart from data storage and database management, modern businesses are using the data their marketing, sales, fulfillment/distribution, and support departments take in to see exactly how their business is actually functioning and make sound business decisions as a result. Today, we’ll take a look at how the managed IT service provider can help a business with its data management.
Chances are you’ve found yourself in a situation where you have accidentally deleted an important file. However, it’s possible that you can restore the data, depending on the scenario. We’ll walk you through the processes required just in case you find yourself scratching your head over a potentially deleted file.
World Backup Day is a time when every business should contemplate whether or not they have proper data backup strategies in place. Considering it was about a month ago, did your organization take the time to think about it? Granted, there isn’t a single day in the year that could explain what your data means to your business, the importance of data backup, and that your businesses should always do what it can to avoid data loss.
While data backup is a necessary component to any modern business’ success, the idea itself certainly isn’t modern. The act of protecting information dates back to before dates were even an inkling, when humanity was still writing data on cave walls to preserve it and notching animal bones to aid in primitive mathematics. Let’s review the history of data preservation, and how we’ve gotten to our current point.
Each organization has a different definition for how they define a disaster. One business might feel that they can get away with losing a few files here and there, while another might need every file to be secure and protected against data loss. Regardless, the importance of being able to define the severity of a disaster cannot be underestimated, as you will need to properly gauge just how much hot water your business has landed in before it can pull itself up by the bootstraps and push forward.
Business continuity is an incredibly important part of running a business, but some smaller organizations underestimate just how crucial it is in the event of a disaster. Although FEMA estimates that more businesses are taking advantage of business continuity than ever before, not enough are. Business continuity is something that must be planned for, practiced consistently, and updated as needed. Does your business have a business continuity plan?
Your business is much more vulnerable to dangerous entities than you’d care to admit. Think about it--all it takes is one unexpected event to cause untold amounts of chaos for your business. To make matters worse, these events are often outside of your control. Data loss incidents might be unpredictable, but they can be soothed thanks to a little bit of preventative management.
Data backup is something of a conundrum for many small businesses. The classic mindset is that they don’t think they need data backup because there’s no way they’ll be struck with a data loss disaster. Their office may not be located in a place prone to natural disasters, and the organization is so small that the assume they are off the hook when it comes to hackers. This doesn’t reduce the value that a good data backup system can offer, though.
If there’s one concept that every business owner needs to be intimately familiar with, it’s business continuity. Boiled down, the concept tackles the question of how your business will carry on after a disaster situation has struck. While a business continuity plan is by no means a simplistic document, there are a few key points that all businesses should focus on.
Is your business prepared to deal with network downtime? By this, we mean any situation when your organization’s network infrastructure isn’t operating as intended. Maybe you’ve lost power in your office, or you’ve experienced a data loss incident that keeps you from accessing crucial information. To prepare your SMB for times like this, you need to ask if your organization can handle such a wasteful occurrence.
The search for the perfect way to handle a data loss disaster has led many businesses to implement data backup and disaster recovery solutions, but the most challenging part of doing so is finding a solution that can minimize data loss and recovery time. Furthermore, there’s a specific need to understand the difference between data backup and disaster recovery, as the two are certainly not the same thing.
These days, businesses practically expect disaster. With so many high-profile hacking attacks in the news, people are paranoid and fear for their data. Yet, even more businesses don’t fear enough, which can lead to unexpected data loss from hackers, natural disasters, and even user error. As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your organization is prepared to handle disasters of all kinds.
Business owners have many important decisions they must make pertaining to the continuation of their organization. Securing their company’s data may come off as yet another item on a to-do list, but, due to the critical role data plays in the day-to-day operations, this task should be a high priority for every modern business. Raising awareness of this critical issue is precisely why March 31st is World Backup Day!
For eons, the human species has sought to improve efficiency through the integration of new innovative technologies. We always push toward the bright new future, a garden filled with shimmering hardware and the sweet, sweet smell of silicon. Everything is running smoothly, just like music, until you hear a note that doesn’t belong. Instead of a chorus of heavenly angels serenading you as you open the door to your server room, you hear the sound of failure; hardware failure, to be specific; and it’s not pretty.
A quick scan of the past year’s headlines will show that a data-loss scenario resulting from a hack can unexpectedly hit any business, big or small. Your company needs to have a data backup solution in place, and it’s imperative that backups are taken regularly. Has it been awhile since you last backed up your data?
When a disaster strikes, you should be able to recover quickly and efficiently with minimal downtime. Unfortunately, for some businesses, things don’t work out quite so smoothly. If your backup doesn’t process correctly, you might be in a bind when it comes time to restore operations from your backed-up data. How does one go about troubleshooting a failed backup?
Do you get some of your best ideas somewhere other than at your desk? Ever get a brilliant game-changing idea while walking the dog, driving home from work, when out at a restaurant, or even in the shower? If you do, then you’ve experienced the frustration of forgetting your life-changing idea before you get a chance to write it down.
A business is always at risk of being destroyed, be it online or offline. According to a study by 1&1, 67 percent of people confirmed that someone they know has had information stolen from them while online. In order to prevent your business from joining this statistic, there are several features you should look for when considering your network’s security.
If you’re a heavy tech user, then eventually, your photos, apps, and videos will take up all the space on your mobile device’s hard drive, making it impossible to add anything new. Plus, Murphy’s Law states that this will happen at the worst possible time, like while you’re recording your kid’s recital. Follow these four tips and don’t get stuck with a lack of space.
When you mention the term 'disaster recovery,' most people think about the big ground-shattering events like earthquakes, fires, floods, tropical storms, etc. While these natural events are certainly disasters and devastating in their own right, smaller things can constitute as a disaster for your business, and they aren't seasonal.
