As a business owner, by now, you should have a data backup and recovery plan for your most important data. It doesn’t matter the size of your business or what industry you operate in – data is an essential aspect of keeping it running. If you haven’t implemented a solid plan to keep your data safe, now is the time to do so.
When you back up data, you avoid losses due to human error, computer crashes, and disasters. You can also avoid being a victim of ransomware.
However, if you still aren’t convinced that you should invest in this type of business protection, keep reading. Here you can find out why this is such a significant investment and how it will benefit your business in the short- and long-term.
1. Technology Often Fails
In the past decade, there have been some considerable changes in the technology used. Today, many businesses are almost entirely paper-free. This means your most important documents and information are likely stored digitally.
That’s great, but it also presents a serious problem. All equipment will eventually fail. Your computer can get infected with viruses and ransomware, your laptop can stop working, and power surges can ruin your hard drive.
If your business uses or relies on data in any way (which is something most businesses do), this isn’t good news. You can try this to help protect your data, but a better option is to back it up.
2. A Data Loss Can Occur at Any Time
This includes things like physical damage, failure, malware, crashes, theft, and even user error. If you claim you have never accidentally deleted an important file, you are either lying or using a computer that sends files to the trash before deleting them altogether.
Using a laptop will make you especially vulnerable. These can be stolen, damaged, and more. By ensuring incremental backups, you can restore the specific files or your whole system, when needed.
3. People Make Mistakes
Everyone wishes their employees were perfect, but they have to remember – they are just human.
This means that mistakes are going to happen. It makes it clear that having a data backup and recovery plan in place is essential. This is going to help ensure all mistakes are corrected.
It is too easy to overlook the crucial steps in some processes. You may enter the wrong data or delete specific data. While you must have efficient processes and quality assurance programs in place, it is even more critical to have an online backup plan.
Your workers may leave their laptop on public transportation, drop coffee on a crucial hard drive, or even delete data as they leave. If anything like this happens, you must have a backup and recovery plan in place to help you restore what is lost.
4. The Need for Archives and Audits
The IRS requires that you keep your receipts for any deductible expenses for a minimum of three years. Certain states have additional rules and regulations regarding archiving.
Your business’s financial records, especially, need to be kept safe and easy to access. It is also important to remember that regulatory commissions don’t care why the data was loss.
Also, if you are working with clients, especially in the finance sector, maintaining good records will make you popular if their computer crashes and they don’t have backups in place.
5. The Impact of Mother Nature
Unfortunately, Mother Nature is completely unpredictable. Certain things can be completely devastating to your business. Throughout the world, Mother Nature has caused serious problems for business technology systems.
Some of the most common disasters that cause problems include tornados, earthquakes, flooding, freezes, extreme heat – and the list goes on. You may also have to deal with electrical fires or faults.
If you haven’t implemented a data backup and recovery plan, and you try to resume your operations after a natural disaster, you may find yourself in trouble. When you have a backup solution in place, you don’t have to worry about any damage to your reputation or your operations.
Instead, you can find the information needed and continue business as usual. This also provides peace of mind that your business won’t go under if a natural disaster occurs.
6. Gain a Competitive Advantage
If you have your data backed up, you have an advantage over your biggest competition.
Businesses everywhere have experienced significant losses and damage to their reputation after losing data. A serious breach can reduce trust in your business, impact customer relationships, and affect the confidence of shareholders, investors, staff, and future customers.
If you can provide a guarantee to your customers that you have a solid data backup and recovery plan in place, you will outshine the businesses that are unable to say the same.
7. Theft
Unfortunately, instances of corporate theft are rising. Employees take, delete, and “misplace” documents regularly.
While many are laid off or fired, the impact on the business is significant. Without a backup plan, it may even be devastating.
Now You Know the Importance of Taking Time to Back Up Data
As you can see, it is now more important than ever before to back up data. If your business experiences one of the issues mentioned above and has not implemented a back up plan, you may suffer a devastating loss you are unable to recover from.
If you are interested in learning more about tech-related news & topics, be sure to check out some of our other blogs. Our goal is to ensure you are informed about the latest trends in the tech world.
