Businesses spend a lot of time building their own data and information. The data can help the company grow; it can also be used for research, development, marketing, and other purposes. This information is valuable and may hold the key to a company’s success. Companies can lose this data for many reasons, including theft or malware attacks such as viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, adware, and ransomware. If the information is lost, your company could face financial losses, reputation issues, and lawsuits.
While there is no way to know what type of threat will affect your data before it happens, having a backup strategy in place can provide some protection against these types of hazards.
What’s a data backup, and how does it work?
A data backup solution allows businesses to recover files, folders, databases, email accounts, etc., quickly after an attack occurs. Many companies don’t have any formal backup process because they believe that all files should automatically back up via automatic updates. Although this may sound like a good idea, it’s not necessarily true.
When a file is updated, or a new version of a database application is installed on a computer, there is no guarantee that old versions of those files won’t still remain on-site. For example, suppose a user has two copies of Microsoft Office at home but only uses the latest version at work. In that case, after a virus infects the older copy at home, it might overwrite the newer version found at work, causing the user to lose access to their data. In addition, computers are prone to hardware failures such as hard drive crashes and memory errors.
These problems can cause data corruption and make backups useless because the original files cannot be restored. With a backup solution, it is possible to restore the most recent backup of a file or folder.
Backup solutions allow users to download all of the latest versions of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and emails to another location where the content can be accessed or stored offline. Access to the latest versions of your data is critical for many business applications. For instance, employees need access to the latest versions to ensure that any changes are made during meetings or discussions with clients, vendors, potential partners, etc.
It’s essential to keep track of these changes to avoid losing them later if they’re needed for compliance reporting. Backups can occur automatically using scheduled tasks or manually by the user. Planned task options include creating daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly backups. Manual backups can occur hourly, every 10 minutes, or once per day. Backup strategies vary depending on how frequently data needs to be backed up. However, data can be quickly recovered in a disaster or security breach with proper planning.
Top five benefits of data backup
Businesses spend a lot of money and time building their proprietary data. A significant amount of time is spent on data acquisition and creation, which is why it’s so crucial to protect the data. Data is considered high risk because it can provide insight into its operations, customer base, employee records, product lines, trade secrets, etc.
If data is lost due to accidental deletion, damage, theft, malware attack, etc., the business may face huge costs and legal liabilities. One of the biggest challenges for businesses is determining whether something is worth protecting. If a company has confidential data that can impact its bottom line, it needs to figure out whether it should invest in protecting sensitive data.
Some ways to assess the value of data are by looking at the potential risks associated with the organization, determining what kind of data is being protected, researching current trends in the industry, and evaluating the frequency of data loss events.
These benefits include;
Recovery
Recovering data is easy with a data backup solution. This means that even if a business suffers a catastrophic event like fire, flood, earthquake, sabotage, hacker attacks, etc., data will be available in case of issues. Data restoration is quick because backups are created regularly. Depending on the device used, backups can take anywhere from 5 seconds to several hours to complete. Once completed, files can be retrieved from the backup media immediately, making the entire process very fast. Typically, the cost of recovering data is minimal compared to the cost of replacing the destroyed assets. Recovering data also makes the affected area safe again. After the damaged areas are cleared, engineers can use the undamaged part of the facility to begin repairs. The faster the repairs can begin, the better the business will recover functionality and profitability.
Compliance
With a total backup solution, organizations can easily comply with government regulations regarding record retention. Many industries such as health care, financial services, insurance, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, retail/e-commerce, manufacturing, etc., have strict policies about keeping certain types of data for different lengths of time. For example, medical records must be kept for a minimum period of six years after an individual leaves employment. These compliance requirements can range from storing copies of a document for seven years to retaining physical copies of tax returns. Backup solutions ensure that these documents remain secure and accessible.
Security
Security is another reason why businesses need to back up their data. Hackers are always searching for new ways to gain access to private data. Cybercriminals target businesses because they have lots of sensitive data. Companies can reduce their chances of suffering cyber-attacks by using a comprehensive backup strategy. It’s essential to encrypt all files stored on the network to prevent hackers from stealing data. Encryption can hide sensitive data from prying eyes. It’s also recommended to keep backups offsite. Backups can be transferred to a remote server overnight. This way, there will be no direct connection between the primary copy and the backup copy.
Disaster Recovery
Disaster recovery is just as important as regular backups. A DR plan comprises three parts: 1) the ability to recover data, 2) the ability to restore applications, and 3) the ability to recover systems. Whenever a company experiences an issue with its network, computers, devices, data centres, etc., it needs a reliable DR plan. As technology advances, so makes the threat of having critical systems fail. Organizations must continue investing in technologies that provide more excellent reliability, security, and availability.
Cost Savings
Backup costs money. The more data you want to back up, the more money is spent on backups. When a backup runs too frequently, it costs too much money to run. Too many backups lead to lower performance of the network and storage infrastructure. However, less frequent backups can still produce positive results with a good backup plan. It reduces the amount of data being saved and thus saves storage space.
Bottom Line
Data backup is very beneficial to businesses. Not only do backups protect against losing crucial information, but they also serve as a source of peace of mind knowing that if something happens to the network, critical data will be recovered quickly. So what are you waiting for? Get started today!