Stop Losing Documents - What You Need to Know About Data Backup

Have you ever lost a document you were working on?

We all have at some point.

The ramifications can range from annoying (on a personal level because you have to recreate the document) to devastating (on an office-wide level if you lose your business-critical documents).

Backing up company data is one of the basic responsibilities of every IT department for every business in the world.

Backing up data is also one of the most overlooked and accident-prone IT processes across businesses.

What would happen to your office if you couldn’t access your documents ever again?

Here are six simple reasons you should ensure you back up your data – and four reasons to consider outsourcing it.

1. Your Business Relies on Data and Documents to Function

Think about the daily work in your office – unless you’re an entirely paper-based office, at least some of your documents are digital. You need continual access to your documents – data backup is the process that ensures you can access that critical business information.

2. Lost Information Leads to Business Failure

Losing data will hurt your business. A catastrophic loss of your critical business documents can even lead to business closure as customers lose faith in your ability to deliver. On a less drastic note, recreating lost documents is a drag on productivity and can result in lost business opportunities.

3. The Last Line of Defense Against Ransomware

Ransomware is a $1 billion “business” – and growing. Ransomware virus can lock down all of your information until you pay the ransom. With data backup in place, you simply load your backup data and carry on as normal. Depending on your level of backup service, you could lose some information – but a few hours is preferable to “all.”

4. Lost (or Stolen) Laptops

You probably won’t lose your laptop or have it stolen. Still, it happens. Many of us bring our work where we go – the coffee shop, bookstore, library, etc. You aren’t likely to lose it there, but a laptop can be tempting to thieves when you leave it on the backseat while you duck into the grocery store or head out for dinner. Losing data like this can lead to a data breach and potential regulatory violations of customer privacy. However, when that data is backed up, at least you won’t compound that issue with also losing the information on your mobile device.

5. WHOOPS!

We’re human. Humans make mistakes – including erasing documents. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that sinking feeling in your stomach as you realized you’ve deleted the final report you’ve spent weeks working on (or accidentally wiped your hard drive). Sometimes, disgruntled employees leave – and delete all of their files. A data backup plan means that if you accidentally delete information, it’ll just be a minor inconvenience instead of a mini-disaster. 

6. Peace of Mind

You can’t put a price on peace of mind. Every business; every office runs on information and data. With a sound data backup strategy and plan you won’t ever have to worry about losing your data again.

Why You Should Consider Outsourcing Data Backup

Here’s the best thing about data backup – you don’t have to do it yourself. Data backup is basic blocking and tackling of IT functionality – it doesn’t provide a competitive advantage, it’s a simple must have. Here are four reasons to consider outsourcing data backup to a managed IT partner.

1. Let Your IT Staff Focus on Providing Value

Instead of having your IT staff spend time on making sure backups are working, testing them, etc.; outsourcing allows them to focus on improving business processes and other improvements to your IT infrastructure.

2. In-House Backup Often Has Holes

As with all technology, sometimes data backup doesn’t work flawlessly. For backup to work, you need to check that it’s backing up properly without corrupting the data (or simply not working).

3. Redundancy

You don’t have a great data backup strategy if your data backup tapes are in the same room as your servers. Data backup requires redundancy so that (to use an extreme example) if your office building burns down, you’ll have a copy of your data off-site so that you can continue operations. 

4. Cost-Effective

You’ve probably seen personal cloud data backup commercials – like Carbonite. Outsourcing data backup often costs less than the IT staff time it takes to manage in-house backup (for better results).Managed IT Services

Cloud data backup is becoming a must-have for businesses. It’s fast, convenient, cost-effective, and allows your IT staff to focus on adding value to your IT infrastructure instead of focusing on keeping the lights on. 

If you think you could use help with your data backup strategy, contact one of Coordinated’s IT managed services experts for a free analysis.