You've probably heard the cliche "Failing to plan is planning to fail," but not everyone takes these adages as seriously as they should. Not everyone understands why they need more than one copy or why they should backup in the first place. Data loss can be fatally disastrous for small organizations, large businesses, and even individuals.
The Importance of Data Backup and Recovery
Data loss can occur in dozens of ways. Just because you were fortunate enough to prevent a massive data loss does not guarantee that your luck will continue. The most typical causes include an unintentional error, employee or competitor theft, or computer hardware failure. If you don't have a specific action plan, your business is just one disaster or spilled coffee away from financial ruin.
Here are the five important reasons why you should have an active plan in mind:
1. Cyberattacks Have Become Inevitable
According to Accenture's Cost of Cybercrime Study, small companies bear the brunt of 43 percent of cyberattacks, yet just 14 percent are equipped to protect themselves. Furthermore, many firms struggled to recover their encrypted data, if it could be recovered at all. In terms of assaults, ransomware is only the tip of the iceberg; malware, DDoS attacks, data breaches, supply chain attacks, and zero-day exploits are all a constant risk. These assaults are often directed at sensitive corporate information kept in the cloud or on-premises.
2. You Need a Contingency Plan
Additional data backups should be made if the original backups result in data corruption or hard disk failure. If a natural or artificial disaster occurs, other backups are required. Storms and wars can cause server and computer damage due to flames and floods. Fortunately, we live in the age of cloud technology, which has made data backup simpler and safer than ever before.
3. For Easier Auditing
States may have different restrictions, and there may be different archiving regulations, but receipts for deductible costs must be kept for three years, according to the IRS. Financial records, in particular, must be maintained. And, no, regulatory commissions won't ease up on you just because you had a malware attack.
4. To Avoid Having to Re-Build Your Company
The first rule of working is to "do it properly the first time." If you have a minor situation with no backups, you may be able to recover some data, but you should never let it reach this point. In virtually every scenario, you'll have a mountain of work to redo, whether it's reinstalling systems or recreating spreadsheets you or your staff have been working on for months. Worse, if you suffer a significant data loss, you may wind up having to redo everything you've ever done—a circumstance that few businesses survive.
5. Human Error Cannot Be Avoided
While we wish our staff were flawless, they are just human. This implies that they will make blunders. Employees inadvertently leave laptops on public transportation, or a slip may cause coffee to ruin a hard disk beyond repair. Some disgruntled employees may even leak or destroy your data as a means of vengeance.
Conclusion
For these five reasons and your peace of mind, you should have a backup and recovery plan in place. Incremental local backups are the best option for less vital data. Still, the most sensitive data—financial data, customer information, and so on—should be backed up to a geographically distant cloud site. If you use a laptop, ensure that everything is frequently backed up to a desktop or other storage in case of theft, loss, or damage.
Find out how your business data backup and recovery stand against modern demands by signing up for a free security assessment at Sip Oasis. We are an IT solutions company in Birmingham helping businesses stack against the odds of data breaches and so much more. Get in touch with us today!