Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? Did you swear to stop watching reruns of “Gilligan’s Island” and drinking Peach Schnapps every day after work?
Are you putting down the tub of Blue Bell after dinner and trading it for an apple? Are you putting down the smokes and firing up one of those strange-looking smokeless E-cigs instead?
I think New Year’s resolutions are for the birds, but when it comes to business the new year is a great time to make sure you have your processes and procedures in place.
One of the most important and surprisingly overlooked processes for a business is backing up its data.
Company owners may think they are backing up their data, but they have never tested it or are relying on a cloud service to say “it’s all good.”
I have heard it all. I asked a client once how they were backing up their data and they said it’s backed up in email. What? They would send themselves files to have extra copies of important info.
I then asked what happens if email dies. I got a big “I dunno.” A very common practice with a high risk of data loss is saving info on laptops instead of storing it in a cloud server or file server. Laptops and desktops are not for storing local info in a networked environment.
Many times I have gotten that call from someone whose laptop has died and needs help. No problem, I say. The info is stored on your server and that info is also backed up with a fireproof/waterproof external drive. Then they say “Errrr…Uh, I had documents stored only on this machine.”
Most times you are out of luck. There are services that restore corrupted and even burned-up drives but they are not 100-percent reliable, and they charge a pretty penny.
The simple solution — back up your data, and test it. Do not store locally on any machines. Use the cloud. Use an external drive.
If you want the best, check out one of the cutting-edge BDR (backup disaster recovery) devices that my company uses.
They combine onsite backup, virtualization and cloud storage all in one. I bet the Skipper, Gilligan and the whole gang wished they’d had a backup of the Minnow prior to their 3-hour tour.
Backing up your data is one of the most important things you can do for your business in the event of a disaster or a critical hardware failure. If you are not backing up that data, put it on the to-do list. Happy 2014!
