Tuesday, March 31st was World Backup Day, which provides the perfect opportunity to take a serious look at the state of your systems. Is your backup drive located next to your computer? Are you entrusting your critical business data to a free (or cheap) backup option that isn’t built for the business world? Is your current backup solution shored up by disaster recovery, business continuity, and virtualization plans?
And before you think, “Data loss could never happen to me,” consider these statistics:
- A 2013 Harris Interactive poll found that 30% of computer users had NEVER backed up their data
- FEMA and SBA studies show that 25% to 45% of businesses don’t reopen after a disaster
- According to a 2013 Aberdeen group report, Inc., 70% of companies that suffer from natural disasters go out of business within a year — and only 6% survive long-term.
- It’s not just about computers: a 2014 Lookout report found that 113 mobile phones are lost or stolen every minute
- It’s not just about natural disasters, either: they actually only make up 5% of the events that knock small to medium-sized businesses out of commission. According to a 2013 report by Quorum, 55% of disaster-related downtime stems from hardware failure, 22% from human error, and 18% from software failure.
The big takeaway from these numbers is that data loss isn’t a matter of if, but when. So rather than contemplating what will happen if your business is faced with a natural or man-made data disaster, shouldn’t you be preparing for what you’ll do when it happens?
Consider the following strategies:
- Regular, remote, and redundant processes are critical.
The industry standard is 3-2-1 (3 copies of your data stored in 2 off-site locations, backed up a minimum of 1 time per day). - Is your data encrypted while at rest and in transit?
At CMIT Solutions, our data encryption is on par with the kind used by government and military agencies in more than 100 countries, along with the top 10 U.S. defense contractors. - Make sure disaster recovery, business continuity, and virtualization plans are included.
Technology inventories, license keys, and vendor contact lists should be accessible, and your recovery plan should be tested and outlined in case emergency strikes. - Are software and hardware capable of withstanding any scenario?
CMIT Solutions’ franchise partners have helped clients recover from earthquakes, floods, fires, and hurricanes. - Find a trusted advisor to manage the process.
Looking for a little human intelligence behind your information technology? When it comes to protecting your most critical business asset, you deserve nothing less.
Proper backup and disaster recovery solutions take the guesswork out of securing your business data with easy, automatic processes. Your customer data is essential to your company’s success, so why trust it to a DIY solution that you have to manage — and that might not be there for you when you need it?
At CMIT Solutions, we worry about data backup so you don’t have to. Some IT companies only offer data backup a la carte, but we back up ALL of our clients’ data. That means someone always has your back — if disaster strikes, we will work around the clock to help you recover the information that’s so critical to your business.
If you’d like to put that level of expertise to work for your business, contact us today.