There are many things that can immediately cause data loss: hardware failure, corrupted files, virus, malware, accidental deletions, saving over a file, or any other accidents. There is little you can do to prevent your computers from giving up the ghost, except to have replacement parts available. There is, however, much you can do to prevent—and even eliminate—data loss. Check out these 8 tips below and get prepared!
1. Map where your business’s data resides
It is impossible to properly back up your data if you do not know what you have. Is critical data stored on a remote server in a satellite office? Is data stored on your senior staff’s notebooks? The type of data you have—and its content—will be a factor in how the data is backed up.
2. Keep your data and applications backed up
Often, businesses do not consider backing up their applications when they devise their backup solution. They back up the data files they create, but they often do not think to back up the installed software and operating system files. It is important to create an image of your servers and computers to make sure that the data, applications, and operating system can be completely and seamlessly recovered to their “pre-disaster” status.
3. Remote workers
Don’t forget the data of your employees on the road. Maybe your sales manager travels around the country with her notebook computer or netbook. Do you have a strategy in place to back up the data residing on her USB key, hard disk, or external drive?
4. Online or on site
Over the past few years the use of online backup services has blossomed. You will need to consider which solution is best for you. Online solutions are great for remote workers and for backing up smaller amounts of data. However, they limit your backup (and recovery) speeds to the amount of bandwidth you have. Larger amounts of data will take a long time to download, and you should not only back up the data locally, but also keep a copy in off-site storage to ensure faster data disaster recovery times.
5. Test. Test. Test.
The only thing worse than not backing up your data is not properly backing up your data. If you go to recover your data and find out your backups are corrupted, the wrong files are backed up, or some other terrible scenario has occurred, what will you do? Test your backups to make sure that your data is properly backed up!
6. Don’t forget your servers
Your business data is not just what’s in the “My Documents” folder of your area on the company’s shared file server. The data in your email server, application server, and any other servers you use (including your website and hosted data) must be backed up as well.
7. Backup policies and procedures
Backing up your data is not a one-time event; it is a critical part of conducting business life, welcoming a new employee, or buying new real estate. Have procedures in place so that, as your business grows, the data it generates is safely backed up and ready to be recovered.
8. Talk to us – Result IT
We at Result IT are a Seagate authorised data recovery centre and can help businesses with standard data backup and with emergency data recovery. Call us today on (09) 526-1800 or send us an email at info@resultit.co.nz for any enquiries.
We can help to build comprehensive data backup plan and process professional data recovery, since Advanced Computers is Seagate authorised data recovery centre.
