Protecting your business data or information is very important. Any leaks of data to a competitor can impede your success both on a short and long-term basis. In other words, the security of your files is something that you need to take seriously because your business depends on it. The good news is we will share with you how to back up your business’s files in this article through local backups and cloud storage. Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s look at the ways you can lose data.
Ways You Can Lose Data
Business data or files can be lost easily. Here are the ways your data can be lost in your organization:
- Theft of business property or break-ins: Robbers can break inside your business premises and steal electronics that house your data, like laptops, hard drives, and desktop computers.
- Crash or damage to your electronic devices that house your data, like desktop, laptops, and hard drives
- Ransomware attack
- A rogue employee can use data for personal gain.
Those are some of the reasons why it is important to back up your business files in the 21st century, where technology is changing at lightning speed. If your data is lost, your competitor can use it against you to stay ahead in business.
A Data Backup System You Need to Have
Your business needs to have an excellent backup system that offers enough security for your data. A good backup system follows three steps:
- Step #1: Data needs to be backup daily
- Step #2: Reliable backup needs to be established
- Step #3: Off-site location for backing up data needs to be established.
The rule of thumb that should guide is this: if losing the data can give your competitor an edge in the marketplace, that data needs to be backed up.
Two Ways To Backup Your Business Files
There are two ways to backup your business files. First is identifying the kind of data you need to back up. The second is determining the best way to back up those files. The good news is that we have several ways an organization like yours can backup its files:
1 Cloud Storage
To have an edge, it is important that you move all your data to the cloud. The days when you used to have servers, routers, switches, and big data centers to store your information are gone. Servers and all that hardware can be stolen, and you won’t have a way of getting your data back.
To move your data to cloud storage, you can utilize Amazon web services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Storing your data using any of those platforms will be cheaper compared to local backup. There are so many companies that can assist you in transitioning to cloud computing.
2 Local Backup Through Hard Drives and Other Forms of Storage
If you are not storing your data in the cloud, then you need to have a good local backup that keeps your files safe. Local backup means utilizing external hard drives, USB thumb drives, LAN storage, direct attached storage, and tap storage. Alternatively, you can also create your data centers locally where you can house your data. However, this will be expensive as your business needs to grow.
Conclusion
Losing your business data can cost you a lot of money. Imagine if you lose important client transactions or your clients can’t access the information they want because you have been hacked. All of these worst-case scenarios can have a serious impact on your business’s success. Never allow that to happen. The best way to backup your business’s files is through cloud storage. Cloud storage will give you an edge over your competitor.
