SMART Blog

There’s no getting around the fact that data backup and disaster recovery are paramount to the survival of any business. Thankfully, the 3-2-1 rule makes implementing effective data recovery practices easy. Let’s look at this process and how you can do so.

Data backup is a critical part of any business endeavor, because if you don’t have one all of your hard work could be taken away in an instant. It’s not great to think about, but your business’ infrastructure could be put at risk of sudden annihilation. With so much at risk, what is the best way to approach managing your data? There are a lot of options out there, but there is only one that will allow your organization to get back in action following a crippling data loss incident.

As an agency owner, you’ve surely thought about what the future holds for your organization. However, one of the areas that is often overlooked is how you will respond in the event of a data disaster. How can your business bounce back from such a catastrophic event? One of the first steps is understanding your data backup and disaster recovery process, as well as how you can improve your current setup.

Data might be the single most important asset of any business, but you would be shocked to hear about how many organizations don’t consider data loss to be a prominent threat. The fact remains that it doesn’t take an immense disaster to wipe out an entire infrastructure, and that you should expect the worst to happen regardless of how unlikely it is to do so.

Data backup is a critical component of a business continuity plan, but many businesses fail to understand why data backup is important, as well as what it entails. Here is why data backup is important, and why you need it for your business. An understanding of how your data backup saves your infrastructure will allow you to effectively use it for business continuity.

Is your business still using tape as its primary method of data backup? If so, you could be missing out on a more reliable, less time-consuming alternative. Image-based, or “snapshot” backup solutions are the optimal way to guarantee the continuity of your organization’s data infrastructure.

Data backup and disaster recovery are critical to the success of the modern business, but so many organizations still don’t see the importance of maintaining copies of their data infrastructure, or simply don’t think that they will fall victim to a data loss incident. Unfortunately, in this case, we have to insist that you consider data backup and disaster recovery; it’s not a matter of if you lose your data, but when.

Disasters are an unfortunate part of doing business in a technology-heavy workplace. You need to expect the worst, but it’s often difficult to predict what types of disasters your organization will have to endure. There are a few universal disasters that you’ll encounter, regardless of where your business operates.

It’s every agency owner’s worst nightmare: one mistake, and all of their data is wiped out. This very situation happened recently to a hosting provider, and his story serves as a cautionary tale regarding data storage best practices.

A business’s data is one of its most valuable assets. Without it, your organization would fail to function and, more likely than not, crash and burn. This is the reason why hackers try so hard to steal or corrupt data from businesses just like yours; they understand its value, and it’s about time that you do the same. Therefore, protecting your business’s continuity by backing up your data is of critical importance.

The continuity of your business should be a major priority, especially considering how you and your employees rely on your business for their livelihood. But believe it or not, there are many organizations that don’t give a second thought to the preservation of their data and critical assets. Nonetheless, you need to pay proper attention to how your organization handles problems like natural disasters, data loss, hacking attacks, and other hazardous incidents.

When it comes to your business’s technology infrastructure, the more basic it is, the better. Granted, a simple IT infrastructure isn’t always easy to install, especially when there are so many great solutions on the market that can be implemented to achieve optimal efficiency. Sometimes the best IT solutions are those that make your technology simpler to manage, and your network less complicated. That said, you’d think redundancy would complicate this formula, but it’s actually a necessity for your business continuity plan.

One of the most important aspects of any IT infrastructure is its data. In fact, it’s the sole reason your business continues to function properly. If you were to lose your data, would your organization be able to recover quickly, or would it sink to the depths of downtime and be swallowed by it?

Everything is fine and dandy in your office. Everyone is working at a desirable rate, and you’re getting more business than ever before. Then, disaster strikes. Your server overheats, causing irreparable hardware failure, and you’re immediately caught in a pickle. Operations screech to a halt, data is lost, and you’re stuck in a situation that puts your business’s future in jeopardy. Of course, all of this can be quickly remediated with a quality disaster recovery plan.

As a business that values its data, you need to have some sort of backup solution put into place. Otherwise, a disaster could put your business’s future on the line. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to make such an important decision on the fly. The first step toward integrating a backup solution for your business is to do your research and understand what your options are.

Conventional wisdom informs businesses to store every byte of their data possible, and with the affordability of cloud storage, more companies are storing more files. Surprisingly, in an aboutface to this maximum data-storage practice, businesses are now being advised to delete all unnecessary data in light of our lawsuit-happy culture.

How prepared is your business for a disaster, and are you prepared for the right disaster? When it comes to making your organization's business continuity plan, the scenarios you plan for need to be realistic. Otherwise, all the hard work of planning will be for nothing.

Do you think that you're too busy to backup your company's data? There may be many responsibilities you put off because it feels like you're too busy for them; backing up your data shouldn't be one of them. If you think you're busy now, just wait until you're faced with a data loss scenario!

Take a moment to consider your answer to this question, "What would you do if all of your business's data was somehow lost overnight?" How would you react, and what would you do about it? Your data is valuable, so much in fact that your business would be lost without it, and likely wouldn't be able to run properly.

"The wise man built his house upon the rock, and the foolish man built his house upon the sand. When the rains came up, only one house remained." Some locations are better than others to build on. Is your business built on the sand or a rock? You can determine your level of risk by looking at these ten disasters.