March 31st is World Backup Day, the perfect time to reflect on the importance of safeguarding your valuable data. Whether it’s critical business documents or essential emails, data loss can be devastating. Here are some essential tips and advice for creating a successful data backup plan for you and your business.
What is a data backup?
A backup is a secure copy of your critical business files—like financial records, customer data, and emails—kept so you can quickly restore them if the originals are lost or compromised.
Why backup your data?
Accidents, thefts and malware contribute to data loss, but it doesn’t end there:
- 21% of people have never made a backup.
- 113 phones are lost or stolen every minute.
- 29% of data loss cases are accidental.
A common misconception is that the Cloud data is completely secure, but Cloud services are not immune to malicious insiders, accidental deletions, or hackers.
How to protect your data
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Try these:
- Cloud-based backup solutions: Use Cloud services to store and back up data, ensuring accessibility and protection from physical threats. Think iCloud, but for business.
- Implement Redundant Backup Solutions: Relying on a single backup solution can be risky. Implementing redundant backups, such as cloud-based and on-premises solutions, provides an extra layer of protection.
- The Cloud Isn’t Infallible: While cloud file storage solutions, such as SharePoint offer convenience and scalability, they can experience outages or data breaches. Make sure your provider is protecting your cloud infrastructure.
Tips for a successful data backup plan
- Identify Critical Data: Determine which data is most important and needs regular backups. This includes financial records, customer data, and proprietary documents. By prioritising critical data, you ensure that the most valuable information is always protected.
- Choose the Right Backup Method: You can use a combination services for redundancy. This multi-layered approach ensures that you have multiple copies of your data in different locations, reducing the risk of total data loss.
- Automate Backup Processes: Manual backups are prone to errors and can be easily overlooked. Automating the backup process without relying on human intervention.
- Test Your Backups: Regularly test backup integrity by restoring files to ensure they are functional. By testing your backups, you can identify any issues with the backup process and ensure that your data can be successfully restored when needed.
- Store Backups Securely: Use encryption and store backups in separate locations to protect against physical and cyber threats. Secure storage prevents unauthorised access and ensures that your data remains safe even in the event of a disaster.
Cost and frequency of data loss in businesses
Data loss can have a significant financial impact on businesses, costing from a few thousand pounds to over £10 million, depending on the scale of the business. Small businesses face an average downtime cost of £1,000 per minute, which can rapidly add up and become very financially damaging. A huge 67.7% of businesses experience significant data loss annually, and 93% of companies that suffer prolonged data loss go bankrupt within a year. Some of the most common causes for data loss in business include human error, hardware failure, cyberattacks, and natural disasters.
While not all the causes of data loss are avoidable, following these tips and best practices ensures your data is as protected as it can be.
At PKF Infuse, we offer a range of services to help you implement these data protection methods. Our team can help configure automated backup processes across your IT systems to ensure your data is always secure and accessible. Get in touch today to discuss your data backup plan.