We all know that we should be backing up our data. But most don’t realize just how important having a backup, as well as an offsite backup, really is until it’s needed. Users should think of a backup as a sort of insurance policy that protects their business from data loss and downtime.
Data loss can be a frustrating and costly for businesses. It is vital for businesses to have a disaster recovery plan in place to prevent costly downtime. Having onsite backups that are constantly monitored and tested help to ensure data can be recovered in most situations. In some cases, the local on-site backup may not be enough, such as catastrophic loss of a building to fire or a natural disaster. The only way to truly ensure data can be recovered is to have an offsite backup plan in place. Here are five reasons why you should put a backup plan in place to protect your business.
- Deletion. Whether file deletion is by accident or done maliciously, it is a common way data is lost. It is possible to re-create the file, but is more time consuming than just restoring a backup.
- Hardware Failure. According to a survey done by StorageCraft, a leading backup software company, 99% of IT partners surveyed had experienced a hardware failure that resulted in data loss or server down time. Of these, Hard Drive failure is the most common. If the hard drive platter becomes melted, badly scored, or shattered then all the data is lost. Other hardware damages, such as fire and or water damage cannot be repaired. In this situation recovering the data is not possible and restoring from an offsite backup is the only option.
- Reformatting/Corruption. If a system is accidentally wiped/formatted, or if data corruption occurs, data may be lost. This information may be able to be re-created, but again restoring from a backup is more efficient.
- Lost/Stolen Equipment. With no physical hardware to recreate the data from, restoring from an offsite backup is the only option.
- Encryption/Virus Infection. Cryptolocker is an example of a virus that will encrypt your data, unless a ransom is paid. The virus quickly infects systems by way of email attachments or malware seeded websites. It can spread to any connected network drive and encrypt those as well. In this situation, even paying the ransom may not get your data back and the cost to reconstruct lost data can be significant. Being able to restore from an offsite backup is faster and much safer than paying any ransom.