Don’t lose your stuff! 

What is Backup? 

Backup is the process of creating a copy of data to protect against accidental or malicious deletion, corruption, hardware failure, ransomware attacks, and other types of data loss. Data backups can be created locally, offsite, or both. An offsite data backup is a key part of any business continuity/disaster recovery plan.

Do you need Backup?

The answer is: YES! If you have digital content, you need backup. Whether it’s family pictures or critical business files, you need some form of backup. Digital storage has made our lives so much more convenient, but there is always a risk of loss. You want to have a backup solution in place that will give you access to the data when and where you need it.

Important reasons to have a backup solution in place:

• Protection against ransomware and other malware attacks
• Easy data recovery in the event of an accident, theft, system crash, or corruption
• Reduced downtime in the event of a disaster
• Peace of mind knowing that your data is always safe and sound

The Cost

No matter what the cause is, the loss of data or inability to access data comes at a cost. This isn’t just an issue for large companies. SMB’s are at risk as well.

The cost of downtime: This is the time when the business is “offline” waiting on the data to become accessible or restored. The average cost per minute of unplanned downtime is $7,900.

• Lost productivity
• Revenue disruptions

• Production stoppage
• Regulatory fines
• Damaged reputation

Backup Methods 

Local Backup (Onsite)

With a local backup method, the backup solution stores the data on storage locally available onsite. Some popular local storage options are: External Desktop Drive, USB Drive, and NAS (Network Attached Storage)

• PROS: Easily configured, quick availability, fast restore
• CONS: Data loss is still possible in the event of a disaster

Cloud Backup (Offsite)

With a cloud backup method, the backup solution stores the data on the servers provided by the cloud backup vendor.

• PROS: Data loss in the event of a disaster is mitigated with the offsite copy
• CONS: Configuration may be more involved. Restore time could be longer

Backup Strategy 

Since each of the backup methods above has its own negatives, it’s best to put together a backup strategy that fits your recovery objectives. Business class backup solutions have many different features and options that allow you to put together a strategy that will best protect your data.

When putting together a backup strategy, you also want to consider Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO). RTO is the amount of time it takes to restore all systems after an outage. RPO is the point-in-time to which you will restore your data after a disaster.