The Importance of Having a Backup Strategy – 2020

Backup: when disaster strikes, we all shout for it. We assume, wrongly, that every business has a long term backup strategy – does yours? It should. In fact, if you have one, you’re halfway there to protecting your business. But a corporate backup strategy is only valid if it’s regularly tested and you can guarantee the process works. Both for your peace of mind as well as your data security.

If your IT backup plan fails it could have catastrophic effects on your business. Not only from a compliance and regulatory perspective but from a reputational point of view too. Your clients trust you with their data – you have a responsibility to keep it safe. So where should you start?

What is a backup strategy?

An offline and online backup strategy is your first line of defence against cyber-crime. It’s also vital for your credibility – your clients need assurance that their data is in safe hands. So, what should you consider as best backup and recovery best practices? Costs, risks, frequency of backup and number of copies are all key to a successful backup plan but firstly you need to think about what you need to protect. Is it systems, servers, data, files or programmes? Or is it everything? The answer is yes – anything that keeps your business operational needs backup support to ensure continuity in the event of a disaster (whether cyber-related or physical).

Next you should think about the potential risks to your business. Think about your location – could flooding pose a threat to your day-to-day? Think about how data is accessed. Do your clients use passwords to access your services? Are they properly encrypted? Has your business ever fallen victim to cyber-crime? If so, what route did the crime take and do you have sufficient defences in place to prevent it from happening again? With a successful data backup strategy in place none of these risks pose a serious threat to your business…but without one it could be devastating. There are several simple steps you can take to help create a successful, secure backup:

3-2-1 backup rule

It’s a rule many businesses swear by as a seamless approach to protecting your data. The 3-2-1 backup rule is easy to remember: Keep three copies of your data: two stored as copies on different storage devices (in separate locations) and one located offsite in the Cloud.

Schedule testing

A backup is only a backup if it can be restored. If you don’t regularly test your backups it defeats all object of having one and puts your business at risk. Schedule regular checks to test that your Plan B is doing everything you need it to – to protect your business-critical assets.

Keep backups regular

Take the pressure off your internal IT teams with the support of a professional, Managed IT Services provider who can schedule, manage and maintain your online Cloud back-ups. Not only will they keep your business secure – they’ll help keep it compliant. With GDPR and heavy regulation governing many industries, ensuring your data meets best practice can be a full-time job – one that you can delegate to a third party service provider you can trust – like us. We’re specialists in software and storage security, backup and disaster recovery – whether cloud services or offline.

 

Can you afford not to invest in managed data backup services?

Count the cost of what impact a data breach could have on your business – would you be able to recover from such detrimental damage? Can you afford not to invest in the support of a managed IT services team? Chat to our team today and benefit from a professional backup.

If your IT backup plan fails it could have catastrophic effects on your business. Not only from a compliance and regulatory perspective but from a reputational point of view too. Your clients trust you with their data – you have a responsibility to keep it safe. So where should you start?

Reduce Risk With Online Backup Services.

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