Whether you are a one-man shop or medium-sized business with hundreds of employees, backing up your data is the key to business continuity.
By the myBusiness techblog team
It is common practice for large companies to run drills to simulate what would happen if their company system was brought down by a disaster. Such drills are commonly known as “Business continuity drills”.
What about small and medium businesses then? Should you be investing the same amount of time, manpower and dollars in disaster recovery processes to protect your data?
Not necessary so. Protecting your data can start at the individual employee level and be as simple as the 3-2-1 rule.
- Keep three copies of your most important files.
- Make sure you use two different types of media to back up
- Besides the copy in your hard drive, store one copy outside of your office
While there are various options to back up your information – from simple backups, to a local network drive, to the cloud – there are common questions you have to ask. Here’s what you can consider.
What data to back up?
If you have never thought about backup at all, the first thing to do is decide what’s important to back up. Basic items include invoices, customer databases and your company e-mail. Some of the information is required to be kept for several years for audit or compliance purposes, so make sure you have a copy of your transactions with customers, for example.
Where do you backup your stuff?
There should be several lines of defence, so to speak.
The first line can be the network drive in your office. This shared, central drive can be set up to schedule syncing of your data automatically from each workstationat the end of the day, when the network is not busy. This protects you against the inevitable breakdown in PCs.
But what happens if an unexpected flood or fire damages the premises? You will require remote backup.These days, there are many off-site backup offerings which are becoming more affordable. These typically require a speedy Internet connection – fibre broadband is preferred for its fast upload speeds – so you can send your data to a server elsewhere on the cloud, where it is safe from any physical damage that may accidentally occur. Most cloud-based servers provide certain levels of redundancy, so you can be ensured that the data is protected.
What type of backup?
The only good backup is one that can be easily restored when things go wrong. So, be sure to ask your Internet service provider or regular IT vendor how long it will take to recover your data in an emergency. Some providers will keep the latest version of your data only for a short time, and it may take many hours – even days – to restore things to their last working state.
It’s also important to ask where the data is stored. If this is in Singapore, you’ll likely download the information faster given the fast in-country fibre network.
In addition, you have to be aware that some customer information, especially that relating to the financial industry, has to be stored and backed up in the same country and not cross borders. Check with the industry regulator and make sure your backup provider has a solution that is compliant with local regulations.
Is it safe?
Two questions that get asked a lot is whether the information is safe from prying eyes when it is stored off-site, and whether the data is kept secure.
Today’s data centres come with many guarantees of uptime as well as privacy of information. On the balance of things, it is still safer to backup a copy of your most important data remotely in a reliable data centre.
If you store sensitive customer data remotely, make sure you know your data centre provider’s setup. Ask for more secure options. For example, you may want to have your own dedicated servers, or even have them physically secured behind lock and key.
So, in summary, this is what you have to consider:
- Think through if you have a data backup plan that ensures that your business can go on in a time of crisis.
- If you don’t already have one, consider what data to back up.
- Choose a reliable Internet service provider or IT vendor that will be able to advise the best options to back up your most important data.
- Ask what type of backup you will be having and how fast it can be recovered should you need it one day.
So, what do you think is the best data backup plan for SME?