It’s that sinking feeling when the document you’ve spent the last 6 hours working on magically disappears. Your stomach feels like you just took the first drop down a 200-foot roller coaster, your mouth dries up, and you frantically hit the keyboard praying to the computer gods to “bring it back!”.
If you’ve ever had that experience, then you know the importance of backing-up your data. But what you don’t know about online back-up and how it works, will hurt your business. In fact, there are two big mistakes that most SMBs make when it comes to securing their company’s data.
Costly Mistake #1
The first mistake or misconception is about your Operating System. Your OS is the piece of software that makes your computer and laptop run, giving you the nice graphical user interface. Without an OS, you will need a computer science degree to take advantage of the collection of very power hardware sitting in front of you. Most of us knows it as Windows, Mac OS X, Linux etc.
With online backups, all of your protected files & data are stored in the cloud (i.e. hopefully in a secure data center operated by the service provider). If you have a data lost situation, you simply connect over the Internet to your backup and download your protected data. It sounds simple. But is it?
What if your computer, or worse, computers, are inaccessible because of a virus infection, failed hardware or other unnamed disasters? And there is a very good chance you will need to recover these computer(s) or server, into a form that your employees or users will be able to access collectively.
Did you know most basic online backups will NOT backup the Operating Systems of your computers? This means in order to get back to normal operation, you will have to do one or more of the following:
- Fix or replace the failed hardware. How long this will take depends on how much you are willing to spend and how quickly you need to get yourself and your employees working again.
- Re-install the Operating System on the system. This will most likely be the route if you have a virus infection or a failed hard drive. (Two of the most common reasons for losing data). This could take a minimum of 2-3 hours to multiple days. If the failed system is a server, and you have to recreate everyone’s accounts as well.
Costly Mistake #2
When you decide on a backup disaster recovery solution for your business, the SIMPLEST is never the CHEAPEST. And almost always, this “cheap” solution will be the most expensive when you have to recover from a disaster recovery situation.
And more importantly, take into consideration on what your threshold is for down time (Visit our RTO calculator to find out).
- Can you tolerate being without your data for one or more days?
- How much will each hour of downtime cost your business? This could be a real or soft cost.
In today’s world of Internet content and communications; data loss is not an “IF”, it’s a “WHEN”. Consider protecting your data similar to purchasing insurance. Ask “How can the service provider help me continue to operate my business?” And “How quickly can I recover?”
Consider a true Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery service. Ask us how we can help you do this without breaking the bank.