Businesses lose approximately $55 billion each year to viruses, let alone hardware failure. It will be almost impossible to retrieve crucial data should you experience any of the above. Anti-viruses are great, but some viruses can sidestep the most formidable anti-viruses, plus they don’t do much to protect against hardware malfunction.
Any business owner understands just how important data integrity is to ensuring normal workflow and instilling client or customer confidence. As such, business owners need to come up with a contingency plan against data loss. Backing up data is the most foolproof contingency plan against data loss through viruses or hardware malfunction.
Businesses can back up their data internally, using their IT infrastructure or outsource to third-party companies for the same. Both options work great, but the latter is more reliable against hardware failure from natural disasters.
In this post, we’ll be highlighting why it’s so important for businesses to back up their data regularly. We’ll also look at a couple of ways businesses can back up their data for complete data integrity and business continuity.
1. To Prevent Data Loss
The most obvious and important reason why businesses need to back up their data is to prevent data loss. Remember, data loss isn’t something you plan for. It can happen anytime, and mostly at the worst possible time.
Reasons for data loss include malware, hardware failure, or non-computer related events like fires and natural calamities. Most companies never recover from total data loss like the ones caused by fire or earthquakes. That’s because data loss has a domino effect with far-reaching consequences in all sectors of your business.
To prevent this, make sure you back up your data every chance you get. That way, you can have complete protection against data loss.
2. To Save Time
As mentioned earlier, data loss is detrimental to normal business operations. Before you get back to your feet after losing data, you’ll also have lost a ton of money. Remember, if you lose vital files, documents, or entire projects, you’ll have to redo them.
Redoing everything you lost takes up a lot of time, and everyone in business knows that time is money. If you backed up your data, all you have to do is click your mouse buttons a few times and voila! You have everything back. To save you some time and money, make a point of backing up your data regularly.
3. Spring Back to Action Quickly
There a high chance that your business will close its doors for a while if it suffers a major data loss. That’s because the company must devote all its time and energy to recovering or recreating lost information. Your closing down gives your competitors the perfect opportunity to snatch your precious customers away from you.
If you have a data backup, you just need a few hours to restore everything, and you can get back to business. Back up your data so your competitors don’t get the best of you when you lose important company data. Keep in mind that 94% of businesses that experience severe data loss never even recover from it in the first place.
4. For Taxation Purposes
The taxman requires all businesses to keep receipts and other important documents for three years or so. The regulations vary by state, but the point is, the IRS requires some form of documentation from your company.
Failure to keep accurate and consistent financial records can have very devastating consequences for your company. In case you’re wondering, the IRS doesn’t care why you don’t have the said financial records. So no matter what happened, you have to find these records and send them to the IRS in good time.
To be in good books with the taxman, make sure you have a complete backup of these financial records and documents. That way, you can sidestep heavy penalties and other expenses from late tax filing or no filing at all.
5. For Peace of Mind
If you’re always worked up about losing important company data at any moment, then back it up once and for all. It’s hard to sit still with the rampancy of malware attacks that are plaguing today’s businesses. Not to mention the unpredictable weather trends that could lay your entire business to waste in an instant.
Holding an executive position means you have to be accountable for any mishap that’s slowing down productivity and income flow. Data loss could land you in some serious trouble, and you could even lose your job. If the data loss is too severe, there won’t even be a company to hire you in the first place.
For ultimate peace of mind, back up at least your most important documents, if not all of them. That way, you can rest easy knowing your data is safe and sound.
Best Data Backup Against Hardware Failure and Viruses for Businesses
There are plenty of ways businesses can back up their data to avoid data loss. Here are some of the best:-
External hard drives– small and medium enterprises can use external hard drives to back up their data. They’re a simple and inexpensive method for data backup.
Cloud-based backup– Cloud-based or online backup is an excellent choice for any type of business. It’s inexpensive, versatile, and completely disaster-proof. Businesses also have plenty of cloud service providers to choose from.
Tapes– Tapes are the oldest form of data backup and are hardly used these days. Tapes are old but aren’t obsolete, and some businesses still use it.
Back to the present, Apple’s Time Machine is great for data backup on a personal level. Go there if you want to learn how to back up your Mac using Time Machine.
Businesses have plenty to choose from when it comes to backup options. It’s up to you to find out which one is best for your business.
Data Backup Could Save Your Business
Your company has much to lose from data loss due to malware or a hardware failure. If you put the right backup measures in place, you won’t have to worry about data loss. Make sure you choose the best-suited backup option for your company for ultimate peace of mind.
For complete data integrity, look no further than data backup. For complete enlightenment and though-provocation, then check out the other pieces on the site.
