- October 31, 2018
-
- 3 min
While a damaged computer can be replaced and software reinstalled, your data is unlikely to survive a significant failure without a backup. Backup software protects your data by placing a copy, or multiple copies, in one or more locations that you can restore from when something goes wrong.
The impact of data loss can vary, from a minor inconvenience to a major interruption in business operations. Here are 5 reasons why data backups are a must:
All data is a target
Attackers don’t care about the size of your business. Small businesses may feel immune to attacks and avoid backups because they think they aren’t important, but this is wrong. Just as you protect a network of any size with security equipment such as firewalls and intrusion detection devices, you should protect your data by securely backing it up in another location.
It isn’t uncommon for a network to be attacked in order to gain access to resources, and not data, in order to perform other malicious activity – potentially destroying data as collateral damage in the process.
Disasters can’t be scheduled
Do you know what natural disasters, power outages, and other problems with the infrastructure we all depend on have in common? They can shut your business down, and do so quickly.
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, almost 40% of small businesses never reopen their doors after a disaster. Most disasters are related to natural disasters or the operational failures they can cause:
While we cannot control when natural disasters strike, we can take measures to minimize impact on business operations in their wake. A properly documented, and regularly tested, backup plan will ensure that even if a major disaster strikes, your business will have important information available once operations are able to resume.
Downtime means lost revenue
Lost revenue during an operational outage is a given for most businesses and the financial damage is further compounded by the need to compensate staff, even if they are unable to properly function without the critical systems and applications they need.
Do you know how much downtime your business can safely absorb? Calculate your cost of downtime with Valiant’s Downtime Calculator.
Some data is priceless
The loss of data without a way to “turn back the clock” with a backup means that you’ll be spending time redoing a lot of work, using time that you’d otherwise be able to apply to revenue building activities.
Having a backup plan in place ensures that your work is still available once recovery from a backup takes place, and at most you’ll lose data created since your last backup – which can be minimized with a properly maintained backup plan designed for your business.
Your reputation is at risk
Losing your own data is a big problem, but what if you lose customer data? How would missing data affect your business’s ability to provide the goods and services that your customers expect? Does an interruption in service present a risk for damaging your reputation with your customers, or even worse, future business?
All of the above reasons support businesses of all sizes having data backup plans in place. Are you running your business without backups? Get in touch today and our team will work with you to understand your needs and craft a backup strategy that will keep your business running smoothly.
