Backup excuses, excuses, excuses

Statistics have revealed that 93% of businesses that could not access their data for more than 10 days have filed for bankruptcy. This, says ANDRE JOUBERT of MWEB Business, is proof that data loss can destroy businesses.

Data loss is a reality: hard drives crash, motherboards short circuit and human error can result in the loss of critical data.

Statistics compiled by the National Archives & Records Administration in Washington revealed that 93 percent of companies that lost their data for 10 days or more due to a disaster, filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster.

I believe the problem is that many businesses think it won’t happen to them. As a result, data back-up remains a grudge purchase for many businesses when it need not be. Thanks to cloud computing technology and the availability of affordable, uncapped broadband connectivity, automated off-site backup has become a viable option for businesses of all sizes.

The real question for businesses is: ‘Can you afford to risk not backing up data automatically?’

According to a study conducted by David M Smith, Associate Professor of Economics at the Graziadio School of Business, Pepperdine University in the US, six percent of all computers will suffer an episode of data loss in any given year.

A similar survey of small businesses by Verio revealed that more than half of the respondents admitted to having experienced some data loss.

There are various reasons why businesses don’t back-up their data regularly. Some of the most common are:

¬∑ My business isn’t big enough to need daily computer backup.

¬∑ It’s more important to focus on networking and establishing the business.

· All our important data is stored on my laptop, so my data is safely offsite every night.

¬∑ My server is brand new, so I’m not worried about backing up my data yet.

¬∑ I don’t have the time to perform a daily backup. Once a month is sufficient.

· My IT consultant takes care of that.

· Daily offsite backup is too expensive particularly as this will exceed my data cap and I will have to purchase additional bandwidth.

Every one of these excuses is fallacious.

Automated online backup services can copy, compress and encrypt files that have changed since the previous backup and send them via a secure Internet connection to be safely stored in a high-security data centre. No human intervention is required nor do you need special hardware or consumables that are themselves at risk of failure.

Your data will stay intact and available even if your local disk/laptop is stolen or crashes: or your premises suffer some disaster. Automated online backup is not only reliable and easy to use and is available for a low fixed monthly fee.

The cost of not having it could be incalculable.

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