Even a small business produce a large quantity of data in a year. Recovering individual documents when your PC crashes is much easier than it used to be, with the advent of functions such as Autorecover.
But this type of functionality won’t recover large numbers of documents if your business premises burn down or you have a backup failure. It’s also the case that many of the small businesses using Microsoft Office 365 may not be aware that it doesn’t include any backup.
Recent research by Beaming suggests that over 4 million of the UK’s 5.5 million businesses risk losing critical data through poor backup provision. With data suggesting that 70% of small businesses, which experience a major data loss, go out of business within 12 months.
To ensure your business data is kept safe let’s review your backup options, from the basic to the really complex, including pros and cons.
Normally used by single person businesses to provide a backup solution. This is a really basic solution and something we never recommend as a complete solution.
A hard drive does mean you can instantly restore, but the downsides to this option make it a bad idea. With solution providers such as VEEAM[4] providing SME backup solutions for as little as £25 per month, it makes sense to use more than just a hard drive.
As businesses grow and develop an on-premise server network, the obvious solution is to have an on-premise back-up solution, usually based around network attached storage (NAS) devices. Solutions such as Microsoft System Centre will provide everything you need to build an on-premise solution. There are, of course, pros and cons to this as well…
Recovery times can be quicker than using a cloud solution when a document is identified as missing or corrupted, but it depends on when the last back up was taken. We recommend that multiple retentions take place each day to maximise the opportunity to restore the right information.
Some on-premise solutions provide you with the option, in the event of a major failure, to build a cloud-based server, with your data, but you have to budget accordingly if you want this level of failover capability.
Having your backup, either the actual data or the ability to restore, in the same location as the original versions is rarely a good option. What happens if:
If you are still taking hard drives (or even tapes) off-site each day to mitigate this risk, they can still be lost or stolen. Don’t forget that taking these off-site is highly likely to breach your GDPR commitments.
Backing up your data to a cloud provider delivers far more benefits than issues.
Although you are highly likely to be paying on a per Gb basis for this solution and that may add up to a higher cost than an on-premise solution, the benefits, and convenience, outweigh the costs…
All the major players provide a cloud solution, from Microsoft Azure to Veeam, so there is plenty to choose from. Whatever solution you choose, there is one thing you need to do on a regular basis to ensure your business really is protected: check your backups.
An absolute worst-case scenario would be you get to a situation where you need to restore data, only to find that it isn’t there. Most cloud providers provide you with regular reports on the success, or otherwise, of your backup and may give you reports on a more granular level, showing what machines are missing and how much data.
Turning to experienced companies offering azure management services can be an effective way to increase the success rate of backups and ensure that company data is properly stored in the cloud, trying to do this yourself can be time consuming and potentially disastrous if done incorrectly, so relying on experts is a sensible decision.
Your internet connection
Getting your data into the cloud regularly throughout the day will use a fair amount of your available bandwidth. If you are still relying on ADSL connections, your backup is going to take a very long time. Even the incremental backups (taken after a main data upload) will take time.
For this reason, we recommend you invest in, at least, a fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) solution. The faster data speeds, both up and down, will mean your backups can occur when you need them and they won’t slow down other uses of that connection in the meantime.
If FTTC isn’t available in your area (although >90% of UK premises are now covered), you may have to look at fewer data sets. One backup a day, scheduled overnight is an option, but not recommended.
The level of backup you decide to have will depend on whether your business can operate without data (unlikely) and the value of your business. Consider these two things and then make sure you have right method for backing up your data in place.
Mike Ianiri is from Redsquid, one of the UK’s leading independent providers of business Voice, Data, ICT, Cyber Security and IoT Solutions.
Redsquid is not tied to a single supplier but rather helps clients boost productivity, reduce costs, and protect and grow their business by creating bespoke solutions from the best technology available in the marketplace.
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