Even when small to medium sized companies use an offsite backup service, we see many of the same problems occurring as in larger enterprises. Just because you are in small business it does not mean you cannot apply stringent rules and procedures in your company when backing up your data. Taking the time to change the way you do things in your company may save you a lot more than just your data. Security of your company’s information as well as the security of your client’s information is of the utmost importance. Here is a look at the common mistakes and issues we see in regards to storage and backup of information in many small businesses today.
External:
You many think that you are safe from the loss of data because you have backed up your data on an external hard drive. Not all hard drives are the same, and if you are going to backup your information and data yourself, it is important you use high quality and expensive devices. Hard drives can be damaged quite easily, and many of the devices on the market will not last more than a year of regular use. Investing in the right tools is essential.
Free Online Services:
Free online backup locations as provided by such companies as Hotmail and Gmail have a relative amount of security. It is only the paid services that will supply you with the total security you require. Losing data in transit to hackers and others who are a security threat is a very real issue. Losing the credit card details of your company could mean you lose more than that data.
Some free online services, such as Dropbox, have had some serious security issues in the past. Dropbox, despite being one of the first free online storage and transfer services on the market was recently subject to some very embarrassing security issues. Anyone could log into any account with any password. This is not the level of security any company can afford.
Procedures: All managers should consider their internal procedures and policies when creating systems for backing up and storing their company’s information. It is important employees are subject to regular compliance training and you have failsafe and verification systems in place. Who is watching who? You can never have any system that only one person is in charge of.
You cannot leave an external hard drive on your premises, for example. You will need to manage the times of daily backups and you will also need to limit access to those technologies and locations. Have you considered what you will do in the case of internet failure, and do you have a backup internet connection?
Whether you have large amounts of data, or only general use information, creating the proper procedures, using the proper tools, and getting assistance from the professionals in backup, is highly recommended for any size business.
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About Warren
I am happy to visit and read useful articles here. I hope you continue to do the sharing through the post to the reader.
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Thank you for raising this question! Those who want to backup data to cloud storage powered by Amazon S3 may check out CloudBerry Backup http://backup.cloudberrylab.com/ It is onetime fee and the rest what you pay for Amazon S3. Besides, there is no proprietary data format and you can access your data using other Amazon s3 tools. It supports all AWS regions, Reduced Redundancy Storage and access to cloud storage using the virtual drive.
Girlincloud,
CloudBerry Lab team
Thanks for the tip Girlincloud.
Have a fantastic week!
I think you’d be wise to use some sort of virtualization security software as well. But definitely back up everything and use some hard disk storage also, separate from main servers.
I find this post very helpful for my business. Thought having a back up on hard drive is safe but now I am alarmed. We also need to consider things like quality of the hard drive in order to have our files safe and secured. Thank you for the recommendations.
real-time incremental
I agree and think that small business should really not miss their back up system since they cannot afford to hire professionals to recover their file.
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