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Data Protection Tips for Your Small Business Network
Filed Under: Backup
Data loss is something no one wants to think about. For some businesses, loss of data could means days of playing catch-up and trying to piece together customer account information and other important data from various sources. Avoid this kind of confusion or the total loss of data by following these important tips.
Backup Your Data Frequently
This is one of the single-most helpful things you can do. If you have a backup, then no matter what happens or what other things may go wrong, you have a copy of everything you’ve lost. Make a backup plan and stick to it, because the one time you don’t backup some important data, that’s liable to be the time that all your other data protection measures fail. Don’t take that risk. Decide what’s most important for your business—email and financial records, customer information, mailing lists—-and back it up faithfully.
The best way to start is with a full backup that copies everything and then schedule incremental backups. These will backup everything that’s changed since the original backup. It’s also a good idea to do a full backup now and then, or even every time if you have adequate space for that much data. It’s easiest to restore data from a full backup, so don’t neglect to do those at regular intervals.
Choose the Best Backup Medium
Backup tapes and discs were once the standard, but they do wear out over time and need to be large enough to hold all the data. You could install a second hard drive on a system and store backups there, but that puts the backup information at risk from standard things like viruses and system failures. This is better than nothing, but the best backup medium is an external hard drive.
You can purchase removable hard drives that are a good option if you have huge backups scheduled regularly. And large, external drives can be purchased pretty cheaply today, and can hold hundreds of gigabytes of information. Some even offer an instant backup feature to make it easier for you.
It’s a good idea to keep a full backup stored away from the original data. A flood, for instance, could ruin any extra tapes or hard drives in the same building. Online backups are a good choice, if a more expensive one, because the risk of data loss is almost eliminated.
Don’t neglect to let your backup software check the integrity of the data, and occasionally restore some of the information in another place and check the files to make sure everything’s in order.
Choose the Right Power Supplies
Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) are designed to protect against power fluctuations, and give you about 10 minutes after the power goes out to save whatever you’re working on before you turn the system off correctly. Choose one that’s UL rated, and be sure it’s powerful enough for everything you’ll plug into it. Look at the VA rating for your computer, monitor and other equipment, and choose a UPS that can handle a little more than that.
The right power supplies, combined with regular backups, will help keep your data safe.
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