Your data is a valuable business asset and should be safeguarded as such. Data backup is a critical business process that saves you time and money in case anything happens to your data files, such as power failures, power spikes, viruses, system crashes, or disaster events like fire, flood, theft, or vandalism.
Copying your important data to disk or other storage to create an alternate working copy ready to restore if the original system data is lost, damaged, or corrupted is insurance against business down time and customer and revenue loss.
Who is Responsible for Backup?
Who is responsible for backing up the data in your business? How is the backup performed, and how often is it done? Is that specified in your written policies and procedures? Is there someone checking on the backup procedure to make sure it is working and functional? Do you know how to recover files from backups if and when you need to do it?
These are critical business issues that should be addressed and reviewed regularly. You don’t want to have a need to restore data only to find out the IT assistant assigned to do it every week hasn’t done it in two months, or that no one knows how to get data off of backup media and back into your system.
A GFI survey revealed that 85 percent of respondents had lost data because of failed backups. Regularly test the backup process and media and document the backup process. Review your procedures and make sure you know how the backup is being done and how to recover files when you need them. Make routine backup and recovery practice a part of your data security policies.
Are You Performing Data Backup Often Enough?
Data backup frequency should mirror how often your data changes. Daily or weekly backups are routine for business systems with daily use and multiple users. According to GFI’s survey results, almost half of businesses backup data daily, but the ones who don’t cite varying reasons. Many feel it’s not necessary to do daily backups, many don’t have the time to do it daily. Whether you feel daily backups are necessary or not, you should regularly review your backup process to make sure it’s being done and you are able to recover data from it.