How Often do you Back Up your Data?
In the event of hardware failure, virus infestations, theft or even just accidental deletion, would you be able to recover your data from a backup? The impact of any of these situations could be catastrophic for your business and end up being very costly.
To combat this occurring, you should ensure that you have good, tested backups which are done on a regular basis. Backups make it simple for you to protect your data by copying it and storing it somewhere other than your computer’s hard drive.
In an ideal world you should backup daily, which would give you the quickest recovery time as the data is only one day old. However, ensuring you do backups on a regular basis is more critical than their frequency.
You should also remember the 3-2-1 rule. This states you should keep 3 copies of your data, on 2 different types of media with at least 1 copy of the backup stored off-site.
An external hard drive is a fast, efficient way of backing up all of your data. You can purchase these that either plug into your computer’s USB port or that connect via your wireless network. Most are so compact they can be easily stored off-site. It is important to test that the data you have backed up to an external hard drive can be recovered if the need arises. You should do this by connecting the device to a different computer.
The use of online backup is becoming increasingly popular due to its added convenience, security (no-one can steal the physical hard drive) and its low cost. There is virtually no limitation on storage space apart from the storage capacity you have purchased and many vendors allow you to purchase extra when you are nearing your limit.
Even though they are often low cost, it is not recommended to use USB memory sticks or writable CDs/DVDs to back up your data. They have a very limited capacity and are very easily lost or stolen. CDs and DVDs in particular are also very slow to transfer your data.
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