If you're a small business, chances are the data on your computers IS your business. Without it, you're lost at sea. So it's important that you safeguard that data as thoroughly as possible. By far the best solution is by backing it up remotely with a network backup. Why bother going remote? After all, doing it locally seems like an easy solution. Hard drives are cheap, so just why not just buy one and keep your data close at hand in case your need it? Well, it's important to remember that hard drives (of all kinds) are subject to failure - and you'll never know when it's going to fail until it's too late. Imagine needing your backup data - and finding nothing there!
93% of all businesses that experienced a data loss that lasted 10 days or longer were forced into bankruptcy within a year of the disaster; 50% were forced into bankruptcy immediately. (Source: National Archives & Records Administration in Washington)
According to the Richmond House Group, one-fifth of small to mid-sized businesses undergo a major disaster that includes the loss of critical data every 5 years.
It is projected that 40% of small-to-medium-sized businesses that run their own office network and that access the Internet for anything more than e-mail will have their network hacked - and over half won't realize they have been attacked. (Source: Gartner Group)
Nearly 70% of workers suffer a data loss at some point; this may be caused by accidental deletion, disk failure, a virus or worm infection, or some physical disaster, such as a fire. (Carbonite)
Keep your data safe by keeping it at a distance. The most carefully collected backups are of no use if they burn in the same fire that claims the original data! Offsite storage is the only sure way to prevent that from happening. And it couldn't be easier once you establish a proper backup regimen. Regularly scheduled backup Managed Services Toronto copies are sent via the Internet to a secure remote location, generally in the wee hours when the office is empty and even the most dedicated employees have gone home.
If your business is getting by with basic data backups sitting locally on-site (and only as up-to-date as the last time someone remembered to do a backup) - or worse yet, no backup system at all - you are sitting on a time bomb that could go off at any minute, taking your key data and your business with it. When disaster strikes, you want to be back up and running as soon as you can; every hour of downtime is an hour of lost revenues. Even small losses from a single user or computer can cripple a business if recovery takes too long - or isn't possible. Every owner and manager should be in touch with one of the IT Companies Toronto that can help prevent such a nightmare scenario.
Jeremy Weatherstone is a writer who covers Network Backup and IT Consulting issues.
