Employee delete a folder of client data? Ransomware encrypt all your files? Data loss happens.
Your backup solution should ensure that your data is safe and recoverable. Reliable data backups save you time, money, and your reputation. However, not all solutions are the same. This article aims to give you the best practices for your data backups.
What’s the key to reliable data backups?
1. Frequency
Think about how many times you edit a document every day. Your data changes often, so back it up every few hours to give you access to a recent copy. At 3pm, wouldn’t you rather recover data from 2pm over data from yesterday at midnight? Highly valuable data may need to be backed up more frequently.
2. Automation
Don’t rely on someone to remember to take backups. Besides, your time is best spent working and keeping other folks on task. Schedule backups so you know it will happen regularly and without thought.
Also, you should monitor the backup status often to know if something goes wrong. This way you know when to make changes or fix issues.
3. Security
Your data should be kept private. Encryption restricts who can access data stored within the backups. It makes the data unreadable without a password. Remember to use a strong password and only give it to users that need to know.
4. Testing
You don’t want to find out that your backup doesn’t work when you need to use it. Regularly test the ability to recover data so this doesn’t happen to you.
How do you know if your data backup follows best practices?
Now you know the keys to reliable backups! Ask your vendor if they do backups like WorkSmart:
- Back up data every hour (during business hours)
- Schedule automatic backups and monitor for any issues
- Encrypt the backups
- Test the ability to recover a file and folder monthly
We offer our backup as part of our managed services. We take pride in helping local businesses make sure their data is safe and recoverable.