SMBs Should Insure Data Through Backup and Disaster Recovery Plans

Six Secrets Most Backup Vendors Don’t Want You to Know

Data is the lifeblood of the business. Vast amounts of enterprise information is backed up, filtered, stored, retrieved and mined. For small to midsized businesses, dealing with data can seem daunting, though—especially when it comes to backup and recovery.

According to a Spiceworks survey, the top three issues for SMBs that prevent them from achieving success with backup and disaster recovery are:

• Tight budgets
• Lack of IT expertise
• Constantly changing technology and solutions

Another study by Sage found that only 38 percent of those SMBs surveyed had a formal disaster recovery plan in place for accessing data after such an event. This same survey found that 72 percent of SMB respondents say that they back up their data on-site only, which poses a major challenge should a crisis occur such as a fire, flood, tornado or theft.

What businesses must realize is that effectively backing up data and storing it offsite is one main part of a solid disaster recovery plan. If a major catastrophe were to occur, important company data could be retrieved to help business continue and/or rebuild after the crisis. Having such a plan in place works as a data insurance policy—one that an organization hopes it doesn’t have to cash in on, but still keeps up-to-date just in case.

With the size of company data growing exponentially via many channels including Big Data and soon, the Internet of Things, all SMBs must find a way to back up and store integral company information. Many options exist for companies needing to provide effective backup of data, including automated backups, server virtualization, and offsite storage of data.

One other effective and relatively inexpensive way to provide data backup is through managed service providers (MSPs) who offer online cloud backup services.

Reputable MSPs offer secure, fast backup of company data with equally as quick restoring of lost data. Most also provide several levels of backup services to fit many data needs and pricing structures.

Of course, an organization should consider the MSP’s availability and any governance or compliance issues prior to signing an agreement.

In my next post, I will discuss further considerations that SMBs must realize before signing on for cloud backup services.