How much is data worth to you and your business?
In a way, we all take our data for granted. When it’s safe and where we expect it to be, doing business and getting work done feels magical. Spreadsheets calculate with ease, customer information is a cinch to look up, and information transmits seamlessly between applications. Can you imagine how anyone got any work done in an office 50 years ago without data connectivity?
However, as you’ve probably experienced at one time in your professional career, when your data is missing, misplaced, accidentally deleted, or stolen, complete pandemonium ensues. Making sure your data and files are safely stored and accessible is essential for your business’s productivity and growth.
What’s the Price Tag on Your Data?
Data is a valuable resource, both financially and for the sake of your company’s productivity. In a way, data is the gold standard that many companies do business on. Data is essential for everything from financial transactions to business communications, employee benefits, and more.
Data disaster recovery
Take a second to stop and think about the financial impact that a data disaster could have on your business. Keep in mind that data disasters, whether it’s a cyberattack, human error, or natural disaster, aren’t picky—they can affect small, medium, or large-sized businesses in any industry, at any time.
Here are few questions to get your brain thinking about the financial impacts of your data:
- How long would it take to rebuild your financial records?
- How would a data disaster affect employee workloads?
- Will a data disaster affect your business-to-customer relationships?
- What effects would a data disaster have on your employees and company culture?
- How much time would it take for your company to recover?
- How many employees wouldn’t be able to do their jobs effectively?
Calculating your data’s value
When you start crunching the numbers and totaling the number of affected employees, salaries, and slamming the brakes on company productivity, data disasters are not only financially expensive, but damaging to your company’s culture, morale, and reputation as well.
It’s difficult to estimate the cost of a data disaster, but you can assume that if you’re not prepared, you’ll be footing a heftier bill.
So, how can you best protect your company from a data disaster? You’ll need to understand the threats to your data, have a plan in place, and put processes in action. When in doubt, an IT expert can help you make a plan.
7 Ways to Help Protect Your Data
1. Prepare for the worst.
Unfortunately, accidents happen. If your business accidentally catches fire or if a tornado comes storming through your lobby, your on-site backups will probably suffer the same fate as your in-office equipment.
Don’t forget about digital catastrophes as well. Cyberattacks, human error, and file corruption could cause the same level of damage to your data as a hurricane if you’re not prepared. Having an off-site or cloud backup solution can help prevent your data from physical loss. Additionally, effective cybersecurity protocols and employee education are essential for keeping your data private and secure.
2. Calculate how much you need to protect.
Your business probably doesn’t use all its data equally. You probably need to back up some databases and files every hour. With others, you may only need to schedule backups once a day. Storing data can be costly for some businesses, and it is not always critically necessary in all scenarios.
To get started thinking about data privacy, backup, and recovery, conduct an audit of your existing data and break it down into categories, ranked from most to least important. These categories can help you figure out how much data storage space you’ll need and how often you’ll need to back it up.
3. Take an inventory of your applications.
Not only does your data privacy and backup solution need to fit your business needs, but it also needs to account for the applications that you run. Consider the data that’s housed within your applications, as well as the applications themselves. Do you have the cybersecurity protocols in place to protect the data? Do you regularly back up the application and the data that lives in it?
4. Choose your backup devices.
There’s a ton of information to consider when selecting the right backup devices for your business. How much space do you need? What types of security do you need? What options do you have for an off-site solution?
When choosing on-site, off-site, and cloud backup solutions, we suggest contacting an expert to learn more about available data backup and security options.
5. Take a picture of your system.
Don’t settle for just backing up your data. Image backups capture your whole system, so you can restore everything if a cyberattack or data disaster occurs. Image backups include the critical aspects of your system that you need to run your business outside of individual data and files, including operating systems, applications, settings, bookmarks, and file states from right before you experienced the disaster.
6. Check and double-check your backups often.
Your data privacy and backup systems aren’t any good to you if they’re not working. Furthermore, if the cybersecurity that’s supposed to be protecting the data is nonexistent or out of date, you’re putting your business at additional risk. Inspect your data backups regularly to ensure that you’re capturing usable backups in the format you’re expecting, safely and securely.
7. Know where you can get help.
Do you have an in-house data or IT expert that handles your day-to-day technology needs, or do you work with a managed service provider for your data and IT services? Maybe your business uses a combination of both.
Individual employees within your organization may not know whom to ask or which questions to ask regarding data privacy and protection. If a data disaster occurs, do you know who to reach out to? Do other employees understand the best practices for protecting data and securing private information?
Without a process in place, you’re wasting valuable time and resources if a data disaster occurs—in some cases, a full restore could be just a phone call away.
Suppose you don’t have a current data backup plan, and you have no idea where to start. In that case, a technology partner like High Touch can assess your existing infrastructure and help determine the best data backup solution for your business.
We Help Keep Your Business Safe.
High Touch partners with businesses to help keep their data safe, secure, and accessible. Contact us today to learn about the data backup, recovery, and cybersecurity solutions available to help keep your business safe.