Backing Up Your Small Business Data

Backing up your small business’ data is an important function that’s easy to overlook in the day-to-day activity of growing and maintaining your business.

Fortunately, automated cloud-based back up services can give small business owners essential protection for their company files as well as peace of mind that their data is being stored securely.

The most efficient and cost-effective backup strategy for small businesses is using a cloud-based service that automatically copies files to a secure server so the files can be recovered if they are deleted or damaged.

Cloud-based backup offers several advantages to small business owners, starting with preventing the loss of critical customer, financial and employee data. Any business needs its records to function and losing access to its files can hinder most companies and their ability to serve customers.

An effective data backup strategy can also reduce potential downtime in the event of a natural disaster, cybersecurity breach, or other scenario that disrupts the company’s operations. The sooner you can recover your files and records, the faster you can resume normal operations (or least get up and running).

While the specific types of files that are most valuable can vary from company to company, all organizations need to ensure they’re protecting customer and sales data, financial information, as well as human resources documentation.

Backup Benefits

Cloud backup programs offer a variety of benefits to small business owners:

• On-demand recovery. Files can either be downloaded from the backup provider or copied to physical media that can be delivered to you. This allows you to resume operations quickly, potentially from an alternative location.
• Automation. Depending on your configuration, backups will run in the background or overnight, duplicating files or incremental changes within files that are already protected. Most programs will initially back up a complete file, then copy changes to reduce the amount of time spent uploading files.
• Business continuity. If you lose access to your primary workplace, online backup can help you recover important files quickly.
• Ease of use. Cloud backup programs use web interfaces that let you specify the folders and files to backup, and to establish a schedule for how often those files are duplicated by the backup provider.

As you consider cloud backup providers, it’s important to understand your options for recovering files. Downloading many files can take a long time, especially if you are working from a different location following a natural disaster. In this case, you may need to prioritize the files you recover, or invest in the files being copied to physical media that can be shipped to your location.

It’s also helpful to ask if your data is going to be encrypted as it is backed up. Back up files can be attractive targets for hackers, so this additional layer of protection may be worthwhile.

Similarly, ask whether your provider will require multifactor authentication to access your backups. This reduces the risk of an unauthorized user downloading your files.

It is also important to periodically check your back up to make sure that it is working, and that you understand the process for recovering files. It’s far better to correct any configuration errors when you don’t need your files then discovering they are not available at a critical moment.