Every day, businesses are handling more sensitive data, both in-transit and at-rest. For many businesses, safely handling and storing that information is vital for maintaining relationships and driving success. As data breaches rise in both frequency and financial impact, businesses need additional layers of protection to ensure their data is not mishandled, lost or stolen. Failing to take adequate countermeasures against data loss can result in massive financial penalties, added compliance costs and crippling delays to business operations.
For this reason, data backup and disaster recovery capabilities are now virtually mandatory for protecting against data loss. Securely backing up critical data to a secondary storage location protects businesses against data loss risk. Should a business suffer a data loss or data theft incident, they can easily get back up and running with the use of their disaster recovery capabilities.
Why Data Backup Is Important
Businesses are storing more sensitive and proprietary data than ever before. Law firms, insurance companies, HIPAA compliant health care facilities, government agencies, law enforcement and labor unions all have real data security concerns. Whether an organization is dealing with customer data, health records or confidential business data, securing that information against loss or destruction is crucial to maintaining customer trust and day-to-day business operations. Protecting this data is just as much a security obligation as it is a privacy obligation; therefore, data backup capabilities need to address two key business concerns: safeguarding valuable data and being able to bounce back from a disaster event.
Businesses that do fall prey to a data breach can expect to suffer losses anywhere from the average of $3.92 million to as much as $100 million on the high end. While financial losses will obviously be highest for large corporations, small and medium size businesses are far from immune to the risks of data loss. The same research estimates that 30% of all organizations globally will have to deal with a breach at some point over the next two years. In order to ensure your business data is both secure and available when you need it, data backup and protection must be at the core of your IT security plan.
Ways To Backup Data
Businesses have a variety of cost-effective and efficient implementation strategy options. One of the most universally utilized options is cloud-based data backup and recovery. Fully automated cloud backups can guarantee that critical data is never lost, and is easily able to be restored. Cloud solutions are also able to scale to requirements for businesses large and small, an ever-growing concern as businesses handle exponentially increasing amounts of data. Cloud-based capabilities also provide businesses with remote data backup and recovery options, which can be invaluable if businesses are locked out from their primary location, or as workforces continue to shift embracing more flexible work from home options.
While cloud-based options are convenient for many, they will never be a one-size-fits-all solution for every business. Many businesses have security or compliance requirements that rule out cloud-based solutions. In these cases, businesses will usually prefer to keep their backup storage on-site. This approach ensures that data stays firmly under the organization’s security controls and can still be configured to offer many of the same remote capabilities as a cloud-based approach.
How Frequently Should Data Backups Occur?
Once a data backup solution and disaster recovery solution is in place, the next question businesses should consider is how often to backup their data. While the frequency of data backups will vary from business to business based on their unique requirements, it’s vitally important to establish a regular data backup procedure. This helps to ensure that you are backing up all data exactly when it needs to be backed up and reduces the risk of human or technological error. Setting up a firm data backup routine and testing it regularly ensures that your data systems are functioning as intended, and helps to prepare you for any disaster events in the future.
Reach Out To The Managed IT Services Experts Today!
Data protection doesn’t have to be a complicated matter. The modernized data backup and disaster recovery solutions at TCB are able to successfully protect and restore company data. For more information on data backup and disaster or managed IT services, contact the IT solutions professionals at TCB.
TCB is an innovative backup solutions provider providing companies with the best possible protection against cyber attacks. Our data backup and disaster recovery services provide an extra layer of protection against data breaches and liabilities associated with cyber attacks. We strive to provide companies with the best possible security solutions.