Data Protection Reminders

Backing up your valuable data may be the most important thing you can do. Without it, your productivity stops. Having quick access to the most current information, as well as to specific point-in-time data, could be critical to the success of your business. Regardless of your business objective—be it to capture real-time updates to a mission-critical database or to ensure that the executive’s laptop data is recoverable even if a disk fails or a device is lost—regular backups are priceless. Here are a few tips to ensure you don’t get burned:

1. Take inventory. Go through all your computers, external hard drives, and anywhere else you might have files you’d like to keep—and protect.

2. Determine what’s important. Once you know what you have, decide what you want to back up. As a rule, you’ll want to back up anything that, if lost, would cost you or your organization time, money, or distress.

3. Think consolidation. Once you know what you’re going to back up, put as many files as you can in a single place. The fewer places you store information, the fewer computers, drives, and folders you’ll need to back up.

4. Get started. To make a backup, simply copy your consolidated files onto another computer, a removable drive, or Internet storage space. You can either create your backups manually or use an automated tool. In either case, you need to continue making backups on a regular basis. Otherwise, your newly acquired data—along with changes to old files—will not be protected.

5. Automate regular backups. Manual backups can be time-consuming and require a lot in terms of discipline. On the other hand, popular security solutions automatically make regular backups for you. And should you lose anything you’ve backed up, they will automatically restore your files.

When it comes to protecting the data you most care about, there’s no substitute for a regular backup routine.

Jim Lippie
Vice-President
Staples Network Services
Lawrence, Mass.

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/tips/archives/2010/07/data_protection_reminders.html