Businesses and organizations rely on data now more than ever in this digital era. This has seen the value of data increase significantly. The consequences of failing to back up data can be frightening. They include downtime, lost productivity, reputational damage, and could ultimately lead to your business shutting down. The time for pondering whether data backup is necessary is over. Below are some reasons why data backup is extremely important for businesses in 2O20 and beyond.
1. Evolving threats will increase
Cyber attacks are on the rise. Businesses and organizations are witnessing more sophisticated attacks from cybercriminals. The best form of protection from these attacks is to prevent them from happening. As a business leader, you should invest in a well-managed backup service that will enable you to detect, prevent, and contain data breaches. A reliable backup service can help you build resilience in your business setup and execution.
2. Your reputation is at stake
You can quantify financial losses, but it is impossible to quantify the true consequences of data loss. Productivity and reputation are immeasurable, and consumers tend to avoid companies that have been breached. Additionally, if a breach leads to the loss of personal data, it can lead to a legal challenge from compliance authorities and consumers.
3. Data backup gives you a competitive advantage
Data backup can be a competitive advantage. If a terrible disaster strikes, the first business to resume operations will take customers from businesses that have yet to resume operations.
4. Deadly downtime
Almost half of businesses that suffer a serious data loss never reopen. Within a year or two, most of these enterprises end up shutting their doors for good. By simply backing up your data, you can avoid this kind of scenario. If the capability to reopen is completely lost, you can’t initiate new projects, and a lot of time is lost in the recovery process.
5. Big data has become mission-critical
Analytic tools provide prescriptive and predictive business insights that enable you to make more informed decisions when formulating business strategies. When this amount of data is breached, it also implies the loss of both mission-critical and personal information. So when your business data becomes ‘big data’ – complex, massive, and mission-critical – you need to have a great backup plan as a safety measure against cyberattacks and equipment failure.
6. Data backup increases your productivity
When a company has backup files at the ready in the event of a business-disrupting event, operations can resume without drawn-out stoppages. This minimizes the risk of customer loss and portrays you as prepared and relatively reliable. For the company, this translates to increased productivity and a steady flow of sales operations.
7. Physical disasters
Malware, viruses, and cyberattacks are the main threats to your business data. But data also faces physical threats such as fires and floods. Natural disasters can destroy all your data on location, making it almost impossible to recover it if you don’t have a backup plan in place.
8. It increases your storage space
For startups and small businesses trying to find their feet in their respective industries, affording large data storage systems can be difficult. Every bit of storage space is thus highly valuable and meant to be utilized as economically as possible.
File backup allows you to create space in your network-attached storage (NAS) devices by deleting some of the files you don’t need at the moment. That said, it is advisable that a business assesses the cons and pros of cloud-based storage vs. network-attached storage, so they can choose what suits their needs best.
9. It gives you peace of mind
As an entrepreneur who has been through the extreme dynamism of today’s corporate world, you cannot take your peace of mind for granted. Keeping backup files of your company’s most important information gives you the confidence that your business will be back on track within hours in case of a data breach or system breakdown. You can focus on being productive without worrying that a small event will disrupt your business and set you back a fortune.
10. It is necessary for audits and taxes
Audits dig into information from as far as decades ago, and missing some documents may put you on a collision course with the law. A proper offsite backup strategy can ensure important business data is safe and accessible on demand, all without the need to keep copies of it in your network-attached storage.
Conclusion
Data is becoming mission-critical. Ensure you have a great backup strategy in place. It helps you to regain lost data and restore systems in case of a breach. The easiest method to create backups for your data is to store copies of crucial files in hard drives, tape drives, and other devices connected to your systems or network. However, cloud-based backups are the best. They are more reliable, and they offer improved security.