Online Backup and the Consequences of Data Loss For Business

Author: By Simon Zimmo

Online backup, why is it so crucial?

Most companies, business corporations and organisations nowadays are totally dependent on their computer data; and the value of that data is not easy to cost. However, the cost of a data loss to any business is very significant, not only in the man hours that it would take to recover it, if recovery were possible; but also financially.

What price can be put on lost invoices for goods and services, records of monies owed to the company and lost details of every customer and supplier. Add to that the records stored of every product a company may stock, the quantities on stock, the amount on order, the supplier of that product and the cost and selling prices. How much would it cost your company to manually reinstate that lot if your data was lost? Online backup is the most cost effective way to prevent against data loss.

Just to emphasise how vulnerable your data is, how many times recently have you read in local newspapers about businesses being broken into and computers stolen. Apparently there were over 20,000 computers stolen last year. What happened to the companies who were affected by that? How many closed their doors forever, how many gave up shortly after; total data loss is as disastrous as that. If only they had chosen online backup.

Then there was the even bigger list of companies who suffered total hard disc failure, had viruses, fires on the premises and flood damage.

So how do you back up your records, disc, tape; and how often do you back them up; religiously every night, or when you remember? The beauty of online backup is it saves your data as you write it. If you backed up your data the night before, how much information has been input if your hard drive fails at 4.00 pm? How much crucial information and how many total man hours of work will have been lost during that period?

Data loss can happen to organisations even with good backup protection; but will all items be on the tape or disc, such as contacts, email messages and other important items perhaps stored in folders in Exchange, Outlook, Domino and GroupWise. They would if you were using remote backup and elected to back them up as part of your online data backup.

Who do you call if you back data up yourself to tapes etc and you can not restore your data; a very expensive IT expert? Customer service and assistance with data restoration, comes free with all good online data backup companies.

On line backup companies offer the most reliable and cost-effective solution for bringing your business back online, in the event of any data loss or disaster scenario.

So, I hope that I have managed to emphasise the importance of online back up; and how critical it is in this computer age, to every business and organisation, from large conglomerates down to the one man business. You will be very fortunate if one day disaster does not strike your data system and if you are not fully protected by online backup, why not look into it now before it is too late.

About the Author: Simon Zimmo from SecuriData online backup service. For more information click for online data backup

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Simon_Zimmo

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How To Do Data Recovery, Data Security, Data Backup The Right Way

Author: Jon Arnold
One of the most frightening things that can happen to a person is to lose the data off of their hard drive. Many of us store personal and business information on our computers. The thought of losing data due to a crashed or failed hard drive or perhaps a breach of data security sends chills down the spine of every grown man and woman. Once you except that you did not back up your data you need begin the data recovery process.
What exactly are your data recovery options once your hard drive crashes? First of all, stop using the computer immediately. It is not suggested that you run any data recovery software that came with your computer as this software can overwrite the original files. The next step is to allow a hard disk recovery company to restore your pertinent files. Contact a reputable company immediately. There are a few companies who come right to your home, but at-home data recovery computer services charge more. Certain computer files, such as DWG files (a complex graphics file format), require a specialist in order to be recovered. If there is damage to the hard drive you may not be able to recover your files. A hard drive crashing is an instance where data recovery is possible. If your data security is breached you may never recover what is stolen.
The best way to avoid compromised data security is to put safeguards in place. A few data security measures are encryption, antivirus and firewall protection. Data security such as encryption translates data into a secret code. To read an encrypted file you must have access to the key or password that enables you to decrypt it. There are many software programs and services that provide data encryption services depending on your data security needs. Additional data security measures such as antivirus and firewall protection provide further data protection. Some software programs have the ability to provide both antivirus and firewall protection for overall data security.
One way to avoid the mess of data recovery is to perform regular backups. Basic computer maintenance includes full and incremental backups. It is recommended that you perform a full backup once a week. An incremental backup is a backup that backs up only the files modified since the last backup and depending on your needs you can schedule this to run every day. It’s also beneficial if you have a copy of your data offsite. When you need to access this data you can either open the offsite data program and run it, or log on via the web to access your data. You will want to check with your service provider how to perform data recovery if needed.
Data recovery either from a crashed hard drive or lost through compromised data security can be a frustrating and devastating experience. The best situation is to avoid the loss of data all together. With regular computer backups and data security measures in place your computer data will remain where it needs to be, on your hard drive and easily accessible.
Some people balk at the cost of protecting their data, as well as the time involved in doing secure backups. But what they fail to consider is the cost of their lost personal and productivity time that is spent trying to recover data that could be recovered in literally MINUTES if they had properly safe-guarded the data in the first place! If your computer data files are the lifeblood of your business and/or personal life, the time and money involved in protecting that data adequately and properly cannot be determined by a dollar value.

About the Author:
Jon Arnold is a computer engineer who maintains many websites to pass along his knowledge and findings. You can read more about data recovery, data backup and data security at his web site at http://www.all-about-data.com/.


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