How to backup your business data

As a small business, you are very likely to be targeted by criminals through cybercrime. On average a business that suffers an attack will become bankrupt within 6 months.

The effects of cybercrime on a small business as you can see are devastating.

Protecting your business from cybercrime is a different article entirely, but one way to mitigate the risks to your business is through backing up your data regularly. Today we will look at some of the easiest ways to backup your data.

1) USB Stick

The most cost-effective method of backing up your data is to use a USB stick where you can transfer your files as often as you would like.

USB sticks are a great way of backing up your data because they are cheap and can transfer files very quickly. USB sticks do have limitations though and if you work in an area where you need larger hard drives you could fill up your USB sticks very quickly.

Having multiple USB sticks is an option but this often leads to losing the physical devices along with the data that is on the drive. If you do want to use USB sticks to backup your data just be sure to keep your drives organised and stored in a safe place.

2) Burn to a disk

Burning your data to a disk is a great option for data backup as it’s often quick and easy to do and from your disk, you can then transfer this data to additional media forms. Disks are also useful when you have media stored on old devices. For example companies such as Digital Converters can convert old video tapes to DVD’s, or can convert old audio tapes or photos to digital copies.

Disks are great for backing up your data as they are sturdy and can be used and read by many devices without additional equipment needed. Disks have limitations though and storage sizes are very limited. DVDs have a few gigabytes of space whereas standard CD’s are in the 700MB range.

If you do choose disks as your backup method you will need multiple so be sure to store them in a secure location and label them effectively. Our advice would be to use a disk as one method of storage along with using another form of media so you have multiple backups of your data.

3) External Hard drive

An external hard drive is an excellent device for backing up your business data. External hard drives come in a wide range of sizes and have USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 connectivity so transfer speeds of large data is done very quickly.

Using an external hard drive allows you to keep most of your business data in the same place so you don’t have to worry about having multiple devices and misplacing them. However this also does pose a problem, if all of your data is backed up on one device and you lose it or it becomes corrupt then you could be in trouble.

Our advice would be to have at least two external hard drives and make a backup of a backup. This may be more expensive, however, it won’t be as expensive as losing all of your data to a hacker or in an accident.

4) Print out copies

Some data can be printed and stored in physical filing cabinets. To be extra careful you could store these printed documents in a secure location such as a storage unit. Storage units often are under 24/7 CCTV and are very secure locations.

Unfortunately, not all of your data can be printed out but for any documents or contracts having physical copies stored away is always a good idea.

5) Upload to the cloud

Cloud computing has become more affordable over the years and now a business can use cloud computing for fairly cheap. Cloud computing is also secure and depending on the supplier it can also be easy to manage. Google Drive or Dropbox for example have easy management systems so you can find your files and folders very easily.

Using one of the providers above you can get cloud computing for $50-$60 a year which is much cheaper than buying two hard drives too. If your business wants a cheap and effective way of backing up data then cloud computing is an excellent choice.

Backing up your business data

Losing data or being ransomed through cybercrime is always going to cause you and your business stress. It also has high financial risk, therefore we highly recommend you backup your data consistently. Above are some of the best and most affordable ways of backing up your business data.

For the best protection, we highly recommend that you back up your data often and on to multiple devices. We would recommend using multiple variations of the above choices for the highest levels of protection.