| Companies have invested a lot of time, money and | | | | accessibility of data; reliability of backup and |
| effort in developing business files and data. They are | | | | recovery, high level of data protection, reduction in |
| costly to recreate, and many cannot be replicated at | | | | burden/costs, increase in efficiency and control of |
| all. Unfortunately, data-loss disasters DO happen, the | | | | data." |
| key is being prepared. | | | | An industry expert, who has worked in the industry |
| Conventional backup methodologies, such as tape, CD | | | | for over a decade, has developed "10 Critical |
| Rom, and external hard drives have proven that they | | | | Questions" that will help you determine if your |
| are just not good enough. The industry has found | | | | current system is reliable and your business' data is |
| high failure rates during data restoration; difficulty in | | | | protected. "Take a look at your current data backup |
| detecting problems of backup before performing | | | | plan and ask yourself these questions: |
| restoration; slow read and write speed; high | | | | 1. Do you have a disaster recovery plan in place for |
| maintenance costs; expensive offsite storage of | | | | your business' data records? |
| tape library; fixed capacity on backup media; and, | | | | 2. Have you ever tried to recover data from your |
| increased likelihood of occurrence of | | | | current backup system? |
| negligence-induced problems (e.g. lost or misplaced | | | | 3. Do you get notifications of success or errors in |
| data). Not to mention the fact that a person you | | | | backup on a daily basis? |
| trust has to monitor, test, update and secure them | | | | 4. Can you recover lost data if your offices are not |
| daily. | | | | accessible? |
| The good news is that advances in technology has | | | | 5. Can you guarantee that your backed up data is |
| allowed for the creation of an offsite backup solution. | | | | secure and proprietary? |
| An offsite backup solution, if you've never heard of | | | | 6. Can you access backed up data from your |
| one, allows you to backup your data to a secure, | | | | desktop whenever you need it? |
| remote server from one or many of your business' | | | | 7. Can you access backed up data from a remote |
| locations. Secure, remote servers are housed in data | | | | location? |
| centers which have a variety of security and power | | | | 8. Is your system immune to computer viruses that |
| redundancy features. | | | | could wipe out your hard drives? |
| Sending your data to the remote server is | | | | 9. Can you predict or control hardware malfunctions? |
| accomplished through software downloaded onto | | | | 10. Does your company have the time and money, |
| your computer that encrypts, or scrambles, your | | | | approx. $10,000 per MB* to recreate lost data from |
| data and it's sent via the Internet. Updates to your | | | | improper back up systems?" |
| data are sent to the secure, remote server on a | | | | If you answer "No," to any of these questions, your |
| regular basis (daily, weekly, etc) for storage. If your | | | | data is at risk and you may want to consider an |
| office computers are not accessible for any reason, | | | | offsite backup solution for your business' computer |
| the stored data can be uploaded to a new onsite | | | | data." |
| server and "decrypted" using a personal encryption | | | | *The Cost of Lost Data - The importance of |
| key. And, you're back in business. | | | | investing in that "ounce of prevention" 2003, David M. |
| COMPUTERWORLD research reports that the | | | | Smith, Ph.D. |
| "benefits offsite backup include: ease of use; | | | | |