Imagine all of your precious memories in your head disappearing when you wake up.

It’s a terrible thing to say, let alone imagine.

But accidents happen, and you can’t ever remove the possibility that you would lose all of your memories.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was some way you could bring your memories back, even if it took a few days?

You would like that, wouldn’t you?

A way to recover your memories in case you lose them.

But what does this have to do with technology?

Your company has a lot of precious memories, and with that a lot of precious information.

It would be terrible if that information fell into the wrong hands or suddenly disappeared one day.

Having a place where you can retrieve that information sounds fantastic, don’t you think?

That’s what tech experts call a “backup”, a place where you can pull data from in the event of a company attack (the technological kind) or some freak accident happens (ie. a power outage makes you lose all of your data).

Of course, you also remember these same experts saying how vital it is to have a backup system.

You might also remember the many sales ads telling you to get a backup and that their services will be the backup service you need.

But what exactly is a backup? Is it really worth the cost? Can companies actually provide a reliable backup service?

Those questions will be answered here.

What Is A Backup?

A backup is a place which stores your files, data and information for safekeeping and recovery purposes.

You might have seen advertisements for products like external hard drives which boast a high storage capacity. These external drives can store information if you copy data on them, functioning as another place for your data to be stored.

Before external hard drives became a trend, USB drives and sticks were the way to copy data for backup purposes.

Before those, you might remember the advent of floppy disks, which we used to store information.

All these are examples of backup systems in recent times.

Their constant presence throughout the business world and your personal life should show you how important the idea of backups have been.

Backups are useful to have in the event that data is forgotten or somehow lost in an accident.

Computers and laptops have a similar “backup” feature, in which a previous state can be saved and reloaded in the event of a severe computer problem.

Backups are used to restore data, provide access to unrevised information and keep the company going in the event of data loss or compromised data.

Backup devices do not have to refer to portable devices.

To cope with the growing data demands of a company, backups now extend to servers that store company data.

These servers may be contained within a company or hosted in an external location far away from a company’s location.

Do I Really Need A Backup?

Now comes the all-important question to every business owner.

We all don’t want to invest any time, effort or money into anything we don’t have to.

So is a backup necessary for a business?

The answer is yes.

Think of it this way.

Do you consider any of the information that your company works with to be important?

If the answer to that was yes, you need a backup.

That is because any information that is essential to running your company needs to be accessible, even when it might be compromised or lost.

Of course, you might not think that you need a backup because the chances of your data being compromised are quite small.

This is quite true.

It is very unlikely that in a single year, you will encounter a severe data problem or that your data will be compromised by hackers.

However, the chance isn’t zero.

You want to take a look at your company and think: “If I lost all my data right now, how badly would I be affected?”

The answer is going to be different depending on the size of your company and the type of data you are working with.

But if there would be noticeable effects on your operations and your customers, you should get a backup.

It will be too late to try and get a backup when you really need it, so you should get one as soon as you can.

It will also be terrible when you have to explain to your customers that because you weren’t willing to spend some money, their data is now gone and/or in the hands of suspicious individuals.

What Are The Benefits Of A Backup?

Remember the example at the beginning of this post.

Being able to retrieve information that was once lost provides a sense of security to your operations, as well as creating a buffer against security intrusions.

It is quite easy to regain information if it has been properly backed up. Contact your IT department or the company managing your backups to retrieve your data, and it’s ready to use.

Can IT Companies Help Me With My Backup?

Yes they can.

But the backup solution you need will be dependent on the size of your company and the amount of information you need to store.

If you honestly don’t have a lot of information that you need backed up, you can probably get by with buying a few external hard drives.

But if you have a lot of vital information, storing your information in a mix of external drives and offsite storage may be the best option.

If you have many different kinds of data spread across your employees and divisions, it’s worth sitting down with an IT company and discussing your options.

Many IT companies recommend backing up data on external drives, creating an offsite backup location and using backup software to ensure your data can be accessed.

If you aren’t looking to hire a company to help you out, you can still make backups yourself, but an offsite location may be harder to acquire.

It’s Time To Think About Getting One

Backups are an important part of any company.

It’s what keeps your data safe and management sleeping comfortably at night.

It may seem like a significant cost for something that may never happen, but it’s just like insurance.

Yes, we all hope that accidents never happen.

And I sincerely hope that one never happens to you.

But accidents will happen to you, whether you like it or not.

And when it does, wouldn’t you rather be prepared?

If you would like to chat about backup solutions for your company, please don’t hesitate to call us at 1300 501 677 for a look at your IT today!