Data created both in personal and business use is critical for users, regardless of the file types or cumulative sizes. Knowing the unpleasant feeling when you’ve just realized that you’ve lost data and don’t have it backed up, or discovering your backup is corrupt – these feelings can add years of stress. The cost for data recovery on a failed hard drive is, “between – Ouch and Boing!” Quote from Bing Crosby in the movie ‘White Christmas’, and is a great illustration for how costly it can be in the data recovery process.

The adage of “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” is very applicable for backing up data. The following are great prevention measures to build on.

1.   Operating Systems and programs need to have current updates installed and operating properly.
2.   Anti-Virus (I know, it’s a program and could easily be included with the first item) gets a special
highlight because you should have a commercially licensed copy installed, current with virus definitions
and running on a regular basis that fits the business needs. Commercial license, this means for everyone
that’s running a ‘free’ edition in a business environment, you’re usually in breach of the End User License
Agreement (EULA) and more significantly not getting the protection that your business needs.
3.   Data should flow to a central location, whether you’re in a workgroup or server environment – you want
to keep all of your data consolidated in a central location. This will help minimize costs to effectively
backup data. PS – this doesn’t compromise secure files when setup properly.

Once you have a strong foundation in place, you’re ready to begin exploring your options for how you want to backup your data. And there are a lot of options!

•   CD/DVD
•   Thumb Drive
•   External Hard Drive
•   Tape Drive
•   Removable Hard Drive
•   RAID configurations
•   Continuous Data Protection (CDP) devices
•   Remote Backup

This list includes just the types of media. There are additional variations to these options that include the type of backup that performs, how often, and many other options. There are two crucial things to consider when looking at all of these options;

1.   Use multiple methods for backing up your data. No we don’t want you to spend money just to spend
money. There are cost effective combinations that are still considerably less expensive than the $5,000
and up to have your data recovered from a physical drive failure. And nothing costs more than a drive
that is too badly damaged to be recoverable.
2.   Testing the backup! What good is a backup if you never verify the data is viable. Do this routinely and
at a minimum, once a year.

TSCS offers complimentary consultations regarding your backup and technology needs. Inquire and learn more about the options available for effective backups and other technologies.