Small business owners have come to rely heavily on all kinds of technologies when it comes to managing all their vital information; everything from contact information for customers or clients to vital data needed to help the company run. But when those systems crash, it can be disastrous unless businesses have plans for how to deal with these issues.
There are, fortunately, a number of ways in which businesses large and small alike will be able to back up all their critical data so that it is not impacted by a system crash that could potentially wipe out everything they’ve amassed over the years, according to a report from CIO. One of the most common of these is a large hard drive, connected to the system, which will periodically and automatically back up data from all computers attached to it. These are similar to smaller data storage devices, such as USB drives, but do not bear with them the risk of being lost or stolen, and obviously come much more disk space. However, the problem with this is that if an entire system is infected by a virus or other type of malware, the data on the alternative hard drive could be impacted as well, leaving companies more or less in the same boat as if they hadn’t backed it up at all.
As a result, it might be wise to invest in some backup space on the cloud so that if anything does happen to crash an entire system, the data will also be saved to a separate service so that it will not be impacted, and thus can be downloaded once again to make sure companies have something from which to work after suffering such a misfortune, the report said. Of course, the cloud comes with its own potential setbacks, including the potential for the information saved onto it to be exposed in hacking or phishing attacks, though the risk of this is relatively low. Usually, though, businesses would do well to have a mix of backup options to ensure that when disaster strikes, there are a number of safeguards in place.
Owners worried about the financial impact of such an issue may want to do more to give themselves greater financial flexibility going forward, and that can include finding more affordable small business insurance policies. Cutting costs for general liability insurance and other types of coverage may free up additional funds that can then be devoted elsewhere.
