Data backup and recovery is more crucial than ever, especially in this age where information is a valuable commodity. Data backup is vital for running a business. The loss of sensitive information, such as customer contacts, email lists, supplier contracts, financial reports, delivery schedules, banking statements, and more, can result in more than just an inconvenient downtime.
You will see your profits plummet and your customers lose confidence in your brand. While most companies are able to recover from data loss, not all have been fortunate. There are many reported cases of businesses closing down after suffering a massive data loss due to accidental deletion of files, a system crash, a data breach, or information theft.
The increasing prevalence of data backup software solutions and the adverse impact data loss brings to your business should empower you to back up your data so you can keep your business running without any problem.
1. Keep Your Data Safe
The leading motivation for businesses and organizations to invest in business backup systems is to protect their data from various threats, including data breaches and cyber attacks. And for good reason.
The first half of 2018 saw over 4.5 billion breaches across the globe, according to a 2018 study on data breaches by the Amsterdam-based digital security firm Gemalto. The only other time data breaches reached this massive scale was the 2013 Yahoo! account leaks.
The same study ranked identity theft as the leading type of data loss, constituting 56 percent of all records breached. Accidental data deletion came second, accounting for 34% of all losses.
But backing up your business data is just the start. Data security experts advise business owners and proprietors to include data backup as part of their business continuity plan to keep their operations running and mitigate the risks and damage if and when data loss does happen.
2. Gain and Keep Consumers’ Trust
Data loss not only results in financial damage but can also lead to the total ruin of your brand’s reputation and the closure of your business. Small businesses, unlike their corporate counterparts, are the most affected. While data breaches affect SMBs and giant corporations alike, the survivability of small and medium-sized enterprises after a data breach instantly becomes slim.
The 2018 Cyberthreat Index for Business Survey gathered data from 5,000 small businesses across the world. 48% responded that they will likely shut down after a data breach. Various research studies have similar findings. The staggering cost of recovering from a data breach is one of the major factors that hinder SMB survivability. The other one is the loss of trust from consumers.
When the reputation of your business takes a hit, it is natural for your customers to step back and take some time before reengaging. Bad products, poor customer service, and unenjoyable shopping experience all damage your business reputation. However, a data breach is something else.
Consumers share sensitive information with businesses all the time. And they feel that it is the company’s obligation to safeguard their information. A data breach destroys this trust. When that happens, consumers significantly reduce or even stop their spending. No profits simply equate to no business for you.
3. Achieve Perfect Data Versioning
Many data backup solutions for business offer data versioning control functionality. That said, only a few business owners are aware of how beneficial data versioning is to their operations.
Data versioning is the method of saving multiple copies of your files when you make changes, updates, or configurations. This enables you to retrieve and view specific versions of your file later. Whenever you or any of your staff makes a wrong entry or accidentally erases information in a file, you can easily go back and review each version of the document for faster and accurate data retrieval.
Manual data versioning can be exhaustive. But with the right data backup software, you can automate this process so you can focus on something else.
4. Save Money On Expensive Data Recovery/Retrieval
Data recovery is not cheap. Depending on the size of the hard drive, expertise of the technician, location, time spent, and urgency of the situation, the costs of data retrieval by third parties range from hundreds to thousands of dollars. And these rates pertain to physical methods of retrieving information from corrupted or damaged hard drives on home or personal computers. For businesses big and small, data recovery can bite off a bigger chunk of the budget. The costs of data recovery after a data breach stretch from tens of thousands to millions of dollars.
A 2018 study on the costs of data breaches by IBM revealed that a record costs around $148. One million records breached meant a loss of $40 million. Meanwhile, 50 million records equated to $350 million.
On-premise and cloud-hosted data backup software solutions vary in price and are available as a single license product or as a subscription service. Some prices may reach the $100 mark, but the majority of these systems won’t put a dent in your budget.
Peace of Mind
No enterprise is safe from data loss. It can happen no matter how safe and secure your information may seem. Hacker attacks, accidental deletion, malware, and even simple corruption of your network can cripple your business.
Data backup software reduces your downtime and lets you rebuild and restore your system without having to start with a clean slate. It gives you the confidence and peace of mind that lets you focus on your work rather than worrying about what to do when disaster strikes.
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