ABCs of Data Backup for Small Business
By Bud Stoddard, President, amerivault corp.
Today every company, regardless of industry, is data dependent. Most savvy business people
would agree it is just common sense to backup the network and get the data out of the office.
Quite often in small- to mid-size companies, the data tape is taken home by a trusted employee.
In many cases, it may be the owner. But more often than not, it is Herb, who has been with
the company for 12 years.
You don't have to be one of the new dotcom companies to be data dependent, although clearly,
they are. Think for a moment about your own business, and no doubt you would agree that
if you lost all your data and couldn't get it back, you would be out of business, or at
least severely crippled. Now come on…tell me you know all of your outstanding accounts
receivables and could remember all 326 customers!
Herb is probably a great guy but is it really fair to him, to you, or to the company to
ask him to take home the backup computer tape? No more than it would be to ask him to take
home the petty cash box. That one little tape in his hands is your entire company which
you have spent the better part of your life building. I started three companies within
the past 20 years - all of them successful and thriving today. I had a loyal key manager
(let's call him Herb), and he suddenly left one day to go off and start a company as a
direct competitor.
That's okay and it probably happens to many of us. It is a devastating experience when
one of your most loyal lieutenants announces that he is resigning to go off and compete
with you. You feel betrayed and instantly think of the five big accounts that Herb has
been in charge of for the past seven years. My point is, when Herb leaves to compete, don't
make it easy for him to succeed by giving him all of your backup tapes containing your
customers, suppliers, and confidential information.
ABCs of backup for small business
Here are some simple steps to protect your company against data loss, destruction, and
theft:
- Always backup data every day.
- Be sure the backup leaves the building every day - but NOT with Herb.
- Check your retrieval speed and reliability by making sure you can be back in business
within 24 hours or less following a computer outage, loss, or disaster.
If you don't backup data utilizing these three critical steps, you are ultimately risking
your company. The same company you have spent the last 20 years of your life building, which
could disappear overnight - yeah, overnight. "But I'm a small company and I don't have a
big computer staff, a computer budget, or a lot of time to do this tech stuff," you suggest.
Well, there is help for you. Now there is a new solution that is extremely effective for
small companies with less than 5GB of data. It is called electronic vaulting, or automated
online backup. It's fast, it's cheap (well, cost effective), it's better than what you do
now, and it's safe and secure. It will keep you in business when that inevitable computer
disaster or outage strikes your company, and make no mistake, it will.
Electronic vaulting as a solution
How does it work? I thought you'd never ask. With no up-front cost, backup software is
installed on a Novell or NT server, and your data is backed up over the Internet to a
highly secure data protection vault. Security in the electronic vaulting business can
better be described as encryption, which is far more secure than old Herb turned out
to be. Backup sessions are normally scheduled after business hours - an efficient convenience.
Retrieval is as simple and effortless as a few simple mouse clicks. Best of all, once
the service is set up and installed, it runs automatically in the middle of the night
with no operator involvement. Once common objection I hear is, "I'm a small company and
don't need this service or can't afford it." The fact of the matter is you cannot afford
not to have it. Big companies have lots of money, lots of people, lots of computers and
lots of insurance to recover from a computer disaster. Small companies don't have these
things. With this type of vulnerability, a small business needs daily backup and offsite
protection.
Although electronic vaulting or online backup is fairly new, it is a burgeoning industry.
It is one of those businesses that the Internet has enabled and dramatically changed the
old way of doing things-no tapes, trucks, drivers, waiting hours for the tape to come back,
etc. It's simple, safe, secure, and surprisingly cost effective.
Bottom line
Let's face it, it is naïve to assume nothing will ever happen to the computers at your
company. As an experienced entrepreneur, let me assert this point: Whether you opt for
traditional tape backup and offsite storage or the newer, more secure electronic vaulting
solution, do something rather than nothing. You built a successful company by making prudent
business decisions - make one more and do it today.
amerivault has provided online backup for business to companies worldwide since 1998.
amerivault's commitment to its clients is to offer reliable, automated backup and recovery
services to ensure business continuity. By utilizing software and bandwidth, amerivault has
implemented an entirely new business model for the traditional offsite data storage and protection
industry through the "Protected by amerivault" program. For more information, visit www.amerivault.com.
Copyright © 2001 amerivault corp. All rights reserved.
