Back Up Your Data Now!
 By R.K. Sparkman

Last year’s rash of natural disasters first sent shock and sorrow throughout the nation, but it was soon followed by a chill of vulnerability.

Those disasters were stark reminders that we and our homes, businesses and belongings are entirely at the mercy of the forces of nature. Add to that power failure, fire, theft, damage and a host of other things that can go wrong and it should be clear that your business needs protection.

Equipment and facilities can be replaced, although at some cost. But if you lose your data, no amount of money can replace it.

Surprisingly, not every business recognizes this hazard, and many fail to back up their computerized business data. One estimate is that as much as 40 percent of critical business and personal data isn’t backed up daily. Worse yet is the horrifying estimate that 80 percent of businesses suffering catastrophic data loss will consequently go out of business. Got your attention yet?

Congratulate yourself if you’re one of the 60 percent that back up data daily. But don’t get a big head quite yet. While backing up to a CD-ROM or memory stick or data tape will protect you should your computer fail, it won’t help if the CD, memory stick or data tape is on the same desktop as the computer when a hurricane sweeps through.

There’s no perfect solution, but one safeguard is to keep your backup data somewhere else. Offsite or online are good options.

Offsite Backups
If you keep your backup media somewhere other than your office, there are a few ways to handle this without much fuss.

One is to use perhaps the safest facility at your disposal – your bank. There’s not much safer than a thick, fire-resistant wall shielding a bank vault and inside a metal box that requires two keys to open, yours and the bank’s. If you don’t have a safe deposit box yet, they are relatively inexpensive, and you might even persuade your bank to provide one free, if you’re a good customer.

Any off-site storage facility can serve the basic purpose, which is to put distance between your office and your backups. You might even work out a mutual exchange program with another business in which you dispatch or mail each other backup media for storage, you storing theirs and they storing yours. The more distance between the two businesses, the more protection from natural disasters.

Online Backups
There are services that provide online data storage for nominal cost.

One option is Xdrive (www.Xdrive.com), which runs from $10 a month for five gigabytes of storage up to $39.80 a month for 50 gigabytes. Another option is @Backup (www.backup.com), with a range of service plans and prices.

Online storage services work much like an internal or external hard drive. They even permit drag and drop, copy and paste or automatic backup software that usually is included with the service. All transactions are conducted via your Internet connection. (If you have even modest amounts of data, a dial-up Internet connection is probably too slow to make these options practical.)

The benefits of online storage are many:

• There is nothing to break or fail

• Your data is safe from theft

• Backups can be automated

• Web access is secure

Most online services also provide around the clock customer service and even permit file sharing among authorized users from remote locations.

Back Up Often
Setting your data apart is only part of the solution. The more frequently you back up your data, the safer you are.

If your business financial and working data change substantially on a daily basis, daily backups are essential. If you transfer that data offsite or online less frequently, you run the risk of losing all changes since the last backup.

(Posted February 2006)

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