Data Recovery Tips For Small Businesses

According to statistics, about 43 percent of the companies that lose their data close down after the disaster. A reliable data recovery strategy is indispensable for business continuity in the event of a disaster, and even so we see that about two in every three SMBs do not have a basic disaster data recovery plan in place. If your SMB is unprepared for data recovery in case a power outage, natural disaster or cyber attacks occurs, you should understand that the one sure fire way to make sure that your data is easily recoverable is by maintaining a backup. Here are some data backup tips that you can implement to ensure that you can restore your data and get back on your feet.

Data backup medium

If you are thinking tradition tape backups, then you should know that there are more economical and dependable ways to store data these days. RAID archiving devices are especially popular, as they allow for multiple copies of the data to be stored on different disks in the unit. Another popular backup solution is online data backup, wherein a managed services provider maintains the data in remote storage devices. The reason this appeals to businesses is because it allows for instant recovery while saving money and resources. Either way, it is important to understand the nature and size of data that has to be backed up before choosing between these solutions.

Types of data backup

How often you backup your data should be decided based on how often you access and update it. You can choose a copy backup if you choose to back up only some files and databases. A differential data backup will backup only the new additions that have been made since the previous backup, while a full data backup will backup all files each time, regardless of whether or not they have been backed up previously.

Test your data recovery strategy

Testing your data recovery strategy before disaster strikes can help bring to light any critical steps that you may have missed, even before the disaster actually strikes. So you want to try and restore either part or whole of the data that has been backed up as a part of the mock disaster drill to see if it indeed works. Ideally, you should test recovering the data once in every few months, so you know that your data is being backed up as expected.