As a business owner, what do you need to know about data
protection? The basic step is to make a
backup of your electronic data. The
first question for data backups is what to backup and how often? With the advance of data storage devices, it
may seem that we can back up anything and everything. That may be true for home and small
businesses. However, as your system
collects more data and your business increases, it may not be the best way to simply
backup everything. The following are a
few things you should consider. How do
you control the ever increasing data that is being backed up? You might want to take into consideration
what information is valuable for your reports and analytics. Take some time to come up with parameters and
build your data backup and protection strategy around these. Another thing to consider is how to contain
the increasing need for data storage.
The simplest way is to increase the size and the number of storage
devices. When your existing storage
space is near capacity, you may not have the time to plan for the best
strategy. Take time to plan your data
storage need for the next few years and re-evaluate the need periodically. This could provide you with a more efficient
system that allows for modular growth.
As your data grows, the managing of the process and data
analytics could become more time consuming.
When possible, consider automation for every process with a way to audit
these processes to ensure completion. You
also need to consider the method for system recovery in case of failure. It is a good investment for you to test and
verify your data recovery process periodically.
This will not only validate your recovery process but also the backup
process to ensure that when a real system failure occurs, you already have a
proven solution for a quick and hassle free recovery.
As data volumes continue to climb, you need to periodically
re-evaluate your strategies for providing data protection. New technologies can deliver higher levels of
data protection while saving significant administration time and opportunity
for human error. You should not set it
and forget it especially if everything is automated. You still need to verify and evaluate your
processes to ensure that when you need the information or restoration that your
procedure and data are sound and valid.
