In decades past, business leaders would relentlessly emphasize that the biggest asset of any organization is its employees. However, since the IT revolution that has radically transformed the work environment, plenty of experts have started to question this long-held belief.
Today’s businesses capture, generate, manipulate and store vast quantities of data. So pivotal is the place of data that many now consider it the modern business’s most valuable asset. The permanent loss of an organization’s data can grind operations to a halt and, in the worst case, lead to the complete collapse of the business. Backing up data is therefore paramount.
Effective data backups are best achieved with proven, resilient backup software (see veeam cloud connect pricing). Here’s why backup tools are vital for business.
1. Equips Your Business to Survive a Catastrophic Natural Disaster
Most businesses will not be hit by a catastrophic disaster over their lifetime. Massive natural disasters are relatively rare and it is this infrequency that causes some organizations to not prioritize preparing for them. This is a deadly mistake.
You must think about what would happen if an extraordinary hurricane, tornado or earthquake rendered all the servers in your company’s primary data center unusable and unrecoverable. If that happens, you are likely to struggle to open your doors the next day if ever.
In one study, the National Archives and Records Administration found that 9 in 10 enterprises that were down for at least a week due to a natural disaster eventually went out of business within the next 12 months. Backup software won’t stop a natural disaster from happening but it will keep your data safe from destruction and ensure you can resume operations quickly.
2. Minimize the Impact of a Cyber Attack or Malware Infection
Cyber attacks have grown in sophistication and audacity over the years. The motivation for an attack will vary from one incident to the next. One of the possible consequences of a cyber attack is lost data.
Think about Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), ransomware, deliberate data deletion or malware infection that corrupts data. If you don’t set up the necessary safeguards, such a cyber attack could obliterate your most important data thereby crippling your business for good. Whereas backup software will not of itself prevent the attack, it will keep your business data safe and therefore blunt the impact.
3. Protect Customer Data
When customers share personal information with your business, they expect that you’ll put in place reasonable controls to ensure their data isn’t lost. Backup software is often seen as a part of the wider information security architecture of an organization.
Your data security procedures will be inadequate if they do not include backup processes that ensure the integrity of customer data is always maintained. Losing data will affect your business reputation and make it harder for customers to trust you in the future. If people cannot believe you can protect your organization’s systems from the impact of a natural disaster, they will not be persuaded that you can keep their information safe from hackers.
4. Compliance with Data Security Regulations and Standards
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) came into effect in May 2018 and is arguably the most comprehensive data security law so far. Unsurprisingly, the GDPR has specific provisions on the need for organizations to not only ensure data access and availability can be restored quickly in the event of a disaster but that the backup processes and data are regularly tested to ensure they work as expected.
The GDPR is just one example of regulations in other jurisdictions around the world that to varying extents require businesses to establish robust backup data mechanisms. But even without the legal requirements, data backup is in line with best practice and well-established technology standards.
The volume of information that businesses handle every day is growing exponentially. With that, the challenge of keeping this data constantly available and accessible becomes ever more complex. Backup software automates the process and reduces the risk of permanent data loss in the event of a physical or technical catastrophe.