Data is fascinating. It is produced and consumed by business. Companies need to have it both instantly available and securely stored. But many companies ignore clear signs that their data is at risk of being lost, compromised or stolen.
How many of these warning signs that your business data is at risk are uncomfortably familiar?
- You Pretend to Backup Your Data. Maybe you email yourself important files. Or keep some things on a thumb drive or external hard drive that you never check. Have you had to ask a vendor, colleague or a customer to send you some files that you just ‘can’t find’?
- You Backup Your Data on Tape. Tape is great for putting notes on the refrigerator, but tape for data backup is a wheezing technology. More than 3/4 of companies that have attempted test restore from tape have run into failures. It’s time to move to the 21st century.
- Your Backup is Not Automated. Your data backup process requires “some guy” in IT to remember to swap the tape or discs and bring them to his apartment for the week. If your business critical data needs to take a trip every Friday in the backseat of an IT guy’s Subaru, what happens when he takes Friday off? And by the way, is the data always encrypted in those drives when being transported?
- You Don’t Know if Your Backup is Compliant. You don’t know if your data backup process complies with key legal, regulatory or industry standards. Just because your business needs to store and restore data, does not mean that regulators or customers will give you a free pass on complying with standards or contractual obligations for data privacy and security. HIPAA, SOX and GLBA are unforgiving.
- You Have Never Tested a Restore. The time for your business to learn how to restore data or whether or not it even works is not during the throes of a data loss panic. Do you really want to try to learn how to restore your data when your business is at a standstill and you are dealing with betrayed customers, unforgiving vendors and irritated employees?
If you recognize any of these warning signs, you may have a serious data backup and recovery deficiency. Your data and your business may be at risk. Symform can help you create and automate a business data backup plan that provides superior primary and secondary data protection for a low flat fee.
