Protect Critical Business Data from Disasters

Hurricane Dorian severely impacted the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama in The Bahamas causing loss of life and tremendous infrastructural damage. Many businesses not only lost physical assets but also valuable data. Unforeseen disasters can easily wipe out critical business data without warning. However, now more than ever there are steps that can be taken to secure critical business data from disasters.

Nowadays, data is regarded as the new oil and considered fuel for the digital world. Ensuring the quality and reliability of data is imperative for businesses, including small businesses.

Data not only gives us valuable insight into how our organization works, but it also tells us what we need to improve for business growth. However, its possible for your firm to be struck by a disaster without warning and lose valuable data. This is why you must learn how to protect your business data from disasters.

Conduct Assessments

To identify risks to your business data, you must first perform an audit. This means that you need to prepare a list of risks that can make your data vulnerable in the event of a disaster. These risks can be anything from electrical short circuits to natural disasters. A good start would be to identify equipment that needs to be changed and review your configurations.

Consider the Secondary Market Hardware

Do not depend on a single piece of hardware to store your critical data. In areas where fluctuation in the power supply is a problem, computers break down sooner than most people expect.

Therefore, its wiser to keep secondary market hardware. If you use secondary market hardware, its easier to store hardware in multiple devices without putting a strain on your IT budget. As a result, you will not only minimize the cost of damaged equipment but also make critical data more secure by saving it in more than one place.

Follow the 3-2-1 Rule

According to the 3-2-1 rule, we should save three copies of each document to keep data disaster-proof. However, you must store the data on two different kinds of media while making sure that one of them has been stored offsite.

This rule is especially helpful in areas that are affected by natural disasters. Its impossible to prevent natural disasters, but if you prepare yourself for the worst, you can save your data from getting damaged. Following the 3-2-1 rule allows businesses to avoid a single point of failure.

Use a Secure Cloud to Store Data

Nowadays, one of the safest ways to secure business data is to save it in a hosted cloud environment. By using cloud services, you won�t have to worry about the security of your data since it will be guarded by a company that ensures data integrity.

Therefore, your data remains safe not only from the risk of physical damage, but also from the lurking danger of cyberattacks. Regardless of what happens to your hardware, your critical data will always remain safe in the cloud. This is why many small businesses consider cloud computing to be the ultimate back-up for their data.

Business owners should realize that data is no longer an irrelevant part of your storage. In fact, if used correctly, data can fuel the growth of your business and help you raise it to unforeseen heights. Therefore, businesses, regardless of their size, should take data protection seriously and start taking measures to protect it.