3 Data Backup Options for Your Business

What would happen if your business experienced a disaster and your sensitive information was erased? If you don't have a business continuity plan in place that includes data backup and recovery, then it's highly unlikely your company will survive. To protect your business, you will want to consider and choose one of these three backup solutions.

External Hard Drive
In a recent worldwide survey of 600 users that backup their data, it was found that 60% use external hard drives as their backup solution. The appeal of the external hard drive is that it's easy to purchase from any retail store, and they are also reasonably priced. External hard drives have also been designed to be easy-to-use. All you have to do is plug it to your PC and it will automatically backup your data.

 External hard drives are a great backup solution for your personal PC at home, but using an external drive to backup your company's multiple servers and workstations is outside the scope of what many external drives are designed for. While it's possible to use a single external hard drive to backup multiple drives on your company's network, setting this up is a little more involved than plug and play.

The biggest disadvantage that comes with using an external hard drive is that your backed up data is still at risk from disasters that can damage your property. External hard drives are also not the most secure backup solution. If someone wants to steal your data, it would not be difficult to unplug and tuck away your external hard drive in a coat pocket and smuggle it off the premise.

Tape Backup
Backing up data with tape is one of the oldest backup solutions on the market. In fact, backing up data with tape is such an old solution that we're surprised it's still being used. Yet, a significant number of businesses continue to use it, perhaps because it's a technology they are comfortable with and old habits die hard.

Tape backup is a better solution for backing up servers on a network than trying to back up a business using external hard drives, but that still doesn't mean backing up with tape is an easy process. When backing up with tape, you're still required to perform routine tasks like switching out your old tapes for new ones on a daily basis. Then there's the issue of finding a place to store the previous day's tape, and wherever you decide to store it, the tape will still be at risk from fire, theft, flood, or any other disaster.

Preferred's Backup and Disaster Recovery Solution
Hands down, the best technology available to securely backup your company's data is a Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution from Preferred. A BDR tool is cloud-based and designed for businesses operating an IT network of any size. One of the best things about BDR is that you don't have to do a thing. Preferred will handle the setup and maintenance of your BDR remotely, making the backing up of your network an afterthought. This is how data backup should be. You have better things to with your time than having to switch out tapes on a daily basis.

Another advantage of BDR is that all of your company's data is securely and redundantly stored in the cloud to an offsite data center. This way, in the unfortunate event that a disaster strikes your office, your invaluable data will not be lost. BDR also gives you the ability to virtualize your old data to your new network as soon as the replacement equipment is set up. BDR is also more affordable than you would think, and Preferred's BDR solution can be even more affordable when it's included with Preferred's other comprehensive managed IT services.

To backup your company's valuable data with the most secure and convenient solution available, call Preferred at 708-781-7110.