4 Data Loss Scenarios that can Happen to You!

You may feel like your computer network is immune to data loss, but according to a study by Blackblaze.com, 46% of users experience data loss every year. Whether it's from something big like a natural disaster, or minor like improperly removing a flash drive, every form of data loss is costly and can be prevented with a data backup plan.

Data loss can happen to anyone and it can strike suddenly. To illustrate how prevalent data loss is, we will go over four of the most common causes of data loss.

Hard Drive Failure
You may be running an old server and think that everything is working just fine, but the reality of your situation is that your old server is running on borrowed time. We recommend that you upgrade your computers every five years because hard drives become unreliable after the fifth year, and the longer you push past the five year mark, the the higher of a risk your drive has of failure.

The failure rate of a hard drive will be dependent upon its make and the model, so it's difficult to provide an exact lifespan for your particular drive. For example, Blackblaze released data stating that 80% of their hard drives are still operational after five years, and Google found that their drives have a 50% chance of failing within five years. Either way you slice it, pushing a hard drive beyond the five year mark is a risky move for any business.

Computer Viruses
The common perception about computer viruses is that they're primarily designed to steal your sensitive information like your credit card number. While it's true that there are many viruses made to steal your identity, there are also several nasty viruses out there that will delete your data. It's estimated that 4-to-7% of all data loss incidents are due to computer viruses.

Often times, there's no rhyme or reason as to why a virus will erase your data. Some hackers just want to create viruses that make everybody else miserable. You will want to protect your business from computer viruses with a strong network security solution like a Unified Threat Management (UTM) tool. Call Preferred at 708-781-7110 to receive a free network security audit, along with a consultation on how your business can protect itself from online threats.

Human Error
The second biggest cause of data loss is human error. This is something we are all prone to, in one form or another. Deleting data by accident might stem from a minor incident like forgetting to save your file and then having the power go out, or something major like accidentally formatting a hard drive. It's virtually impossible to take human error out of the equation, the only real thing you can do is to be proactive and make sure that all of your data is backed up.

Natural Disasters
A natural disaster can do more damage than demolish a building; it can also take out a company's IT infrastructure. If a fire turns your building into charcoal, then your servers containing your valuable data will be reduced to a glop of melted plastic and deformed metal. You might be able to pass off the remains of your server as art and sell it to a government administrative building to decorate their lobby, but even money from an art sale will not be enough to make up for the data loss because your company's data is your most valuable asset.

The best way to protect your company's data from a natural disaster, human error, computer virus, hard drive failure, or anything else that can cause data loss is to back up your network with Preferred's Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution. The advantage of BDR is that it automatically saves your data offsite to the cloud, meaning that even the worst disaster or negect will not sink your company because your data will be safe and secure in a data center.

BDR also provides you with the option to virtualize your network using a backup terminal, just in case your company is hit with a disaster and your servers are transformed into modern art. This allows you to keep your operations going and not lose any revenue due to a data loss incident. For information about how to protect your company from data loss using BDR, call us today at 708-781-7110.