Many businesses fail to follow the Scout motto: Be Prepared. This is especially true when it comes to technology. Whether it’s better securing an office’s network or educating employees on how to be safe in an online world, being prepared with tech takes time and money. That is why it can often be pushed to the back burner. This can lead to a business disaster.An easy first step toward being prepared for a possible rainy day is to setup computer backups.
We recently worked on a computer that was having major trouble with user profiles. After much troubleshooting the resolution seemed to be to wipe the computer and reinstall Windows; however, we were told this could not be done. The computer in question contained business critical documents. This very important computer had no backups in place, even though the data on the hard drive had already been recovered from a previous broken hard drive.
Having a backup in place would put your mind at ease. If a computer crashes and is not repairable, a backup allows you to restore the data on a new computer. There are two backup types that are commonly used: physical and cloud.
Cloud Backup
A cloud backup means your system’s data is being stored online. This could be a file level backup using a cloud service like Dropbox or OneDrive or something more in depth like a computer image with Barracuda. This type of backup is often nice to have as it is offsite and accessible from anywhere. If anything happens to the office, your backups are secure somewhere else. The downside to a cloud backup is that it can take a very long time to download the backup depending on the amount of data. The larger amount of data, the more we would recommend a physical backup.
Physical Backup
A physical backup uses local hardware to store the backups. This can be done using a piece of equipment like a network attached storage device. You can also use the built in backup service provided by a computer’s operating system. For example, to backup to an additional hard drive installed on the computer. This is the best course of action for system critical machines. It will allow for a quick restore.
We at Fizen™ often recommend using both an onsite physical backup and an offsite cloud backup. This gives you options depending on the problem that is presented. In short, you would be prepared.
If you are interested in setting up backups for your business, give us a call at 813-985-7972 and we will discuss your particular needs and how we can help your business be ready for a cloudy day.