Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late to Discover That Your Data Backup Systems Aren’t Good Enough 

Backup systems are an important part of your business IT strategy, as you probably know. 

If you don’t have excellent backups in place, your business could be severely disrupted in the event of a cyberattack, a hardware failure, a natural disaster, or anything of that nature.  

Unfortunately, many businesses who think that they have sufficient backup systems in place… actually don’t.  

And the really scary part is, they won’t discover that their backup systems are insufficient until it’s too late.  

Here’s the thing: It’s really easy to install backup software. You probably don’t even need an IT company to setup backup software. But simply relying on backup software is not enough. 

For example – what happens if a cyber-attacker disables your backup software without you knowing about it? (This is a common strategy the bad guys love to use. They infiltrate your network, disable your backup software, wait for a few months, and then steal your data. They demand a ransom, which you don’t want to pay, so you or your IT company attempts to restore your data from your backup software… only to discover, to your horror, that the backup software hasn’t been operating and you’re left with no real choice but to pay the ransom or lose months of critical data.)  

Obviously, you don’t want that to happen. So how do you make sure that your backup systems ARE good enough? 

At Proactive IT, we follow the “3-2-1-1-0” principle.  

Here’s what that means:  

• We make three copies of your data so that even if one is somehow lost or compromised, there are other copies stored in different locations. 

• We use two different forms of media to store your data, so that if one is somehow destroyed, the data is secured through another format. 

• We store at least one (actually two in our case) of your data back-ups at an off-site location, which protects your business from threats like theft, fire, vandalism, or other physical disasters. 

• We store at least one of your data back-ups completely offline, or “air-gapped,” which means that it’s nearly impossible for a cybercriminal to get access. This is a REALLY important cybersecurity best practice. Ask your IT company if they’re doing this – because if they’re not, you’re vulnerable to cyberattack. 

• We are constantly testing and monitoring backup systems to ensure zero errors. Because a backup system doesn’t do your business any good if you can’t recover your data when you need it.   

Having effective backup systems in place is mission-critical for your business. You need backups in place to protect against cybercriminals, theft or vandalism, natural disasters, and a whole host of other events that could destroy your data. 

And there is no worse feeling than discovering that your backup systems didn’t work when you actually need them. Because by then it’s too late. 

Have a serious conversation with your IT company about your data backup systems. Don’t wait until it’s too late to discover that your data isn’t as safe as you thought it was.  

If you’d like to have a conversation about your business IT strategy, please reach out to us via email at info@weareproactive.com or 704-464-3075 extension 3.        

Dedicated to IT security and productivity,    

– Steve