Companies have invested a lot of time, money and effort in developing business files and data. They are costly to recreate, and many cannot be replicated at all. Unfortunately, data-loss disasters DO happen, the key is being prepared.

Conventional backup methodologies, such as tape, CD Rom, and external hard drives have proven that they are just not good enough. The industry has found high failure rates during data restoration; difficulty in detecting problems of backup before performing restoration; slow read and write speed; high maintenance costs; expensive offsite storage of tape library; fixed capacity on backup media; and, increased likelihood of occurrence of negligence-induced problems (e.g. lost or misplaced data). Not to mention the fact that a person you trust has to monitor, test, update and secure them daily.

The good news is that advances in technology has allowed for the creation of an offsite backup solution.

An offsite backup solution, if you’ve never heard of one, allows you to backup your data to a secure, remote server from one or many of your business’ locations. Secure, remote servers are housed in data centers which have a variety of security and power redundancy features.

Sending your data to the remote server is accomplished through software downloaded onto your computer that encrypts, or scrambles, your data and it’s sent via the Internet. Updates to your data are sent to the secure, remote server on a regular basis (daily, weekly, etc) for storage. If your office computers are not accessible for any reason, the stored data can be uploaded to a new onsite server and “decrypted” using a personal encryption key. And, you’re back in business.

COMPUTERWORLD research reports that the “benefits offsite backup include: ease of use; accessibility of data; reliability of backup and recovery, high level of data protection, reduction in burden/costs, increase in efficiency and control of data.”

An industry expert, who has worked in the industry for over a decade, has developed “10 Critical Questions” that will help you determine if your current system is reliable and your business’ data is protected. “Take a look at your current data backup plan and ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you have a disaster recovery plan in place for your business’ data records?
2. Have you ever tried to recover data from your current backup system?
3. Do you get notifications of success or errors in backup on a daily basis?
4. Can you recover lost data if your offices are not accessible?
5. Can you guarantee that your backed up data is secure and proprietary?
6. Can you access backed up data from your desktop whenever you need it?
7. Can you access backed up data from a remote location?
8. Is your system immune to computer viruses that could wipe out your hard drives?
9. Can you predict or control hardware malfunctions?
10. Does your company have the time and money, approx. $10,000 per MB* to recreate lost data from improper back up systems?”

If you answer “No,” to any of these questions, your data is at risk and you may want to consider an offsite backup solution for your business’ computer data.”

*The Cost of Lost Data - The importance of investing in that “ounce of prevention” 2003, David M. Smith, Ph.D.