The Importance Of Small Business Data Backup

As a business, you know the importance of making sure you have files, documents and invoices to hand at a moment’s notice. The thought that the past three years worth of documentation could simply disappear off the face of the Earth doesn’t even bear thinking about and sends you into a cold sweat. In an age when nearly every piece of paper can now be stored electronically, it is vital that you secure your files and documents by implementing a regular backup routine. This means that those files that have been lingering about on your desktop can be organised and saved in a more secure environment. Read on to discover three different methods to ensure the safe storage of your all important files.

Image by

1. Flash Drive / USB Stick

The flash drive has many different names but it is essentially that little flat cuboid that hooks easily to lanyards, and you plug into your USB port on your laptop. Flash drives are ridiculously easy to use, and you can copy and paste all of your files from your desktop and other folders on your computer into your flash drive. This is great for sole traders but not for small businesses. The storage on even the biggest of flash drives is relatively small, and they are known to become corrupted over time. The flash drive was the go-to storage solution a decade ago but has been surpassed by newer alternatives.

Image by

2. External Hard Drive

The major advantage of an external hard drive is that you can store many more files than you could on a flash drive. Taking the appearance of a small brick, the external hard drive also plugs into your USB port and works in a very similar way to the flash drive. However, it’s larger and less prone to corruption. A disadvantage with the external hard drive is that it cannot grow with your business.

Image by

3. Cloud

Many people talk about a seemingly mythical cloud when it comes to data storage. However, the cloud is not as mysterious as it first seems. With cloud storage, you can backup your files from your computer onto a server off site. To have access to these files, you will need to have Internet connection. There is a greater degree of flexibility in that you can view your cloud based files from any location and any device. Cloud storage is cheap and secure and allows you backup a greater number of files. However, if your connection to the Internet fails for any reason, you will not have access to your files.

Many businesses now utilize a storage gateway allowing them to have a virtual appliance within their local network. This means that they can store and backup files before the storage gateway performs a protocol conversion along with encryption to send files safely to cloud storage. This can increase the speed at which files are saved as well as reducing latency. Still very much in the adolescent stage, cloud storage gateways are an exciting development in data storage for businesses.

By implementing a backup routine, you are ensuring that your documents, tax returns and invoices amongst other things are safely stored in multiple places. However, you choose to backup your files, ensure that you do it regularly to make sure you never lose crucial files.