When you consider that 94 percent of businesses that experience catastrophic data loss fail within a year, you know you need backup. Here are some of the most important things you need to consider about your business’s data backup strategy, courtesy of your Austin IT business support team at Gravity Systems.

Backup can take different forms. A full backup, copies all the data your company cares about. For instance, you might perform a one-time archival backup of old, little-referenced material. You can also backup all the data you regularly use onto a disk image. Incremental daily or weekly backups generally copy only changed files. Differential backups only record changes made within those files.

You need a 3-2-1 plan. The traditional wisdom for backing up business data involves making three backups at the same time. Two of these backups go onto different kinds of media, such as one backup on a hard drive and another on a tape drive. One of your backups should also be located off site (as in the cloud) in case disaster strikes your facility. 

Your need to check your work. Backups won’t help you recover from catastrophe if those backups contain corrupted, incorrect, or incomplete data. You must have a reliable plan in place for verifying each and every backup, either at the time it occurs or on a regular schedule. Even a monthly verification check would limit potential losses to the past month’s worth of data.

Automated solutions can help a lot. It’s all too easy for a busy team to get behind on their backup tasks. Modern operating systems and third-party software can take the process out of your hands. Better yet, our Austin IT managed services experts can handle your backup needs reliably and professionally. Contact us to get the backup answers your business needs!