Datalyst Blog

Most business owners sleep soundly, believing their data is safe because they pay for a service called "backup." However, there is a massive, dangerous difference between having a copy of your files and actually being able to run your business during a disaster.

If you haven’t stress-tested your system, any safety net you feel your backup provides might just be an illusion. It’s time to ask the hard questions before the pressure is on.

Building a gingerbread house is a perennial tradition in many, many households. Those with experience know that precise, careful preparation leads to a successful, long-lasting final product, while rushing and cutting corners usually leave you with a crumbling, fragile mess.

Much of the same can be said of your business’ data. This essential operational resource is terrifyingly susceptible to a litany of threats and issues that could easily bring your processes tumbling down… hence, why the 3-2-1 Backup Rule is a core element of successful business continuity.

Let’s take a moment to consider the recipe for a reliable, disaster-proof backup, and how it aligns with the process of making a gingerbread house.

Remember tape backup? For some SMBs who have moved on, this form of data backup is a clunky and frustrating relic of the past. But if you aren’t remembering it and are instead still dealing with it, you might be experiencing some operational frustrations of your own. Today, we want to cover a better solution—one that takes the unpredictability out of business continuity.

It is remarkable how much more capacity our data storage tools have than they had upon their initial invention, and how much data we’ve amassed in that time. The first-ever commercial hard drive was the size of two refrigerators, and held a mere five megabytes of data. For context, that’s about five photographs. Today, hard drives hold exponentially more data, and it is critical that you are doing everything you can to protect this data from any circumstance, from fire, severe weather, or cyberattack.

So, are you? Too many business owners aren’t sure… but there’s a way you can be. 

What would you do if your entire infrastructure were impacted by ransomware all at once? Do you have a contingency in place to address this risk, or are you going to “wing it” in the face of such a threat? The smart answer is that you’ll be prepared, and a data backup and disaster recovery solution (or BDR) plan will help you do just that.

You know your business needs data backup, but do you understand why? Simply put, your business is at risk of total annihilation if it doesn’t have a plan in place to recover lost data, and you don’t want that impending doom hanging over your head. If you’re wondering where to get started, here are three types of data that you should absolutely prioritize with your backups.

That said, you want to back up all data if you can, but these are three that we think are especially important to consider.

We’ve all felt that mini-panic that happens when our personal technology glitches. Not a great feeling. That’s just if your microwave is on the fritz, or your smartphone fell in the toilet. We all depend on multiple devices each day, but for a business owner who is responsible for so much, technology failure really isn’t an option. This month, we thought we’d go into how technology outages can impact a business to give you a better perspective of just how much is at stake.

In today’s age of ransomware, climate change, and worldwide pandemics, a lot can happen that could spell trouble for your organization. This is why it is so critical for your company to have a business continuity plan. There are many factors that contribute to a successful business continuity plan, one of which is a disaster recovery plan. But wait, aren’t those the same thing? Not quite.

There you are, working on the most important project of your career. You’ve worked through the initial problems and are making progress, and then your computer crashes. Panic sets in. You reboot, hoping that will fix the problem. It doesn’t. This is the nightmare scenario that haunts businesses and individuals alike. If you don’t have a solid backup plan, you’re one spilled coffee or rogue virus away from disaster. 

You’ve probably heard us talk about the importance of backing up data for business owners, managers, and even everyday workers. This month, we’re focusing on incremental backups and why they’re a great choice for small businesses looking to protect their data.

Business can get messy, particularly when variables outside your control are involved, which could spell doom for your organization. We’re talking, of course, about instances where your organization might be under a particularly large threat—instances where your data is at risk, which could jeopardize your future. Thankfully, there are options to mitigate this risk.

Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) are incredibly important elements of any successful business, as without them, you’re just one disaster away from a world-shattering wake-up call. We take a strategic approach to data backup and disaster recovery that considers your daily data backup needs while recognizing its long-term benefits. Let’s discuss how you can ensure that your business can use BDR to survive any potential threat the world throws at it.

World Backup Day, observed on March 31st annually, serves as a designated occasion to underscore the critical importance of regular data backups for ensuring data continuity. Although this day effectively highlights a fundamental best practice, we firmly advocate for a continuous commitment to maintaining and safeguarding backups rather than confining such awareness to a single day.

Data Backup and Disaster Recovery are essential components of any modern business. As businesses become increasingly reliant on digital data, it's essential to have strategies in place to ensure that your data is safe and secure in the event of a disaster. Let’s cover the key components of an effective Disaster Recovery strategy to ensure the safety of your business' data backup. Read on to learn more about Disaster Recovery strategies and how to best protect your business data.

The modern business technology market is filled with exciting innovations, but one area that doesn't quite capture the imagination is data backup. Perhaps backup is not the most thrilling topic, but nevertheless, the growing demand for enhanced data security and redundancy in businesses is driving developers to push the boundaries of the technology, creating more advanced features to meet the growing demand for redundancy. Today, we take a look at three intriguing features of these emerging data backup solutions.

Data is the lifeblood of a business. In the event of unforeseen circumstances such as hardware failure, malware attacks, or human error, having a well-designed backup and data recovery strategy in place becomes paramount. Today, we try and guide you through the process of creating a robust backup and data recovery strategy, ensuring the safety and accessibility of your data.

Multi-factor authentication is great when it works, but when it doesn’t, it can leave you in a pretty difficult situation. After all, what happens when all of a sudden, you cannot access your secondary authentication methods? We’re here to help you bypass this particularly challenging and frustrating scenario.

Running a business is stressful, but so is thinking about a future where that business (and its data) no longer exists. If you’re not careful with your preparedness, you could stare down a disaster with no hopes of recovery. This is why we urge you to take proactive action now—so you can prevent these kinds of scenarios from taking your business off the market for good.

While you hope to never have to use it, your business’ data backup is absolutely necessary to both have and maintain. Part of this is ensuring that your backup is reliable enough and can be trusted. Let’s go over how to evaluate your backups, and what else needs to be done to confirm that they’ll be there should you ever need them.

With the foliage of New England turned orange, yellow, and red, it’s time to start planning for the disaster that the extreme weather of a Southern New England winter could bring. If you wait for the first winter storm, it could be too late.