Advice on Data Backup

To many business people even by today’s standard, data backup is still somewhat of a mystery and require some level of education. I get asked a lot to explain what is data backup and how it works. To some the answer may not be important but what is important is determining if they need this kind of service and how they determine this. Basically data backup is an insurance policy against a disaster and a strategy to recover.

My advice to business people who have data backup concerns,
if you can, have a professional come in and audit your backup procedure and write you a disaster recovery plan. Make sure you’re doing backups according to Best Practices. Make sure you are in compliance with all laws and regulations regarding your backup procedure and the protection of private information. Make sure you are backing up the right files. Re-audit every six months – every three if you can. Test your restore process every three to six months. Get your encrypted backups offsite on a regular basis. Make sure you can restore to a computer that did not do the original backup.
DO NOT hire a backup service based on price alone. Business cannot afford the risks of a $5/month backup service. Automate your backup procedure. Most online backup services for businesses offer an adequate level of automation. Have a written Disaster Recovery plan. Make sure staff members all know exactly what to do in a disaster. Keep contact info for all staff up to date, and away from your office. Once a year, test your disaster recovery plan. There are many adequate online backup solutions. DO NOT try to re-invent one for yourself. I see far too many disasters caused by people who tried to save money using free services, or free software. Your business is not worth that risk. Spend adequately on backup.

Why I Started My Data Backup Company

As a consultant who travels a lot my laptop is the most important tool in my work. It has all my clients information and project data, stuff I cannot live without. Well the horror hit home one day, I arrived at a client site, power up and behold blue screen, no login, no data … the inevitable. At the airport security check-in earlier that morning the person in front had knocked my laptop off the conveyor ...shucks. This incident cost me the entire week of data reconstruction on a new laptop I had to rush out and purchase and significant client “billable” downtime.

Guess what 6 months later, I attended a trade show… left my laptop on the floor of a rented SUV. I thought it was pretty secure tucked halfway under the rear seat and unseen behind the tinted windows…. WRONG!! When I returned the front and rear windows smashed, computer case and laptop gone. Only this time it was not just the laptop but other personal valuables, checkbook, credit cards, finance records, passport. Now I have an identity theft issue as well … because weeks later $thousands was missing from my checking account and I had some exorbitant credit card bills to deal with…..THAT WAS THE LAST STRAW!!

Now I have my laptop securely backed up with an automatic online backup service that backs me up from any internet connection anywhere in the world, no matter where I travel and I never have to think about it because it is automatic. And my data is secure and encrypted. Recovery is also quick and easy.. I have recovered lost files within minutes….

Lesson learnt is: Computers Crash Unexpectedly, at the Most Inconvenient Time.

I founded ERTBackup.com with this one undeniable truth: Your computer backup cannot wait until tomorrow.