Written by Sarah Doherty, Product Marketing Manager, iland
We celebrated World Backup Day last month. Started in 2011 by digital consultant Ismail Jadun it is observed on March 31st every year – a date chosen because it’s the day before April Fools Day…and of course you’d have to be a fool not to backup your data!
This especially recognised day is a strong reminder of the increasing role data plays in our lives and of how critical it is to backup all of your data. Regardless of the size of your organisation, it’s likely that data is an essential aspect of running it. If you don’t yet have a solid plan to keep your data safe, there are four things you should consider:
- All humans make errors.
- Computer systems crash when you’re least prepared.
- Compliance requirements are becoming more complex.
- Attacks and ransomware events are on the rise.
In the event of any of the above situations, you need to have your data backed up and available.
The increasing need for backup
For all organisations it is a case of ‘not if, but when will a data loss occur’. Data loss occurs when data is accidentally deleted, or something causes data to become corrupted. Viruses, physical damage, or formatting errors can render data unreadable by both humans and software. In other instances, lost files and information cannot be recovered, causing major ramifications for an organisation in terms of financial loss, reputational damage and legal challenges. Hence, highlighting how essential data loss prevention is to an organisation.
Furthermore, cyber and ransomware attacks are becoming more pervasive than ever. Cybercriminals are smarter than they have ever been and realise the tremendous value of both personal and business data. The rise in attacks on organisations has increased significantly over the last year especially due to the pandemic and the shift to remote working. Hence, it increasingly looks like data loss—at least for a time—is inevitable.
With a little extra initiative, there are reasons to believe that data can be protected and retrievable when needed. Today, backup and recovery solutions are simple to manage, affordable, flexible and non-intrusive.
Backups can truly make a difference when protecting your critical data. Organisations need to remember the golden rule of data protection when securing essential data: the 3-2-1 rule of backup. This rule stipulates that all backups should account for three instances of your data including:
- Organisations should have one original copy and two backups of their data.
- Have two local copies on at least two different types of backup media (ie. cloud).
- One should be stored on an off-site storage solution in case of a natural disaster or other data catastrophe (i.e. securely encrypted in the cloud).
Make sure your organisation is backing up their data
The importance of backup is often overlooked by the latest security scare or large attack making headlines. In most cases, the focus is on other details rather than creating a plan to keep all data safe and available from any of these events. Both internal and external threats are on the rise. In today’s uncertain times, keeping data safe and recoverable is more important than ever.
Organisations need to look for a data protection solution that is integrated, secure, and cost-effective and provides protection for on-premises and cloud data, to ensure you are back online following a data loss event. By deploying the right backup protection organisations remove single points of failure to minimise the time and business impact of data loss. At the same time, businesses looking to modernise their existing data protection strategies, including eliminating cumbersome tapes, or improving long-term retention capabilities, should look for an easy and cost-effective cloud solution for their offsite backup and archiving needs to maximise their business continuity strategy.
Let’s take World Backup Day as a reminder for your organisation to create a backup and recovery plan of action. The increase in disastrous events, whether from nature, human error, cyber-attacks or ransomware, makes it that much more critical for organisations to consider all that they have to lose and highlights the need to create the right backup and recovery solution.
