Thought for the Day: Don’t Let Them Get Your Back-up!
Release date: March 2003
As businesses constantly demand more access to information on an anytime, anywhere basis, more storage is being brought in to cope. However, with independent research commissioned by DataFort revealing that 83% of UK companies have an inadequate back-up strategy, what will happen to their most valuable asset should viruses strike, thieves break in, or tapes get mislaid?
Data risk is everywhere and what managers don’t realise is that computer users experience disaster daily, in the shape of power surges, hardware crashes, human error, theft, fires and other accidents. The result of this could mean that companies not only lose their data, but they lose significant amounts of money due to downtime. Therefore, the importance of having a back-up strategy is fundamental in helping to minimise downtime, whilst maintaining valuable business data. September 11 th bought disaster recovery plans to the forefront of the technology agenda, but while businesses are now more prepared to back up, I am sure that the way in which the data is stored is still the weakest link in their disaster recovery plan.
A prime example is the Housing Corporation. In its attempts to implement off-site back-up, it ended up compromising its commercially confidential data by leaving the back up tapes on the London Underground. Simple human error is one of the many problems companies encounter when looking to implement data back-up plans.
The Housing Corporation is not alone. A recent survey conducted by SunGard Availability Systems revealed that 90% of companies re backing up using tape. Although back-up tapes may be advantageous as they are easily portable and can be transported to a different location where they are secure from fire or theft, they are more easily misplaced, lost or dropped. And do you trust an employee to take it home?
With the financial expense of disaster recovery, it seems that off-site storage and business continuity services are aimed at enterprise level and corporate users. Small and medium-sized businesses are less likely to have plans in place, but even those that do often struggle to recover from a catastrophe. Analyst group Gartner estimates that two out of five companies that experience a disaster go out of business within five years and with recent figures from the DTI revealing that 99% of UK companies are SMEs, this is a very worrying statistic. So how can SMEs prepare?
The most reliable and simplest solution for a company of any size is for data to be sent to secure off-site datacentres, where their information is mirrored to ensure the safest possible option. Historically, this has only been an affordable solution for larger corporates, however in the last few years, the use of faster internet connections has enabled a new breed of off-site solution to emerge, providing back-up and disaster recovery as an affordable, easy-to-use online solution. In addition, effective online back-up solutions now provide data security as an automated service.
With costs coming down and reliable back-up now affordable for all SMEs, when you come to allocate your technology budget, just think about how much it would cost you if you didn’t have a back-up plan in place.
ABOUT DATAFORT
DataFort provides dependable secure off-site computer information storage with a focus on functionality and convenience for the end user. The company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Guildford, UK and New York, USA. It’s software and services are used by thousands of businesses worldwide - ranging from small SMEs and schools through to quoted companies and local government. Every hour of every day someone, somewhere backs up with DataFort.
CONTACTS
Jill Sutcliffe
T: +44 (0) 1483 872 052
E: jill.sutcliffe@datafort.co.uk