Data Backup: An IT Consultant's Nightmare

Is staying in business important to your company?

We don't want to be sensationalistic here, but there is a serious real-world link between data loss and staying in business. Let's look at some statistics.

Harris Interactive has been running a survey each year online, getting more than 2000 respondents each year, getting some statistics about data backup. Before we cover the numbers, we just want to say at Directive, we really value our clients. We want to be able to provide a service that enables our clients to focus on performing better at their business. We want to see our Upstate New York clients grow and succeed and be able to thrive in an economy that, let's face it, isn't making things easy. Our goal isn't to make you spend all of your budget on souping up your IT to the point where it is impossible or not economical to manage; instead we try our very best to provide the very best in IT best practices and proactive management. With that said, keeping you in business is extremely important to us. Let's take a look at why data backup can be such a nightmare for Directive. Harris Interactive's yearly survey (which was held on behalf of Backblaze, a consumer-driven online backup service) was geared towards adults who own a PC. These aren't businesses per say, but the results are staggering either way. The results show that 93% of computer users risk data loss, because only 7% of users are backing up their data daily. 14% of users back up their data weekly or more, and 27% back their data up monthly. Granted, the concern isn't as high for home users - they don't have a business on the line. Still, there are plenty of solutions to automate backup for home PCs. Let's look at the numbers that really frighten us. In a study by The Diffusion Group, over a thousand small businesses were asked about their backup habits. 40% of small and medium sized businesses don't backup their data. 60% of all data for small businesses is stored on devices that aren't backed up, like desktops or notebooks. Worst of all, of companies that DO backup their data, between 40% and 50% of all backups are not fully recoverable due to faulty media or general failures mostly involving improper setup, tape media failure, and lack of regular testing. Backup is vital for small businesses. If you aren't backed up, it's only a matter of time, and we don't want to see you suffer from data loss. Trust us, it's even worse than it sounds. Contact us today if your company isn't properly backing up data, or even if you have even the slightest suspicion that your data backup solution isn't doing it's job. You'll want to test them regularly. Call us at 607.433.2200 and we'll gladly point you in the right direction to make sure you can prevent the terrible damages data loss can cause.