Why You Should Backup Your Data

Data backup is one of the most important, yet also one of the most ignored areas of IT. ‘Backing up’ means making a copy of your most important files which can be restored if the original copy is lost. Preferably, a second copy should be held at a different location to the original and be kept in a secure environment.

Why do I need to?

Data loss can happen in many ways, the most common causes are physical failure of your server, accidental error, theft or even disasters like fire or flood.

Growing numbers of computer viruses are also a risk to your organisations information, particularly variants that encrypt all of your data.

If you don’t have access to your data, how long do you think your organisation will be able to carry on?

What types of backup are there?

There are primarily two methods of backing up important data in a businesses or educational environment. The one you choose will generally depend on time, security and budget.

• Tape backup  Tape backup has been around for years and is still popular with many organisations. You can perform daily, weekly and monthly backups with tapes being stored offsite after a backup job to ensure the backed up data is kept at an alternative site to the original data.

  The disadvantages of tape are that it can be slow, both to backup and to restore, and as data continues to grow, tapes are sometimes inadequate due to their capacities. As it is a manual process, it can also be subject to human error as someone has to remember to load the tapes and take the tapes offsite on a daily basis. Furthermore, upfront costs of the backup hardware itself as well as the backup management software can be very high.

• Cloud backup  Cloud backup is often the best choice for small to medium sized businesses and schools as there is no need to purchase backup hardware or software. With Vantage DataSafe, our cloud backup solution, you simply pay for a monthly subscription instead and we take care of the rest.

  With this service we back up all of your business critical data and it is transferred in an encrypted format across the internet to our high security UK based data centre. The backups are fully automated, meaning no user intervention is required and we can restore single files or full backups upon request. Total protection and availability make this a very attractive option.

Please contact Vantage IT today for a quotation based on your company’s individual backup needs.