The only way to insure your data is to back it up. Unfortunately, many businesses think they are backing up their files adequately only to find out that they’ve suffered a major loss. The worst time to find out that backup systems have failed is after data loss. Therefore, it’s extremely important to monitor and test your backups as well as follow a regular backup schedule.

3 Elements of Effective Data Backup

As mentioned earlier, the three elements of effective backup include a regular backup schedule, consistent monitoring, and frequent testing. Let’s take a closer look at each:

  1. Regular Backups – Many businesses follow an inconsistent or inadequate backup schedule. For example, suppose a company backs up their files once a week. If data loss occurs one day before the scheduled backup, they will lose an entire week’s worth of work. While this may be acceptable for certain types of businesses or small companies that don’t do a lot of work throughout the week, this is beyond acceptable for most businesses. Backup has to occur frequently to be affective.
  2. Monitoring – Backups can fail. When a backup fails, it creates a snowball effect, meaning that backups following the initial failure will probably also fail. When backup fails, you must figure out why it did and fix the problem. The only way you can do this is through frequent monitoring.
  3. Testing – You must also test your backups for fidelity. If you cannot restore your files from a backup, it’s not effective. You’ve only wasted storage space, time, and money. For this reason, you must test your backups by attempting to restore your data. If a test fails, you can fix the problem before you lose valuable data.

As you can see, effective data backup requires consistency and several fail-safe measures. You must also use an adequate backup system. For instance, our inSync tool synchronizes files across multiple desktops and creates multiple backups without users being aware that their files are being tucked away safely. This type of security along with consistent monitoring and testing will keep your data safe.