Protecting your records requires good backup, teamwork

What has been your experience with online data protection or data backup service providers? With EMC and Seagate now in the market, the sector seems to be reaching critical mass. Anything you can share, pro or con?

 

Businesses today live on computers. The CRM system, the financial system, sets of forms and contracts we use to do business, spreadsheets to analyze what”™s going on ”“ you get the idea ”“ it”™s all on the computer. Those records need to be protected.

Here are some of the mistakes we”™ve made. I hope these examples help you to build bullet-proof protection for your business. My overall message is, don”™t be casual when it comes to protecting your records.

 

My loss, your gain

In 15 years, I”™ve lost data three times. Each time the hardest to recover was my financial files. I”™ve learned to have a good, daily, remote backup system, and a good IT team.

How do you know if you have a good IT team and backup system? Keep in mind that no system can be error free but you can be in a position to recover rapidly when things go wrong. Ask the following questions to evaluate how you”™re doing.

Is your IT team making recommendations to make your system stronger? Do those recommendations fit within your constraints? Does the team look at problems and learn from them, building solutions to prevent future repeats? Do they share what they”™ve learned from working on other systems, not just yours? Are they looking for solutions in the marketplace to fix the problems you have encountered or might encounter?

How do you know your backup system is working? What would you do if you couldn”™t get into the office this morning? How would you keep the business going if you couldn”™t get to your computers or data?

 

Get to the solutions

You want to speak with your IT support person(s) at least monthly, even if it”™s by e-mail. Document any problems you”™ve had. Point out upcoming needs. Get feedback on how the IT team perceives the system is doing. Sending and receiving e-mails on a regular basis probably takes fewer than 10 minutes a month and ensures an open line of communication.

Assess if you”™re operating in a proactive or reactive environment. That”™s the difference between waiting for something to blow up and then calling for help, and seeking out opportunities to keep your system current, up and running. You”™ll have to work as a team with your IT support company. Don”™t push your IT team members away when they”™re ready to discuss what they”™ve found on your system and make recommendations on what to do next. When they propose solutions ”“ work with them.

It”™s your IT team”™s job to identify where to store the data and ensure it”™s accessible when and if you need it. Has the team identified a source and method to get your records to a secure offsite environment? In today”™s environment storage is cheap and data warehouses are becoming common, as our reader implied. Make good use of the solution for your company”™s protection.

 

Teamwork is key

Be sure your IT team stands behind their work. Here”™s an example of how our firm got it right. On a recent backup failure, our IT firm took a stand-up approach and said it was their responsibility. They thought the backup was running but it failed. Therefore, the hours it has taken to recover is on them. They have researched market solutions, identified options and fixed the problem ”“ all on their dime.

By now you may be getting the idea that I consider backups to be an essential part of regular, daily business. Storage of data offsite is essential in order to protect the company.

We”™ve also learned that if we only have one day of backup, there”™s a potential problem. If we don”™t detect the problem immediately, we might write the problem onto the next day”™s backup. Then we could find that our backup file is as corrupted as our system. So we have a system that stores data going back weeks.

Finally, we learned from our most recent experience to test the backup system. We”™ve trained all of our managers on how to go into the offsite backup system to recover a file. Every week someone checks to see if we can recover a file that is more than one to two days old. We test different parts of the system to be sure all of our files are warehoused properly.

Looking for a good book? Try “Computer Storage: A Manager”™s Guide,” by Phil Haylor.

 

Andi Gray is president of Strategy Leaders Inc., a business consulting firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurial firms grow. Questions may be sent to her via e-mail at AskAndi@StrategyLeaders.com or by mail to Andi Gray, Strategy Leaders Inc., 5 Crossways, Chappaqua, NY 10514. She can also be reached by phone at 877-238-3535.