Don't Just Change Your Clocks -- "Fall Back Up" Your Computers Too

For the second consecutive year, Maxell is reminding businesses everywhere to protect themselves against critical data loss.  The "Maxell Fall Backup Day" initiative purposefully coincides with Daylight Saving Time "Fall Back" as the perfect time to institute a back up of computer files and an ongoing data protection plan.  This year, "Maxell Fall Backup Day" occurs -- today!

If your business is like most, you are heavily dependent on your computer systems that contain information crucial to daily operations. Al Dripchak, technical manager of Maxell, says "Proper data management through regular backups is the only safeguard against costly and sometimes inevitable business failure resulting from major data loss."

When critical operational information such as sales histories, inventory figures, or accounts receivables are lost, a business can expend valuable time and resources in an attempt to recover that information. And some never do.

Are you at risk?

Businesses without a sound data protection plan leave themselves vulnerable to the many threats that can corrupt, destroy or deny access to critical information. Natural disasters, theft, viruses, equipment failure, human error and even broken water pipes can strike at any time and without warning. According to a recent report from the IT Policy Compliance Group, human error, such as lost laptops, user error and violations of policy, accounts for three-quarters of incidents where sensitive data is lost.  PCs, laptops, and mobile devices are the most common channels for such leaks.

Data storage options have grown to accommodate business requirements on many levels.  Maxell has developed the following advice built on its experiences in premium recordable media over the past 30 years.

• Give yourself a good look in the mirror.  In order to determine what type of media will best fit the needs of your business, examine your current data storage requirements and estimate future growth of data. As a general rule when calculating how much and what type of data storage capacity you’ll need in the future, consider that company data will double every 18 months.
• Commit to a schedule.  While data is ever-changing and growing, backup of computer files needs to be done on a regular basis.  Once you've done a full assessment of your system and files, and ensured your file histories have been recorded, continue with daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly backups, to keep incremental data including HR records, e-mail, contracts, accounting, and sales data current.
• Leave no stone unturned. In today’s mobile business environment, information is constantly on the go, while being subjected to variable and sometimes unfavorable conditions. Make sure your data backup plan considers all the moving parts of your business. Laptops, mobile phones, blackberries, PDAs, instant messenger, email, and home office computers need to be considered when evaluating your storage needs.
• Avoid a false sense of security. Nothing can be more risky than believing you are protected against data loss, only to find out that is not the case.  Double-check your backup tapes every few months to ensure the information is recorded correctly and the tapes remain undamaged.  Scratches and debris can corrupt individual documents, or make the entire media unreadable. Most importantly, keep your backup copies at an off site location to increase the odds that one set of information will always be safe and secure from data threats.
• Take extra precaution.  When it comes to credit card numbers, social security data, along with customer and employee personal information, you can never be too safe.  While loss of information can create financial liabilities and penalties in the short-term, loss of sensitive data can also hurt brand reputation in the long-term. 

Current backup technologies are more cost-effective and user-friendly than ever before, allowing businesses of all sizes to find a sound data protection plan to fit their needs. To get more information from Maxell  on data backup and storage media pick up a copy of The SMB Users Guide To Data Protection.