In this article, you will learn about four common mistakes you must avoid when backing up data in order to ensure safe storage of your documents and successful access when you need them.
Effective data backup practices are important in ensuring that your organization bounces back quickly after data loss events. Unfortunately, some experts do not treat data backup with the seriousness it deserves. They engage in seemingly harmless practices that may render their data backups ineffective. Here is a look at some of these mistakes and ways to avoid them.
1. Failure to Back Up Your Files
The biggest mistake you can make is overlooking the need to back up your data. Just because you have never lost data, it doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. It is important to wake up to the reality that today, data loss events happen more frequently than they happened in the past. Prudence dictates that you take a preventative approach towards managing data loss risks. This is because data is increasingly becoming a critical resource to successful businesses. With so many data backup tools in the market, including DataNumen Backup, you have no reason not to back up your company information.
2. Not Confirming Cloud Backup Data Retention Policies
Companies need to preserve data for longer periods to support their operation. They also do this to comply with regulatory requirements. Unfortunately, companies that provide cloud backup services have varied data retention policies.
When choosing cloud backup services, make sure that their data retention policies are in tandem with those of your company. This ensures that the service provider doesn’t require you to move your data from their servers while you still need it. Such a move can be inconveniencing, especially when you have already paid for the services. Therefore, read the terms and conditions of every service provider carefully to ensure that they meet your interests.
3. Performing Partial Data Backups
It is important for organizations to back up all information that supports their critical functions. However, incidents of partial data backup still occur. This happens when managers fail to analyze key dependencies of important data. Unknown to them, they end up with incomplete data that does not allow them to attain their objectives.
To avoid this, an organization needs to identify what information their key operations use. It is wise for policymakers to consult matter experts in every function on what data should be backed up. They also need to document standard procedures for all critical functions and train their teams on the same. It is important to back up your data frequently. This could be daily, weekly, or monthly depending on the volume of your data sources.
4. Failure to Think Beyond Data Backup
The risk of losing data doesn’t end with backups. Your archived files can still get corrupted or even deleted. It is therefore important to have a plan in place on how to recover your data should your archived files get damaged. One way to do this is to invest in data recovery solutions such as DataNumen Archive Repair. This ensures that you have a way to salvage your backup files should the inevitable happen.
Conclusion
Backing up your critical data is one way of minimizing the impact of data loss events in your company. When performing data backups, you need to avoid common errors that could have serious ramifications on your business. These include failure to perform backups in the first place and picking cloud backup plans that have a shorter data retention period than your company. Moreover, performing partial backups and not having a data recovery plan beyond archiving your information could cost your company a fortune in case of a data loss incident.
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