The previous year has highlighted more than any other the importance of having a contingency plan.
With 40 per cent of the UK population having worked from home, more office staff are working away from the office than ever before.
This can affect business continuity, especially if a company’s backup and disaster recovery policies are designed for an era when most people worked in the office.
With more people working online, and the greater likelihood that for some this will be a permanent arrangement, a robust disaster recovery plan is vital, as is the communication of data protection policies to staff members.
Here are some simple changes that can be made to your business’ workflow to help maintain your data in an era where security breaches and data loss incidents are at an all-time high.
Expand Data Backups
In information technology circles, there is a principle known as the “3-2-1 rule”. This is a general rule for backing up data that, if rigorously followed, can protect the business from practically any potential data loss.
Essentially you need:
- to save at least three copies of any data you need.
- to save these copies in two different locations (hard drive, encrypted USB stick, CD)
- to store at least one copy securely off-site.
With the rise in cloud computing, it is also important to expand this backup system to ensure that a copy of your data is available locally and on the cloud, to prevent a loss of productivity in the case of a local internet outage.
Backup More Frequently
As well as backing up data in more locations, make sure both incremental and full backups are undertaken more frequently during the working day, rather than a process that happens at the end of the working day
Look into smart backup solutions as well as streaming recovery systems that automate the process of backing up data to make this task significantly easier.
Take Full Advantage Of Cloud Storage
Cloud computing has become the norm for businesses large and small, as most office staff have worked from home under the current circumstances.
Depending on the size of your business you are likely to use it in different ways. Smaller businesses would be best-served by buying cloud storage from a secure provider rather than hosting servers on-site.
A larger organisation, on the other hand, should own their storage servers and use cloud services to facilitate secure access when working remotely, as well as to back up recent copies of data.
This will work alongside individual backups that use the 3-2-1 rule to ensure that regardless of where the failure occurs on your system, your most important information will be safely stored.
With cloud storage being always online by design, ensuring your system is protected and secure is of the utmost importance. Ensure that your provider is effectively encrypting your data and following security protocols that meet or exceed the industry standard.
