DATA: Your Business and Its Most Important Asset
Often neglected by some business owners, computer information should be considered the most critical asset to protect and secure. Even a one-person small business that is run from a single personal computer should routinely consider these regular routines/procedures:
1) Backup your data daily.
By backing up your data, you ensure that a hardware failure or catastrophe will only impact your business minimally. Hard disks are mechanical, and prone to failure over time. When possible, backup to an external medium such as tape backups, CD/DVD backups, USB Flash Disks or the most practical external hard drives.
2) Secure your data including backups, with encryption (passwords)
Even worse than losing data to hardware failure is your information falling into a theives’s hands. Ensure your data is safe, by locking up backups offsite (where possible) in fire-resistant safes or files. At the same time, investing in encryption software is ideal, so that in case of theft, your computer system’s data cannot be deciphered by anyone.
3) Invest in RAID configured Systems
In a more critical business where you need to work without a system failure stopping you, consider investing in RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) hardware. This can allow for one hard drive to fail, but others can take over ‘on the fly’ so that your business is not halted. More expensive systems/servers allow for failed disks to be hot swapped and replaced – meaning they can be replaced without powering off the system. Basic and mid-level systems require that the power be shut down before any hardware replacement can be made.
4) Ensure your Scheduled backups are really working and can actually be read elsewhere.
You may wish to take backups to a different computer or server to ensure that they can in fact be read there. Many times, users may think that backups are being done, but if they haven’t been working, your data is out of date and your business is at risk of losing hours/days of work.
These are some suggestions that every business should follow and consider on a daily basis. If they routinely practice these recommendations, the impact on business operations will be little or none at all.
