Did you know that large companies spend a significant proportion of their IT budget on data backup and disaster recovery systems? And that a majority of small/medium businesses don’t have any form of regular backup?
And yet the consequences of a significant IT failure & resultant data loss can be just as serious for a Small Business as for an International Corporation.
Read about our Why, What, How, Who & When of backups.
Why backup?
Because most small businesses are highly dependent on their IT systems – and IT systems fail! There are many things that can cause you to lose important data:
- Servers & PC hardware can fail
- The drives holding your data can stop working
- Lightning strikes can (and often do) “take out” PCs or whole networks
- Theft or vandalism result in loss of equipment and data
- Fire can destroy not only your digital records but paper records as well
- User error can result in the loss of important information
It is vital that you have a “backup copy” of important business data which can be restored in the event of an IT disaster. In fact, if you rely on IT for your business to actually function then you should also have a tested disaster recovery plan to deal with each of the above scenarios.
What to backup?
As a small business your IT systems are unlikely to be as controlled and organised as that of a large corporate. Therefore you are likely to have lot of important data spread across your network of PCs & Laptops.
Some things you should probably be backing up are:
Eureka Software
Lots of business critical information is stored inside your Eureka database. Suppliers, Products, Sales history, Cost price history, Stock etc. It would be very difficult to get most of this information back if it were lost.
Accounts Software
If you use a computerized accountancy program it holds a lot of important financial information and should be part of your backup.
Documents
Most of us generate a huge number of documents – letters & correspondence, contracts, spreadsheets, documentation etc. The problem with documents is that they tend to be unorganised and stored “all over the place” - on PCs, Laptops, Servers, USB memory sticks etc. It is important that you have a well organised and centralised system for storing documents which can be easily backed up.
Email & Contact information
In recent years our email systems have developed to hold a scary amount of business critical information. Most companies have contacts, orders, schedules, customer agreements and many other things stored in email systems. Small companies often neglect to back up this important information.
Other systems
Your business may well also have other specialised systems which are important to your business and need to be protected.
How to backup?
There are many options available for backing up your data. Essentially your backup device needs to be large enough to store the amount of data you have, fast enough to do the backup in the window you have available, and portable enough to allow you to take it off site.
Tape
The traditional backup media is a magnetic tape. These offer quite large capacity and good value for money. They are however slow and quite unreliable. They also have the disadvantage of being inconvenient for recovering individual files. They are gradually being superseded with alternative technologies, particularly in the SME sector.
Zip Disk
Smaller capacity than tape. And not much more reliable! ZIP Disks were very common in the small business sector and can be a satisfactory backup tool for companies with a small amount of data.
Memory Stick / Portable hard drive
Now a common method for the very small IT user to backup data. These are fast and portable for easy transport offsite. We recommend you don’t rely on just one device though – these units can fail disastrously with little warning!
Disk to disk
Larger companies can take advantage of new disk to disk based technology where a backup runs continuously to another server – perhaps in a different office, or even a different country.
Online Service
An emerging solution for the SME sector is secure online backup. Your data is encrypted and transmitted over your broadband connection to a secure data centre
Eureka Care Pack Subscribers should look out for some exciting new backup services which will be available from LCCS before the end of this year.
Don’t forget that your backup needs to be stored offsite - not sitting on top of the computer! It’s unlikely the burglar will have the consideration to leave your backup tapes behind him!
Also remember that all devices & media have a finite lifespan. We have customers who have used the same tape for 6 years and wonder why their data restore didn’t work! Tapes need to be changed at least every year.
Test your backup and restore. It is absolutely essential that you test your backup periodically to ensure that in the event of a disaster you can actually get your data back.
Who should do it?
We recommend you designate one trusted person to take responsibility for your backups. When this person is on holiday or unavailable they should delegate to someone else. This way you can be sure that the backup is getting done. The designated person should be responsible for changing the media, and doing the backup if it is manual, or checking it has worked if automatic.
When should you do it?
If you can afford to lose a week’s worth of data then a weekly backup may be sufficient – if you use the computer extensively then a daily backup will be necessary.
Backups are generally carried out at the end of the day. On a large system they will probably be scheduled to run during the night on your Server. On a smaller system you may just manually “do the backup” before going home.
It’s possible to develop all sorts of complex backup strategies. However it is our opinion that a full daily backup is sufficient for most small retailers. We recommend one “media” for each trading day of the week, ie a tape, disk, or USB stick for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
We also recommend that each month you store a copy of your backup which will not be overwritten and which is stored indefinitely.
Eureka Backup Tool
We provide a backup tool free of charge for backing up your Eureka database. If you are a Care Pack Subscriber and have internet access we can install this for you remotely at no cost – please contact our support team if you are interested in this service.
Notes about specific advice
This advice is aimed at the small/medium retailer with a couple of PCs. It is very different from the advice we would offer to a larger company. If you are unsure about what backup strategy is appropriate for your business then please speak with our support team. Care Pack subscribers can avail of this advice for no charge.