Not All Business Continuity Solutions Are Created Equal

Having solutions in place to protect your business data when the worst happens can only help you if those solutions are reliable, flexible, and backed by the right kind of support.

For years, you’ve heard about the importance of data backup. You hear about it in radio commercials and see it in countless sidebar ads on many a website. It’s the same message over and over again – “Just make sure to backup your data, and everything will be great!” This message is… misleading, to say the least. The truth is that data backup alone is not enough to protect your business when the worst happens. For starters, you’ve got much more business data than you once did, and that data is likely much more important to your day-to-day operations. Given that viruses, disasters, and system failures are always looming, the risk of losing your data has never been higher. With stakes this high, your business needs more than just a data backup solution – what you need is a Business Continuity solution. That means having a solution in place that ensures your backed up data is usable, non-corrupted, and virus-free, no matter what. When a disaster occurs – and someday one will – you’ll be able to get back up and running in no time, with all of your data intact. That being said, it’s important to remember that not all Business Continuity solutions are created equal. The good news is that as long as you take the time to kick the tires a bit and look under the hood, a great Business Continuity solution is well within reach. How Can You Be Sure You’ve Chosen The Right Business Continuity Solution? There are a few indicators that can tell you the solution you’ve settled on is going to meet all of your expectations. Here are the things you should look for:

• Make Sure Your Backups Will Be Image-Based. While file-based backups can work just fine, they handle folders and files one at a time and can take forever to both save and restore. If you find yourself needing to restore a large volume of data at once, you’ll be waiting a very, very long time for all of your files to load from your backups. A complete restore could, in fact, take days to complete. Image-based backups, on the other hand, take pictures of entire machines. These snapshots happen so quickly and seamlessly that users won’t even notice backups occurring, and image-based backups can be restored from blazingly fast, taking only seconds to complete.
• Make Sure Your Data Will Be Stored Both Locally And In The Cloud. That way, you can conveniently pull backups from an on-site server for a quick restore when the situation calls for it. The downside to local backups is that if, for example, your office were to flood, you’d lose that local backup. Having backups also stored in the cloud eliminates that downside, and can save you and your business a major headache. Some solutions even let you open and use your backups directly from the cloud without having to first restore them to your local systems.
• Make Sure Your Backups Are Tested For Validity. A good Business Continuity solution examines each backup automatically to ensure everything checks out. Some solutions even send screenshots of your backups to designated team members by email so you can verify at a glance that all is well. You’ll never have to worry that your backups will fail you when you need them most, because you’ll have ongoing confirmation that your solution is working just fine, and ample warning should something go wrong.
• Make Sure Your Solution Can Be Upgraded As Your Business Grows. The last thing you want is to find yourself stuck with an expensive upgrade that requires you to lose all of your backups and start over. Your Business Continuity solution should have the built-in flexibility needed to continue accommodating your businesses needs without costly or disruptive changes needing to be made. The cloud is designed for scalability, which is just one of the reasons it should be a key component of any good Business Continuity solution.

Ask your Managed Service Provider if they offer a Business Continuity solution that ticks all of these boxes. If they don’t, you should probably move on to one that does. Your data is too important to leave to chance. No matter how you look at it, only having data backups to rely on when a crisis happens is setting your business up to fail. Intelligent Business Continuity is more than just a backup – Intelligent Business Continuity is thinking about your business on a higher level. Get in touch with Kyocera Intelligence at (800) 875-8843 or ITsolutions@osisIT.com today to learn more about the Intelligent Business Continuity services we offer.]]>