Backup Options for Businesses: IT Disaster Recovery Plans

Backing up your computer files is an essential operation for your business. It becomes crucial if you’re subject to a ransomware attack, your device suffers an irreparable failure, or your hardware is damaged in a disastrous fire or flood.

When your files are backed-up, you can be up and running again in a couple of hours. We recommend disaster recovery backup solutions for businesses of every size.

Backups for Small Businesses (10 PCs or Less)

For small businesses, we recommend Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive, at minimum. Both of these services save your files to an off-site network called ‘the cloud’ that you access over the internet. 

Storing files in the cloud gives you the ability to access them on all your devices. This is important because you can still access your documents from another PC if yours is out of order.

Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive can be organized natively on your Windows PC File Explorer program. If you’re hesitant to learn a new interface, OneDrive will feel more familiar to Windows users.

If you’re concerned about security risks, Google and Microsoft use sophisticated encryption to protect your files from outside threats, and have significantly stronger defense mechanisms in place than any small business.

Backups for Medium-Sized Businesses (10-20+ PCs)

When your business grows to beyond 10 PCs, it’s a good idea to have an on-site backup device that can replicate your data in the cloud.  We recommend CTERA files services. They offer Hybrid Local and Direct-to-Cloud backups.

In the event of a data loss at your office, devices like the CTera allow us to quickly recover data on-site rather than having to wait for data to transfer from the cloud. The cloud component is an excellent insurance policy for instances where your on-premise device has a failure, or your office encounters a complete loss.

Large Enterprise Businesses (100+ PCs)

Due to the sheer volume of files amassed in an enterprise-level business, a specialized type of hardware called Network-attached Storage (or NAS) is required. NASs are computers built specifically to store files and share them on your network. Basically, they’re large-scale flash drives you can access on multiple PCs, with permission and access restriction capabilities.

NASs can be used as a dedicated storage server or function as a backup solution for a file server. In a scenario where the NAS is the primary storage device for a business, we recommend having another backup device on-site to cover the NAS unit.

Even with a NAS or file server in place, we highly recommend an off-site component to augment the local device. In the event of a network attack, or complete loss of your office, having an off-site (commonly cloud) copy is extremely important.

Can you trust the cloud?

The file services industry is increasingly cloud-based. Fortunately, we embrace cloud storage technology. In our experience, it has been a reliable disaster recovery option for our clients.

As for security, the major cloud providers have yet to be compromised in a major way. These companies are investing more in security and privacy than any business can reasonably afford.

While implementing a cloud backup plan seems like a new expense on your business, we think it saves businesses money by reducing overall IT spending on things like manual backup swaps, troubleshooting of local devices, and recovery in the event of a data loss.

The cloud providers incur the cost of maintaining their hardware and updating their software so you don’t have to.

Don’t wait until it’s too late.

If your business is operating without a disaster recovery plan, get in touch with our IT technicians at techsupport@omnistech.com.