Lost Data Can Cripple a Small Business

According to one study, 93% of companies that lost access to their data center for 10+ days filed for bankruptcy within a year. Yet 70% of small businesses don‘t have a disaster recovery plan. Protecting your data through backups solutions should be a top priority.

This definitive guide explains the most effective data backup options available for small businesses today. Follow these expert recommendations to implement a layered backup strategy that keeps your company data protected.

Hard Drives – On Site Hardware Storage

Many small companies start by backing up data to external or internal hard drives.

External drives you can easily disconnect and take offsite provide an accessible copy. High capacity models reliably store enormous data sets for less than $100. However, they are still physical devices subject to failure and not immune to theft or natural disasters.

Internal hard drives in servers offer high performance for frequent onsite backups. But data loss is still possible if the system is damaged or stolen.

Experts suggest combining external + internal hard drives for both redundancy and offsite storage capability.

Key Advantages

• Inexpensive storage capacity
• Local backup speed and convenience
• External drives allow site-to-site transfer

Limitations

• Physical failure or damage Still vulnerable to theft, fire, flood
• Managing drive swaps cumbersome

Cloud Storage – Convenient and Scalable

Backing up your data to the cloud has become an indispensable part of many small businesses‘ backup strategy. Leading services like Dropbox, Google Drive and iCloud make it simple to automatically sync files across devices.

Key Benefits

Accessibility – Retrieve files anywhere with internet connection
Scalability – Cloud storage expands seamlessly with your data needs
Collaboration – Doc editing and sharing perfect for distributed teams
Security – Encryption and access control protects data
Automation – Backup scheduling guarantees no lost changes

With affordable paid plans starting under $10/month, cloud backup should be standard even for early-stage companies. Ensure internet downtime won‘t cripple critical operations.

Limitations

• Internet outage hinders access
• Large data sets costly to upload

Expert Cloud Tips

Combine with local external drive backups for cloud‘s accessibility plus physical backup reliability. Or utilize a hybrid-cloud approach with a local network attached storage (NAS) device that handles large local data while synchronizing key files with the cloud automatically.

Tape Drives – For Big Backups

A tape drive reads/writes data onto a tape cartridge historically used for huge data backups, like at banks and hospitals. Although tape drive equipment costs add up over time, tapes themselves remain incredibly inexpensive for the mammoth data capacity they hold. They also make reliable long-term archives if properly stored.

However, for most modern small companies today, tape drives are overkill. The massive capacity gained rarely offsets the substantial time drain for running backups and restorations, when disk drives and cloud services handle reasonably-sized data so efficiently.

Still, for storing truly vast sets of minimally changing compliance-related data long-term, like financial transactions or medical imaging records, tapes retain cost-efficiency advantages. Their portability also provides secure transportation of these sensitive backups to external facilities.

Key Advantages

• Incredible economies-of-scale for enormous backups
• Efficient long-term archival storage
• Physical media useful for transportation

Incremental vs. Full Backups

Backup methods fall into two camps:

Incremental – Copies only new/edited files since the last backup
Full – Comprehensively copies ALL designated files every time

Incremental backups accelerate the backup task and require fewer job cycles by reducing its scope. Full backups deliver certainty that no gaps exist when restoring in a disaster scenario.

Ideally, small businesses should schedule:

• Full – Once a week
• Incremental – Daily

This allows faster daily backups while ensuring a full data snapshot exists for clean disaster recovery when needed.

Differential Backup

Making a full second copy of every changing file quickly hogs backup resources. Differential backup copies files changed since the last full backup. This saves storage space while still enabling clean restores to a fixed past point in time.

Differential backups essentially combine incremental‘s backup speed with full‘s reliable restoration into a single method. For most small businesses, it strikes the perfect balance between backup efficiency and recovery assurance at a great value.

Mirror Backup – Automatic Redundancy

Mirror backup maintains a live data replica on a second device, like an additional hard drive. This equivalent duplicate ensures continuous availability should the primary data location fail.

While more affordable than mega-scale SAN/NAS redundant infrastructures, mirroring does require purchasing an additional hard drive with identical capacity as the primary data device to be truly effective. Still, for critical data protection on a limited budget, mirror backup‘s virtues outweigh this flaw.

3 Backup Plan Essentials

Follow these expert tips to ensure your backup strategy actually protects your company when calamity strikes:

1. Automate – Scheduled backup software cuts human oversight risks.
2. Verify – Regularly perform test restores to confirm backup integrity
3. Store Offsite – Keep recent backup copy at secure offsite location to hedge against onsite disaster

Best Practices for Backup Verification

How can you effectively test your backups to ensure reliable data recovery when needed? Follow these industry-standard procedures:

Test Restore Different Backup Versions

Restore monthly/yearly versions to confirm all snapshots remain intact over long periods.

Isolate Test Environment

Restore backups onto a segregated test network to eliminate any impact on production systems.

Validate Applications

Confirm restored data works correctly when launched back into original apps.

Check Reports After Restoring

Audit restored data by comparing reports before and after to validate accuracy.

Script Restore Tests

Automate regular test restore procedures through batch scripts to remove human delay.

Estimate Your Storage Needs

Determining appropriate backup capacity takes some calculations but prevents critical space shortages.

Formula:

(Daily data change rate MB) 
x (Number of backup versions to retain)
x (Number of days to retain backups)
= Total backup storage capacity needed (MB)

For example, if a small business:

• Generates 5 GB of new/changed data per day
• Wants to store 60 days of incremental backups
• Keep 4 weekly full versions for last month

That would require approximately:

(5 GB x 60 days of incrementals) + (5 GB x 4 weeks of fulls)
= 300 GB + 20 GB 
= 320 GB total storage needed

Having accurate retention policies and measuring data change rates makes calculating–and budgeting for–sufficient backup capacity much simpler.

Security Essentials

Don‘t let a data breach rob your backups! Apply these vital security principles:

• Encrypt sensitive backup data in transit and especially at rest
• Use multi-factor authentication to limit backup destination access
• Air-gap offline backups stored physically offsite as protection from ransomware

With attention to infosec fundamentals, you can both reliably restore your data and trust its integrity.

Alternative Professional Options

While do-it-yourself solutions empower IT-savvy businesses to manage their own backups, companies can also turn to external specialists for assistance:

Backup Software & Services

Managed service providers like Druva deliver reliable cloud backup reinforced with proprietary deduplication and compression technology to maximize storage savings.

Robust business backup platforms like Veeam combine recovery verification with features like cloud archiving and automation through simple interfaces.

Disaster Recovery Sites

For ultimate redundancy, a remote standalone backup site at a colocation facility provides an isolated, climate-controlled offsite repository kept current through regular data replication.

While clearly a more serious investment, for some small firms like healthcare IT with stringent regulatory data retention and recovery mandates, a comprehensive 3-2-1 disaster recovery infrastructure offers the greatest system assurance.

Data only holds value if you can access it when urgently needed. For small businesses, implementing layered backup processes is like an insurance plan for your data‘s availability.

By deploying an automated, redundant, and secure data protection strategy early on, you guarantee you can rapidly recover from outages while avoiding profit-crushing downtime.

Still unsure where to begin securing your company‘s mission-critical information? Contact our technology consultants to start planning an effective data backup solution tailored specifically for your small business.