Why Every Small Business Needs A Backup Management Firm

The good news is more small businesses than ever are backing up their data. The bad news is backup software is not a set-it-and-forget-it kind of software. Backup software requires policies, procedures, daily attention, regular restorations, and years of experience to avoid the pitfalls associated with computer backups. Computer backups go wrong for so many reasons. The way that people often learn their backup isn't working is when they really need their backup. They thought they had everything covered, but things are not what they expected.

In this article, we will talk about just two instances where the lack of experience and lack of policies and procedures led to disastrous data loss.

Instance 1

The first example is a small business that had a major disk failure. Most of their data was kept on the server. The server had redundant disks. The redundant disk system failed. Upon further examination, it was discovered that the server had a disk failure over 6 months ago, and then a second disk failure causing the redundant disk system to fail entirely. The disks were replaced. The server was ready to have the data reloaded.

That's when it was discovered that the backup had not run for the last 1.5 years. The business owner had the IT Services company set up the backup system so that an email is sent to one of his staff on a daily basis. The staff member was supposed to review the email and notify the business owner and their IT Services company that there was a failure. It wasn't long until the staff member realized that the email subject was the distinction. If the email subject mentioned the word "failure," then there was a problem, if not, there is not a problem.

A few months after the backup system was put in place, the staff member was getting more sophisticated with their email and how to use it to sort email. One of the things that were done, was all the backup emails that didn't have the word "failure" in them were automatically filed into a folder. Any email from the backup system that had the word "failure" in it, would go to the normal inbox and be marked as high importance. The staff member was completely flabbergasted when they found out the last good backup was from over 1.5 years ago. They checked their email and found that they had not received an email from the backup system for 1.5 years.

At some point, someone had shut down the backup software and never turned it back on. The software wasn't set up to automatically start on the restart of the server, consequently, no one knew the backups were not occurring until they needed the backup most. In addition, the small business didn't have a policy and procedure that made sure a backup restoration was done on a regular basis. The small business paid a big price due to inexperience.

Instance 2

The second example is a small business that was hit by ransomware. Ransomware is a virus that encrypts all your data and holds it for ransom. Further investigation showed that the hacker had used a username/password that was used for a printer. The printer had been set up by an IT Services company several years in the past. The small business had never changed the password. Upon checking the security logs it was discovered that the hacker had been trying to gain access for months. The small business did not have any policies or procedures for reviewing the audit logs even though it is required by regulations.

The small business called their IT Services firm to come in and reload the system from backup. But, another failure had occurred. The backup software was reporting that it had done the backups and they were successful, but it was found that the actual last good backup was from over three months in the past. The small business didn't have any policies or procedures for verifying the backup. The small business paid a high price to learn more about computer backups.

We could go on an on with these backup failure nightmares. The important thing here is to recognize that backup software is not something that can be ignored. The IT policies and procedures you put in place are important. Don't be the next small business to fall victim to a computer backup nightmare.

We are BKUPGEEK. We have over 30 years of experience with computer backups. We've seen the many things that can and do go wrong with computer backups and invalid backup strategies. One size does not fit all. Put our experience to work for you. Still have questions? Chat with us NOW!