It may sound obvious, but backing up your data is an essential requirement in today’s business world. This is because of both the number of changes that businesses/consumers make to their data as well as the increased risk of data loss, including from cybercrime.
With this in mind, it is perhaps somewhat surprising that 46% of SMEs do not have a backup/disaster recovery plan in place.
What are the consequences of not backing up?
Not backing up (and losing significant data) can have impact on a number of factors, including:
1. Revenue: If your products/research are lost, you may need to spend valuable time or resources recreating what you’ve already made and/or obtaining duplicates where they exist. This can lead to a direct hit to your revenue as instead of creating new products, you will be in recovery mode – spending money that you have actually already spent!
2. Direct costs: Even if you are able to fully or partially recover your data, you will be faced with extra costs. This could be in the form of recovery services or fines.
3, Time. If you don’t have access to the data you need, you will be less productive and things could take much longer than normal. Depending on how much you lost, it could take weeks just to get back to where you were.
Local experts
If you are based in or near Cheltenham IT support is available from a number of specialist firms. To learn more about what’s on offer, why not take a look at the website of a leading company such as https://reformit.co.uk/?
4. Reputational damage. Ig your systems are down or you lose data, customers/clients may believe that your organisation is not as professional as they thought. If customer data is compromised, your brand’s reputation may also take a hammering. Customers may look elsewhere.
5. Accessibility: Without a backup, you could be stuck in a crucial meeting without access to the information you need. This could cost you sales or business and make you look unprofessional.
6. Regulatory problems: If you lose critical data, you could be in violation of various regulations. You may be liable to pay fines and/or compensation, and it may be hard to regain the certification/accreditation that your customers expect you to have.
