25% of all businesses that shut their doors because of a disaster never reopen. The leading reasons for this is the loss of critical data needed for the business to operate. Fortunately, there are solutions that can help businesses get back on their feet after a disaster.

Here are five steps that business owners need to consider to keep important data safe.

1. Identify Data Threats

As already mentioned, natural disasters are one cause of data loss. But they’re not the only threats. Accidental deletion, theft, and content degradation are other causes that could lead to data loss.

2. Consider Existing Data Protection Policies

Consider existing data protection measures. You’ll want to think about what data protection measures you already have in place. Where do you store your important files? Who has access to them?

3. Decide What to Store

Evaluate what information is crucial to your business. Perhaps your existing data protection measures already protect everything that’s important but you might want to think if there are other meaningful files that aren’t protected. Some of the most decisive things to consider is irreplaceable files, legal documents, archived files, proprietary data, and personnel files and paperwork such as I-9s and W-4s.

4. Select Storage Solutions

Diversification is the key to data preservation. Many businesses make the mistake of backing up all of their data in the same location as the original documents. So even though they have multiple copies of their important files, there’s a good chance they can lose all their copies in a single incident. It’s a good idea to select several storage mediums such as an external hard drive, network attached storage, and cloud storage solutions.

5. Invest in Offsite Storage

Even with multiple data storage solutions, there is still a .25% chance of losing data permanently in the event of a disaster. That’s a little too high for comfort. The best way to ensure that your important files are protected is to invest in offsite storage so that no matter what happens, your data is safe because it’s stored in multiple locations.

Further Reading

To learn more about our protecting important data visit: https://www.equiinet.com/backup