I know, data security can seem SUPER boring. And your provider says they have it covered.

An IT company can be great at security, but there are always failures along the way.

Therefore, I consider working data backups to be the single most important thing we offer as IT providers. You can train and plan around any issue but at the end of the day if something goes wrong, your backups must work!

Failed backups and lost data are the number one reason other business owners come to me for help. And unfortunately by then it’s too late.

So what can you, someone not in the IT field, do to ensure you are actually covered in case of a data breach, technological problem, and/or crisis

Ask these questions

  • Who is responsible for our data backups?
  • What data is backed up?
  • Where do we store our backups?
  • Who is taking a copy of our backups off-site (e.g., are you carrying a spare drive home, is your IT team replicating the backups somewhere else)?
  • Who is monitoring the backups to ensure they are working?

I encounter too many business owners who assume things like their laptops or email are being backed up when they are not.

Create a list of the following and determine what data you need backed up

  • Your server files
  • Files on your desktop/laptop
  • Email
  • Website
  • Programs you use

Your data needs to live in at least two different places so you always have a (working) copy when things go wrong. For example, if you have a server in your office, you need to have an offsite backup server.