Effective Backup Plan

You’re ready to buy a BDR solution or service. You’ve done all the research, found a company you’re confident in, and excited to finally have better peace of mind. Now, you start thinking about what exactly do you need to back up and have protection? Is all your data necessary or should you save a little server room? Having the mindset of “You never know when you’ll need it”, most businesses want to back up everything. Depending on how much data storage for the backup is required, it can cost more than it might be worth for keeping those photos of the last company party.

BDR Options

There are three different kinds of backup in today’s tech market. You can back up straight to the Cloud. You could install a software-based backup to your server. Then there is the hybrid option which combines on-site backup to server with sending to cloud. It’s important you review your BDR options and what kinds of services each solution covers. Based on the solution you choose, it can affect the amount of data that’s backed up and how that backup takes place. The solution can also determine what is the frequency of backup and how you access the backup. Once decided, you are ready to focus on the data that is most crucial to your business and what would be “nice to have”. As we mentioned it’s not necessary to back up everything, here are some recommended guidelines for ranking your data:

Financial Data

The first consideration is your business financial data. This includes your account receivables, credit card transactions, invoicing, and payroll data. Your accounting software should keep an eye on this and automatically back up this data. All financials are incredibly important — even one lost invoice could really hurt your business.

Intellectual Property

The second is protect all intellectual property. Unless you have a vault-like Fort Knox to store a famous recipe like Coca-Cola or KFC. You need to back up the data that gives you a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Any sensitive data or items that could compromise your business need to be backed up daily as well.

Confidential Client Data

Next, you will want to back up any client files. This information is invaluable to your business and it would affect your clients’ confidence if data was lost or stolen. Besides confidential client files, make sure you’re backing up your client and prospect lists; practically anything related to sales and marketing. You spend a great deal of time and money developing your list for marketing purposes. Losing any of this information is one of the major reasons companies go out of business within six months of experiencing data loss.

Production Data

Finally, you must back up all project management software. Back up anything that your business uses to keep track of daily activities and production. You want to make sure that you can maintain progress in the event of a data loss. It is also a good idea to still maintain a paper trail on project communication.

When it comes to BDR, you want to back up every piece of data that you have for the company. Sometimes, though, the cost outweighs the importance of keeping that data. At the least, keep these guidelines in mind and you should never have to deal with your business failing due to a significant data loss.