The lifeblood of any business has to be the data it holds. Customer records, accounts, projects, reports, reviews etc. Information is what makes a business function – they are its intellectual resources and intellectual property. A CRM system is a significant part of a business’s data and when used to their full capacity; e.g. to store customer details, pre and post sales follow-up, personal information, purchasing records, and contact timetable, the loss of your CRM data or any other significant data will leave a business unable to operate.
The consequences for data loss can be catastrophic. For example according to the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington; 93% of businesses that lose their company information due to a disaster and are unable to get access to it within 10 days, end up going out of business within the year. Worse still, 50% of the businesses unable to access their data for 10 days due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy immediately.
Information for UK businesses show a lower figure but the majority i.e. 70% of small businesses experiencing a major loss of data go out of business within the year (DTI/Price Waterhouse Coopers)
Given how important data is to a business and the consequences of losing it, you may be surprised to note that according to the Contingency Plan and Strategic Research Corporation; 96% of all business workstations are not back up. Even more alarming, 77% of those companies who actually backed up their data were unable to recover it from the backup tapes because the tapes failed (Boston computer network data loss statistics).
There six main reasons why companies lose data:
- People failing to take the correct action
- Human error
- Software corruption
- Computer viruses
- Damaged hardware
- Theft
Research shows that the top cause of data loss is damage to hardware; accounting for 40% of all loss of data. This is closely followed by human error which accounts for 29% (David M. Smith, Ph.D., Pepperdine University). However, many businesses over estimate the effect of hardware failure and grossly underestimate human error; therefore they take fewer precautions then are necessary to avoid data loss resulting from people’s mistakes.
People regularly experience the fallibility of machines and yet despite this many business owners ignore the potential devastating impact of a hardware failure when it comes to managing their data. That is they take little or no precautions to ensure that their data is sufficiently backed up.
Not having any formal backup would seem extreme, however, if you are relying solely on a back up tape you may be no better off. There is a high failure rate associated with backup tapes. A tape backup in many cases ends up being the same as no backup.
Your Backup Disk Just Might Not Be…
Almost as risky is using your Service Area Network (SAN) or your Network Attached Storage (NAS) as your primary backup. A far more effective way to protect yourself from data loss that is the result of hardware failure is to move your data from your primary storage to a completely separate secondary storage system, preferably offsite so that should disaster strike your company your backup will be in a different location.
Using software systems based in ‘the cloud’ divert the responsibility for recovering from hardware failures away from you and your business but now it’s just as important to take regular backups, or ‘exports‘.
In the cloud there are lots of good backup services offering an offsite data solution. Your existing broadband provider might already have one you can use free of charge. Even if you pay for offsite services, costs are getting lower and lower all the time – down to just a few pence/cents per gigabyte stored per month.
People Accidentally Lose Your Data
People are the second biggest cause of companies losing their data. People forget to do things; accidentally deleted things; ignore policies regarding data backup processes or even take the only copy of the information offsite in a portable medium and then lose it. The most conscientious worker is still subject to human error, therefore your data management will benefit from removing as much of the human element from the data backup and storage equation as possible; in other words – automation.
Data Sometimes Breaks Itself
After human error the next biggest cause of data loss is software corruption. Corrupted software can remain undetected for days, weeks, months or even years until the day when you are suddenly presented with the BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) if you are a Windows user or a white screen if you use a Mac (yes a Mac can fail too!) The thought that goes through most peoples minds at this stage is “I wish I had backed up my data” but it is often too late. The best way to avoid software errors resulting in data loss is to have a strict, automated backup policy.
Viruses Kill Your Data
Computer viruses are a common cause of software failures. Whilst most people are familiar with using firewalls and virus checkers; they often overlook the issue of the Windows operating system. If all of your systems, PCs, servers and back ups are running on windows, they are all vulnerable to the same threats. Running your backup/protection on a different system may not be as convenient as running it on Windows, however, it offers you far more protection.
Deliberate Destruction
Data lost through theft is either the result of information being passed to unintended third parties or being deliberately destroyed. The approach to managing data loss from theft is similar to that used to manage data loss due to human error, i.e. making it difficult to destroy your original data and ensuring that backups are automated.
Get A Strategy
Depending on the amount of data you lose, for a small business the results can be catastrophic making recovery impossible and closure inevitable. If you’ve yet to implement a data backup strategy then it’s never too soon to get started:
Start by investing some time in determining what your back up requirements are. Familiarise yourself with the scope and quantity of the data you use in your business and the importance of each element to the delivery of your service. You should also consider how long it will take to recover from a catastrophic data loss and the effect of this period on your business. Knowing your data will ensure that you select the right data back up system for your needs.
Your data back up strategy will be what determines your business survival if you lose your data. Therefore your data back up should be amongst your top priorities. The most effective data back up strategies work when things aren’t left to chance and they are followed consistently.
