While many of us place a significant importance on our computers and phones, I find that people don’t put as much importance in backing up files. It’s something that either people haven’t thought of or have been slacking on it.
To help with that, I’d like to use this article as a reminder for those to have a data backup. Not only that but to start caring more about this. Here is why we need to be doing this more often.
It Prevents Data Loss
Do you remember the feeling of dread of exiting out of a document and forgetting to save it? These days we don’t run into that issue thanks to auto-saving and reminders to save, but for those old enough it was a terrible feeling.
Especially if you spent several hours on it.
But I want you to take that experience and apply it to how you’d feel if not just a document but everything on your computer was gone.
How would you feel?
While we may not have to worry about individual documents any more, there is still a threat that we could lose everything. Our computer could stop working entirely. Or maybe we get hacked in and lose access to certain key files.
Whatever the case is, we can mitigate those losses and save ourselves from a panic attack if we make a point of storing key files in a backup. It’s one of the big functions to a backup.
It’s Flexible
What I mean by that is there are plenty of options for how you can backup your computer or files. While I’d recommend getting an external hard drive to use as a backup, you can also consider cloud storage.
You’ve got Dropbox to an extent, but there are other companies around that can provide various ways to store your data and keep it protected. If you do that and have an external hard drive, this creates a second backup in the event that your hard drive fails or gets corrupted.
It’s Helpful For Tax Time And Audits
Whether you run a business or not, having a backup and storing tax files can be good as well. Remember that audits can happen at any time and often times they are concerned about records from three or four years ago.
With this in mind, keeping a copy of your tax records can be beneficial as it can help you save face in the event of an audit.
And to a lesser extent this can also save you on file space if you’re someone who keeps all of that data in files on your computer. Having them in your backup can create a fail safe in the event that data gets compromised.
Saves Time
Similar to exiting out of a document and not saving it, another reason to consider this more is that you’re saving time when you backup. When you experience data loss, your first objective is to fix the problems and get that data back.
The problem is depending on the type of data, how much time devoted to it will vary. Writing up a document that took you an hour is annoying. But that’s nothing compared to say losing a client database, or several years of financial records or hundreds of photos.
Improves Relations
In situations like client relationships, reassuring your clients that important documents are stored in a safe location outside of your computer can inspire confidence. It means in the event that if something does happen, the work you’ve done for them isn’t completely gone.
This can be extended in other business avenues. Say with investors. Having records of annual reports and ensuring they are backed up routinely can ensure that the reports get out on time and shareholders can make more informed decisions.
Archiving
From archiving sites to archiving data, by keeping it stored away, you’re leaving behind a paper trail. In a sense, you are making history by preserving files. That’s not to say historians from centuries later will consider these as historically significant, but they can be significant to family members who dig up old photos or documents.
Think of it as creating a time machine of sorts. There’s a level of nostalgia depending on what’s in there.
Boosted Productivity
On a similar note to saving time, you can also get a boost in productivity. Not only can you have peace of mind that your files are safe, but when you keep older files, you can also use that to determine new strategies.
For example, by looking at previous marketing campaigns and the data, you can use older data to determine what will be effective for your audience moving forward. This cuts back on decision making and discussion since there is concrete data of what works and what doesn’t.
Mental Sanity
One ongoing theme throughout this article is peace of mind and it’s yet another reason to have backups. We naturally try to avoid experiencing negative emotions. With this in mind, it makes sense to have routine backups for ourselves.
After all, we don’t want to be experience panic, or dread.
Saves Money
Data today is valued way more than it has been and it’s all stored in digital files. If we ever lose these files for whatever reason, not only does it cost us time to get those files back, but it also costs money too.
According to a survey on December 2017, 24% of respondents across the globe stated the average hourly downtime cost on their servers have cost them between $301,000 to 400,000 US. Results were shown in this graph.
The fact that this was only three years ago suggests that downtime would cost even more now than back then. With this in mind, you can save a lot of money if you’re backing up regularly.
Builds Reputation
Along a similar vein as boosting relations, you’d also be maintaining a lot of trust and reputation with others in the future. Remember these days that breaches are becoming more and more common.
What has been happening now though is that whenever companies experience breaches, they see a lot of people choosing other providers in those industries over them.
People are starting to move away from those who have had their systems compromised. Because up before the breach, they were under the impression that they could count on that company with whatever data they gave them.
Since that isn’t the case, there has been a breach of trust and so people look for other alternatives. So by keeping backups, we’re not preventing breaches, however we could at least use backups as means of storing that sensitive information and keeping it off in-house computers. Therefore in the event a company does get breached, files can still be locked away in a digital vault off-site so to speak.
Back Up Your Computer
Making a habit of backing up your computer makes sense. It’s not going to be blocking any sort of cyberattacks or anything, but at the very least they provide a quick recovery for you. Not only that but it can provide a wide variety of other perks like maintaining reputation, and keeping you mentally sane too.