Small businesses rarely lose data because they never thought about backups. They lose it because the backup was manual, stored next to the original, or never tested.
Step 1: list what you cannot lose
- Accounting and invoicing data.
- Customer and supplier records.
- Contracts, designs and project files.
- Email.
- Your website and its database.
Step 2: decide where each thing lives
Data scattered across laptops is the hardest to protect. Move shared work files to a central place, a shared drive or file server, so they can be backed up in one go.
Step 3: follow 3-2-1
Keep three copies of important data, on two different types of storage, with one copy off-site. Our article on the 3-2-1 rule explains why modern threats add an offline or immutable copy.
Step 4: automate
A backup that depends on someone remembering will stop within weeks. Schedule backups to run daily, and get an email when one fails.
Step 5: protect backups from ransomware
Ransomware looks for backups to encrypt or delete. Keep at least one copy that cannot be changed from your office network, with separate credentials.
Step 6: test restores
Every few months, restore a few files and, once a year, a whole system. That is the only way to know the backup works, and how long recovery takes.
Where IDX fits
- Website and email: IDX hosting includes backups, and our team can help restore.
- Off-site storage: affordable backup storage boxes accessible over FTP, SFTP, SMB or WebDAV, ideal as the off-site copy for office servers and NAS devices.
- Managed backup: our managed services team can design, run and monitor backups for your servers.
Talk to us about what you need to protect.
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