Backing up your data is second nature to most of us these days (and if it’s not, we have to ask why!).

Not only do you have to contend with dramatic weather-related disasters, but you’re also vulnerable to cyberattacks aimed at stealing, ransoming and reselling your data, data loss due to hardware failure, or even accidental data deletion by a staff member. All of which can render your team unable to work.

Can you imagine trying to serve customers when you can’t access their data, process transactions, or even pay staff? It’s a modern-day nightmare – and the damage to your reputation can be significant.

All of which is why we have backups. They help you restore your data as quickly as possible and minimise the financial and operational impact of an attack.

Should you be worried about your current backup strategy?

Yes, you should. Paranoia definitely has its place in a rigorous backup strategy, especially when industry reports indicate that backups are targeted in 93% of ransomware attacks.

According to Security Magazine, 63% of organisations successfully restore their data after a ransomware attack. But despite 92% of businesses reporting having backups, 31% actually fail to restore data from them during a ransomware attack. The good news is that when backup solutions work, businesses are nearly 3X less likely to pay a ransom.

That said, there are backups and backups.

What does bad data backup look like?

Before we get on to the good stuff, let’s quickly chat about what bad data backup looks like.

  • Your backups are infrequent and irregular (or frequent but not monitored!) – so you can potentially lose tens or hundreds of hours of data. Those sales transactions on your bumper weekend – gone. That huge proposal everyone worked on all weekend – gone.
  • Your data isn’t encrypted. So if it is stolen, access to it is all too easy.
  • No one owns the process. Sure, your IT person might be the one you expect to ensure backups are happening, but when they’re under the pump or away, what then? Who will monitor the process and restore data if it’s lost?
  • Your endpoints aren’t covered. There’s no data backup on your devices (think of all the data on your smartphones, tablets, and laptops)!
  • A cyberattack hits you, and you can’t access your data – the business is at an operational standstill. But when you try to restore your data from your backup system, it’s corrupted.
  • You only have one backup system – and one copy of your data. So there’s no insurance policy if that goes wrong. And trust us, at some stage it will.

So, what does good look like?

At Colton, we’re all in favour of managed backups (which is obviously why we offer it as a service).

Here’s why.

Consistent and regular off-site backups

On-site backup by itself just isn’t enough. Ransomware can target connected backups and encrypt your stored data, rendering it unreadable and unusable (to you, anyway). This means it’s critical to cover your back by having options.

With a managed service, your servers are backed up four times a day to an on-premises backup system, and you have a full off-site replication daily to a data centre. And if your internet connection isn’t up to it, everything is copied to an external hard drive, which is collected and delivered to the data centre, where it’s uploaded within 24 hours (rather than sitting overnight in someone’s car boot or home office!). And to double down on security, your backups at the data centre are also immutable.

Um, immutable what?

Immutable backups (which we offer through our backup partner, Arcserve) lock down your data using write-once, read-many (WORM) policies or object lock technology. This super smart approach makes your data 100% resistant to change. While your team can view it, no one can (deliberately or otherwise) overwrite or delete it.

There’s always help when you need it

Your IT person might sleep, take time off for holidays, and even have a life – cybercriminals don’t follow the same rules, though. When you use a managed service, you’ve got help 24/7/365. So if you have a middle-of-the-night cyberattack on New Year’s Eve and need to restore lost data (so everyone can work the next day), you’ll be back in action pronto – in some cases, within the hour.

You’re not playing “Risk” with backup success

A managed service monitors and reports on backup success. While DIY backups can be a bit or miss (and the consequences severe if there’s a muck-up), with a managed service, every backup is checked, and every issue remediated. You know that if you need to restore data, it will work.

Your data is encrypted

Having your data backed up isn’t enough. Whether your data is at rest (stored) or in transit (on the way to being stored!), it can be intercepted. Cybercriminals will encrypt your data and demand a ransom to unscramble it – but by encrypting your own data, you can beat them at their own game. So, if you are breached, your encrypted data backups are secure, and the potential financial and legal consequences are significantly reduced.

What else do you need to know?

Our managed backup services are used by SMBs across Central West NSW. They can feel confident that their data is safe and secure, and that a cyberattack or natural disaster will be a minor, short-lived setback rather than an unmitigated disaster.

How about your business? If you’d like to chat or book a backup health check, give us a call.