|
DETAILS
Exposed Nation: Statistics on the Unprotected Masses
Backups? We
don't need no stinkin' backups!
According to a recent Maxtor/Harris Interactive
poll, almost 90% of US adults know they should back up
the data on their computers, but few do it frequently or
regularly.
In fact, the study showed that although computer hard
drives contain more data today than ever before, about
one-third of US adults don’t back up their data at all,
and around three quarters of those who do make a backup
copy don’t do it often enough. Listed below are some of
the interesting data from this survey, which polled
2,300 U.S. adults in late July of this year.
Frequency of backups:
-
42% said they did it once a year.
31% reported monthly backups,
12% weekly, and just...
15% reported performing daily backups.
These are interesting numbers, as 44% of those surveyed
said that they had lost data in the past due to a
computer virus, hardware or software malfunction or
other event.
Data that respondents feared losing the most:
-
27% said financial data and business records 24%
reported personal photos and videos;
-
17% said contact information such as addresses and
phone numbers;
-
16% said personal written documents and emails.
Surprisingly, only...
-
4% of those surveyed listed downloaded music and/or
video files as high-value data.
Top reasons cited for not backing up data:
-
44% cited lack of technical knowledge about the
process.
-
21% of those surveyed felt that backing up wasn't
important.
-
20% said it took too much time.
-
11% said that they didn't know they had to do it,
which means that at the very least awareness of
backing up data is high.
|
|
|
Remote Backups work
basically like regular tape backups, with one important difference. Instead of
sending backups to a tape drive or other media attached to the computer it is
backing up, a Remote Backup sends it over regular telephone lines or via your
cable internet connection to another
computer safely off-site. It does this (usually) at night while the business is
closed and nobody is using the computers. It's completely automatic. In fact,
you may even forget it's working every night.
Most small
businesses put their lives on the line every night and don't realize it. With
businesses depending more and more on the data stored in their computers, proper
backups are becoming much more critical. Remote Backups accomplish several
essential steps that are often overlooked or done improperly by other backup
software, especially in the regular non-automated backup systems.
Backups are done
on schedule, every night. Most businesses don't do this. For one reason
or another, they don't keep a regular backup regimen. Usually it's because the
person responsible for doing backups (if there is one) is too busy doing
something else, or someone is using the computer when it's time for a backup, or
they simply forget. Since Remote Backups are done with automated software at
night, when nobody is using the computer, backups are always done on schedule.
WHO IS DOING YOUR BACKUPS? Where are your backup tapes being stored?
Has anyone ever tried a restore to make sure the data on the tapes is good?
-
The correct files
are backed up.
Ordinary backup software is often installed with a list of files to be
backed up. This set of files usually represents the state of the system when
the software was installed, and often misses critical files. Further, it
often fails to back up files that are added later. Compounding this problem,
VERY few businesses take the trouble to reset their backup software
regularly to include new files. Our Remote Backup service solves this
problem with a sophisticated system that constantly reevaluates each
client's system, adding files to the backup as needed.
IF YOU HAD TO
RE-INSTALL YOUR SOFTWARE, COULD YOU IMMEDIATELY FIND IT? WHERE IS YOUR
COMPANIES SOFTWARE BEING STORED? IT SHOULD BE STORED OFF-SITE!
-
Redundant copies of
files are stored using a sophisticated version control system unavailable in
any other backup software of any kind. This is much too important to
overlook. The general definition of "proper" backups requires
redundancy. That is, one must keep multiple copies of the same files
at different points in their development, called versions. As an
example, you should have a different copy of each backed-up file for each
day of the week, one for each week in the month, and one for each month in
the year. Further, you should be able to easily restore any of your files up
to any given point in time. Banks do it, big corporations do it, and so
should small businesses. Only our Remote Backup service has such an easy to
use version control system.
DO YOU HAVE
VIRUS PROTECTION SOFTWARE INSTALLED ON ALL OF YOUR COMPUTERS? Is the virus
software up to date? Do you schedule regular scans of all computers?
What is your companies policy about employees loading programs from diskettes?
-
Backups are
encrypted for complete security. Would you want someone to be able
to slip one of your backup tapes into a pocket and take it to your
competitor? It happens all the time. Tape backups are not generally
encrypted, so anyone can read them and gain access to your client database,
billing records, payroll, tax info, and everything else on your computer.
Our Remote Backup system encrypts its backups for complete security so
nobody, not even the RBS Service Provider, can read them except the client
himself.
ARE YOUR
COMPUTERS PROTECTED FROM LIGHTNING OR BAD POWER SURGES? You need a UPS
(uninterrupted power supply), also known as a battery backup, on EVERY computer!
-
Finally and most
importantly - Backups are immediately sent off-site and stored safely away
from the computer and the business. This is where almost every
business makes its biggest mistake. Even if you do everything else
perfectly, your backups are of little use if your building burns, or you are
unable to physically recover your tapes from the premises. Most small
companies who do backups leave the tapes in the building with the computer,
where they can be destroyed right along with the computer. Of course, you
can see that this would be a problem in a fire, hurricane, flood, tornado or earthquake. But there
are other problems.
ARE YOUR
COMPUTERS COVERED WITH YOUR BUSINESS INSURANCE? ARE YOU SURE? It's
too late AFTER a disaster occurs!
FACTS
Magnetic tape is UNRELIABLE! It can stretch
and break. If one BIT of data is lost on a tape, the entire tape is
rendered USELESS!
We archive ALL of our data to
DVD-R's. It takes more work to do this, but it is NOT mechanical and it is
NOT magnetic.
HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU??
You sit down at your
computer to work, and suddenly discover a file or document you need is either
missing or is bad and cannot be opened?
What are your 1st
thoughts? "Where did my data go, how do I get it back? What caused the
data loss?" "WHO DID THIS TO ME?"
You are confused,
scared and panic sets in! Loss of your data is so personal, and so scary!
THIS CONFUSION IS NOT SURPRISING!
Very little
information has been made public about data loss, and the information that does
exist is inconsistent. Due to the mixed messages they receive, users find it
difficult to properly evaluate their data loss situations and make educated
decisions to recover from them.
Disaster strikes in
many forms. Businesses that depend
heavily on computer data are especially vulnerable.
A recent study discloses it takes 19 days and cost in excess $20,000
to re-enter just 20 megabytes worth of sales and marketing data.
Retrieving accounting records is even worse; they require over 21 days
of work and cost over $23,000 to re-type. This information is 5+ years
old now, and the cost to manually recover your lost data has more than DOUBLED
in this time period.
Thousands of
businesses lose
millions
of dollars worth of data to disasters like fires, power outages, theft,
equipment failure, and even a simple operator mistake.
Studies show that nearly half the companies that lose their data in a
disaster never reopen. 90% percent
of these data losses occur because of power failures, leaks, loose cables, user
mistakes, and other hardware, software, and human errors.
With hard drive
prices going down, the threat escalates as companies purchase these huge drive
and maintain more data on them.
Backing up your data becomes more important than ever before, but very few
companies do it right and far more do not back-up at all.
Most business owners
would be appalled if they knew the risk they are taking by failing to properly
backup their data. It is more
important than ever to protect the data your business depends on with a solid
backup strategy.
WHAT IS REMOTE BACKUP?
Remote Backup
work basically like regular tape backups, with one important difference. Instead
of sending backups to a tape drive or other media attached to the computer it is
backing up, a Remote Backup sends it over regular telephone lines to another
computer safely off-site. It does this (usually) at night while the business is
closed and nobody is using the computers. It's completely automatic.
WHY BACKUP?
Most small businesses put
their lives on the line every night and don't realize it. With businesses
depending more and more on the data stored in their computers, proper backups
are becoming much more critical. Remote Backups accomplish several essential
steps that are often overlooked or done improperly by other backup software -
especially in the regular non-automated backup systems.
HOW OFTEN IS THE BACKUP DONE?
Backups are done on schedule, every night.
Most businesses don't do this. For one reason or another, they don't keep a
regular backup regimen. Usually it's because the person responsible for doing
backups (if there is one) is too busy doing something else, or someone is using
the computer when it's time for a backup, or they simply forget. Who does the
backups when the regular person is sick or on vacation? And, WHERE are the
tapes stored? In a desk drawer or a file cabinet in the same office with
the computer? When the building burns down, or a thief breaks in and
steals the computer, or a flood destroys, your backups are ALSO destroyed!
Has anyone ever TESTED the backup tapes to see if the data is ACTUALLY ON THE
TAPE? Ever try a restore to make SURE?? Since Remote Backups are
done with automated software at night, when nobody is using the computer,
backups are always done on schedule.
WHAT DATA IS BACKED UP?
Your companies DATA files are backed up. Word,
Excel, Accounting, accounts receivable, accounts payable, contact database, and
much more are the files we make SURE get backed up. We CUSTOM install the
software, in person and with YOUR help, we make sure ALL your DATA files are
marked for backups. We set you up for an initial FULL backup, then a daily
incremental backup. Once a WEEK we setup the remote backup software to do
another FULL backup. This way, your companies computer is ALWAYS backed
up, with the data sent OFF SITE!
SEEMS LIKE A LOT OF REDUNDANCY, WHY?
The general definition of "proper"
backups requires redundancy. That is, one must keep
multiple copies of the same files at different points in their development,
called versions. As an example, you should have a different copy
of each backed-up file for each day of the week, one for each week in the month,
and one for each month in the year. Further, you should be able to easily
restore any of your files up to any given point in time. This is much too
important to overlook. Banks do it, big corporations do it, and so should
small businesses. Only Remote Backup has such an easy to use version control
system.
WHAT ABOUT SECURITY?
Backups are encrypted for
complete security.
Would you want someone to be able to slip one of your backup tapes into a pocket
and take it to your competitor? It happens all the time. Tape backups are not
generally encrypted, so anyone can read them and gain access to your client
database, billing records, payroll, tax info, and everything else on your
computer. Remote Backup encrypts its backups for complete security
so nobody, not even we, can read them.
WHY OFF-SITE BACKUPS?
This is where
almost every business makes its biggest mistake. Even if you do everything else
perfectly, your backups are of little use if your building burns, or you are
unable to physically recover your tapes from the premises. Most small companies
who do backups leave the tapes in the building with the computer, where they can
be destroyed right along with the computer. Of course, you can see that this
would be a problem in a fire, hurricane, flood, tornado or an earthquake. But there are other problems.
STATISTICS
Computer
hardware failure is the leading cause of your data being lost, followed by human
error, computer viruses, software corruption and finally natural disasters.
Let's look at each of these in more detail:
HARDWARE MALFUNCTION
-
More data is
being stored in smaller spaces. Today's hard drives store 500 times the data
stored on the drives of a decade ago. Increasing storage capacities amplify
the impact of data loss, making mechanical precision more critical.
-
Data has become
more mission-critical. Hospital patient records, a graduate school thesis,
personal finance and tax information, payroll records, sales leads, accounts
receivable and payable, sales leads...and the list goes on and on!
Users today are storing more information electronically than ever. The loss
of mission critical data can have staggering financial, legal and
productivity ramifications on businesses!
-
Backup tools and
techniques are not 100% reliable. Most computer users rely on backups as
their safety net in the event of data loss (a recommended practice). More
than 85 percent of data loss customers regularly back up their data, only to
find them less than adequate at the critical moment they need to restore
them. Backups assume that hardware and storage media are in working order;
that the data is not corrupted, and that your backup is recent enough to
provide full recovery. In reality, hardware and software do fail and backups
don't always contain current enough data.
HUMAN ERROR
- Spilled, dripped or
knocked over a cup coffee or pop
- Cigarette smoke
- Accidentally deleted a file
COMPUTER VIRUS OR HACKER ATTACK
- Do you have virus
protection software on ALL of your computers?
- Is it set to
AUTOMATICALLY protect your software?
- Is it set to monitor
incoming email?
- When was the last time
it was updated?
- Are your computers
scheduled to scan once a week for viruses?
- Are your computers
on-line with a cable modem or telephone company DSL modem?
- If so, are your computers
protected from HACKERS?
SOFTWARE CORRUPTION
NATURAL DISASTERS
- Fires DESTROY!
- Thieves STEAL!
- Water FLOODS!
- Hurricanes, Tornadoes,
Earthquakes HAPPEN!
- Winter blizzards cause
roof failures
- Power GLITCHES!
- TERRORISTS STRIKE!
How well are you protected from
these potential DISASTERS? Some of them are beyond your or my control.
But with your DATA safely stored OFF SITE you can feel a little more
comfortable, and maybe sleep a little better at night.
We have been providing Remote
Backup Service since 1992! We backup the data YOU send to our servers
EVERY morning! The backup CD's are taken DAILY to our local bank safe
deposit box for storage.
WHAT
DOES IT COST?
The cost is a more affordable than you
think!
Cost/Benefit Analysis of RBS vs.
In-House Backup for Small and Medium Businesses
The key challenge surrounding data backup activity at SMBs is
that if there are existing backup processes in place,
they usually don’t get done regularly and/or are
performed in a way that does not fully protect the
organization. Proper backups are done automatically, at
non-peak business hours, are securely encrypted, are
available for restore at any time, and are taken offsite
every night.
The time and processes spent verifying that in-house
backups were successful and are restorable (your
customers DO verify their backups, right?) is also a
critical component in any backup plan. The worst time to
discover that your backups are not current, are
incomplete, or are corrupted, is when you really need
them.
Costs for proper in-house SMB data backup include:
| Employee time - backing
up: |
(daily) ½ - 1 hour |
| Backup Media: |
$2 - $200, depending on
format |
| Hardware: |
$200 to $8000 depending
on format |
| Employee time - verifying
backups: |
(weekly) 1 hour |
| Employee time swapping
media: |
(daily) .25 hours+ |
Assuming that the employee responsible for the
backups is on a salary of at least $30,000 per year, and
using the minimum times outlined above, the cost of
properly backing up an SMBs data is about $71.25 per
week, $285 per month, and $3420 per year not including
hardware.
Compare this to RBS service, operating automatically
at non-peak hours, and without imposing on your existing
staff or adding hardware or media resources of any type.
Typical charges for a basic RBS service might be $50-$75
per month, resulting in a minimum cost savings of
between $2520 and $2820 per year.
If an SMB is currently doing its own backups in
accordance with the guidelines outlined above (and most
aren’t), they are already spending over three times the
cost of an automated, encrypted, and offsite RBS
service.
|
|
|
Our
Remote Backup Service cost ONLY $19.99 per month! Please contact us so we can begin
protecting your businesses MOST important assets, your DATA!
|
