Data Backups

Data comes in many forms including documents, slideshows, images, music, personal information, databases, accounting information, etc. It is important to make sure your data is backed up - whether it is personal or business.

Utilizing a cloud service as a backup is a common solution for most people for their personal data. This solution works most of the time. Depending on the cloud service, there may not be a backup of the data stored in the cloud, so if something happens to it, it may be gone forever. If you store your data in the cloud, you should contact the service to see if there is a backup solution in place for your data.

There are backup programs that can be utilized to copy your data files to an external hard drive. You can also transfer your data files directly to an external hard drive without the use of a program. If relying on an external hard drive, consider having a secondary external hard drive to store the same data. Redundancy can be achieved if you store the same data on a secondary external hard drive - if something happens to the first drive, you can rely on the second drive.

How often should you back up your data? Well that depends on how much data you can afford to lose. If you have mission-critical data files that are updated frequently, you may need to back up daily, whereas if you rarely add/edit your data files, then you can afford to perform backups less frequently.

Cobra IT can set up a backup system for you. Contact us for more information and pricing.