Your business is important, and so is the information it creates and retains. No matter the size of your business, there is always a great amount of data just sitting around. You need a way to store it safely so that you can have it ready for any situation and have it on backup just in case it becomes compromised. There are a variety of ways to safely store your data, but we’ll be going through the most common and effective ways.
Flash Memory Thumb Drives
These drives have always been a popular choice on the personal circuit since they are lightweight, can store a decent amount of data on a small frame, and are very safe and portable. They don’t have any moving parts you need to worry about and they consume very little power. The best USB’s have an encryption to them so that even if you lose it or it gets stolen, nothing on it is compromised. Your most important files are always on hand to limit the hassle of pulling up programs to view them and so on. This means of storage is the cheap, on the go solution for when you need to take data from one point to another, or you have a few valuable files you need to keep on your person.
External Hard Drives
A simple and inexpensive storage method, this is a portable method that can store quite a bit more than a USB. However, any files saved on it from a PC but not elsewhere need to be backed up just in case. With that said, always make sure you have a backup for when things go south. You can never be too careful.
Online Storage
There are services out there that provide remote storage and backup for files saved on them. This allows you to share data within your business faster, pull up information for clients and share with them quicker, and provides a means to back up your data without running the risk of an outside source stealing it directly from you. The only downside is that backing up files through this method is only as fast as your network speed. If you are trying to retrieve a particularly large file and it’s taking a long time, you may want to look into higher network speeds.
Network-attached Storage
NAS provides fast, reliable, and simple data access into an IP networking environment. It is essentially multiple hard drives connected to a single network-connected device. Files written into the first drive are copied onto the other drives automatically, ensuring that if one of the drives dies, you have numerous backups in place. This solution lets you offload files serving from other servers on your network, increasing performance. It is cost efficient and allows for easy scaling to meet storage requirements.
Disaster Recovery Plan
This is a plan to ensure that you have everything important backed up. This service can be created yourself or outsourced, but either way it ensures that in case of an emergency, everything is where it should be and safe from components outside your control, such as a fire, cyber-terrorism, etc.