What This Article Will Cover:
- What a Data Backup is and How It Works
- Reasons Why Your Business Needs to Backup Data
- Protecting Valuable Business Data With Acronis Cyber Backup
Introduction
In fact, if you review Cisco’s 2017 Annual Cybersecurity Report, you will see that the numbers related to ransomware and other attacks are quite alarming. In the report, we also learn that businesses have a lot more to lose than just data or money during an attack (and also why a corporate data backup strategy is so important.) Consider for a moment these sobering facts:
A Few Facts about Cyber Attacks and Data Loss
- More than half of all businesses that are victims of a cyber-attack or data breach are subsequently subject to public scrutiny and suffer losses in brand reputation, customer loyalty, and customer trust.
- 29 percent of businesses that are victims of attacks lose revenue, and nearly 40 percent of those businesses lose more than 20 percent of total revenues.
- Among companies that suffer attacks or breaches, nearly a quarter of them lose significant business opportunities following the data-loss event.
- More than 20 percent of businesses that experience data loss or suffer a cyber-attack lose customers as well. And, 40 percent of those companies lose more than 20% of their customers.
As you can see, the results of data loss due to cyber-attacks can be devastating for a business. However, as we will soon cover, cyber-attacks and ransomware are not the only threats to your business data. So, in this article, we will discuss the various threats to your business data and how an effective data disaster recovery plan can help protect against them.
Risks to Business Data Are Everywhere
Reports of malicious software and hackers are everywhere these days. And, while these types of threats do pose significant risks for businesses, they are also certainly not the only ones out there. So, with that in mind, we will cover some of the things that threaten your business data and put it at risk on a daily basis.
Hackers, Viruses, and Ransomware
As noted above, cyber-attacks are wreaking havoc for businesses everywhere. And, while hackers and ransomware outbreaks are certainly causing damage and making headlines, old-school malware, spyware, and old-fashioned viruses continue to be among the leading reasons for system breaches and data loss. With these types of threats, it is not a matter of when your business will become a victim; it’s just a question of when. Anti-malware and anti-virus software can help. Still, even with updated security software, most businesses remain exposed to the threat of data loss due to hackers, malware, and ransomware.
Physical Disasters
With all the reports of cyber-attacks, hackers, and malware in the news these days, it is easy to overlook some of the more conventional physical threats your data faces every day. A fire, flood, or another type of natural disaster can wipe out all the data in your location and make recovery virtually impossible. And, if you don’t have multiple backups available, the simple theft of a hard drive or storage device could easily result in significant data loss. If that’s not enough, you should never take for granted the very real possibility of hard drive failures and other another types of hardware mishaps.
Protecting Business Data: Backup Basics
Simply put, a data backup is just a copy of files from your computer or device. And, as illustrated with the numerous threats described above, keeping a backup of your important business files and data is essential for several important reasons.
Virtually all computer and technology experts will tell you that any backup is better than none at all. Nevertheless, not all backup devices and technologies are the same; nor do they all offer the same levels of protection. Consequently, for optimal protection, it is best to safeguard your data using what we here at Acronis call the 3-2-1 rule. Put simply, the 3-2-1 rule states that you should:
- Keep at least three (3) copies of your data (so no single event will destroy all copies);
- Store the data in at least two (2) different formats (i.e. disk, tape, cloud, etc.);
- Keep one (1) copy offsite to protect against fire, flood, theft, and other physical disasters.
To give you an idea of available options that can help you implement the 3-2-1 rule, let’s take a look at some of the most common methods businesses use to back up data.
Local and Network Backups
One of the easiest ways to create backups of business data is to simply store copies of important files on hard drives, tape drives or other storage devices connected to your systems or network. Copying files to hard drives, USB flash drives, external drives, or other devices attached to individual systems or devices connected via a local or wide area network is an effective way of ensuring backups are available locally when you need them. With any good data recovery plan, keeping local copies of backups is essential. However, due to risks associated with physical disasters, ransomware, theft, and other threats, keeping local backups should never be the only facet of your strategy. In addition to keeping up-to-date local backups of your files and data, you should always store at least one copy offsite as is required with the 3-2-1 rule (i.e. an offsite backup server or in the cloud.)
Cloud Backups
These days, it seems that wherever you turn, there is talk or news about businesses migrating to the cloud (or running software and systems remotely via the Internet.) And, backup solutions are no exception. In short, cloud backups are secure offsite copies of data that are stored on remote servers and accessed via an Internet connection. Cloud backups are an excellent option for providing additional redundancy and security for businesses that want to ensure their important data is available if and when onsite or physical data disasters strike.
Cloud Backups and Online File Storage Are Not the Same
Many businesses use Dropbox, Google Drive, and other online storage websites to store backup copies of important files. And, while these types of services are okay for storing and sharing a few files, limitations with online storage sites (i.e. limited file versioning, lack of automated backups, limited backup folders, etc.) prevent them from being true cloud backups. A true cloud backup service enables you to create automated backups of complete systems and store as many versions of backups as you need.)
Acronis Cyber Backup – The Trusted Backup Solution for Business
As we covered above, there are many ways for your business to create backups of important data, and you should use multiple methods to ensure your files are always available when needed. Therefore, your business needs a backup solution that provides maximum ease of use and compatibility across all the mediums and platforms that you need and use. Acronis Cyber Backup is that solution.
Trusted by more than half a million businesses worldwide, Acronis Cyber Backup enables your team to create complete backups with as few as three mouse clicks. With our award-winning backup software, you can choose to backup entire systems, or limit backups to mission critical data and files.
Get Up and Running Fast: World’s Fastest Data Recovery
When disaster strikes, every minute your team is without data could be costing your business resources, money – and customers! So, when you need to restore data from a backup, a quick data recovery is essential to getting up and running again as quickly as possible. With Acronis Instant Restore, backup recoveries that used to take hours (or even days) now take only seconds. Lightning fast backup and recovery is just the beginning, though.
Acronis Premium Backup and Data Security Features for Business
Acronis Cyber Backup is the premier backup and data protection solution for business. And, more than 500,000 companies all over the world agree. Why is Acronis Cyber Backup the backup solution of choice for so many businesses? Well, the answer simple. Our software provides businesses with protection and features that just can’t be found anywhere else. Here are just a few of the benefits that Acronis Cyber Backup delivers:
- Extensive Compatibility – Acronis Cyber Backup works will all major operating systems. Not only is Acronis Cyber Backup compatible with Windows and Mac, but the software provides top-notch Linux server data protection as well.
- Complete Disk-Imaging Backups – Our software enables you to protect your entire business with complete and reliable backup images of entire systems – not just select files or folders.
- Virtual Server Protection – Virtual machines and servers are the future of business operations and software. And, with Acronis Cyber Backup, you can perform a VM backup as easily as you can with a physical machine. Acronis Cyber Backup supports the six leading hypervisor platforms and migrations between virtual and physical environments (i.e. P2V, V2V, V2P, P2P.)
- Bare-Metal Recovery – Acronis Cyber Backup helps your business reduce RTOs considerably with bare-metal recoveries. Our exclusive bare-metal recovery technologies let you restore systems to dissimilar hardware, automate recoveries with scripting, and even restore servers remotely via wide-area networks (WAN.)
- Flexible Storage Options – With Acronis Cyber Backup, you can reduce RTOs by being able to back up to virtually any local or network based storage device – without the need to deploy expensive backup or media servers. Our software not only supports backups to hard drives and external drives but also lets you back up to a tape drive, autoloaders, tape libraries, NAS, SAN and the secure Acronis Cloud. No other backup software supports as many storage options.
- Intuitive, Scalable Management – With powerful administrative tools like centralized Web management, role-based admin access, customizable dashboards, and advanced reporting features, Acronis Cyber Backup provides your business with all the tools it needs to streamline all your data backup, management, and protection efforts.
- Innovative Data Protection – A good backup strategy is central to protecting business data. However, it’s not the only part. With Acronis Cyber Backup, you get world-class backup features, of course; but, you also get complete data protection with advanced features such as active ransomware protection, strong military-grade encryption, and advanced compliance and authentication tools.
As you can see from the list above, Acronis Cyber Backup offers our customers power and features that the competition just can’t match. If you want to find out for yourself why Acronis Cyber Backup is the best data protection solution for business, please contact us.
Source: Acronis
