With 47% of business data being stored in the cloud, the number of businesses who trust that their valuable data is in safe hands is high. However just like anything else that can be accessed online by a username and password, the risk of data loss is real. Whether through employee error or a cyber-attack, without a back up strategy, once your data is gone, that’s it. Would you be able to continue in business?
Read on to find out Why You Need To Back Up Office 365 (and other cloud data).
Data loss? That will never happen to me!
You may recognise that line because those are the famous last words of most business owners who fall victim to a data loss that wipes out their business.
Office 365 is a great tool for businesses, which is why you need to back up the data on it. Microsoft does not back up your data, so if anything goes wrong, you’re pretty much on your own.
As reported by the IT Compliance Policy Group, an industry research firm, 32% of businesses are impacted by data loss in the cloud. 47% of this data was deleted by users – people just like you and your employees.
You could argue that it is highly unlikely that major cloud service providers such as Microsoft, or Amazon, will suffer a data loss, but what about your line of business cloud provider? How robust is their platform? What security measures do they have in place to protect YOU? This is something you have ZERO control over. You could take your cloud provider to court but that would cost even more time and money and you probably won’t get your data back.
How much will it cost you when you lose your data?
Besides the inconvenience, there’s a reason why data loss is something you want to avoid in your business – it comes with a potentially business breaking price tag. A study carried out by the British Chambers of Commerce found that 93 percent of businesses that suffer data loss for more than 10 days file for bankruptcy within one year.
The average cost that UK businesses pay for lost data is £71 per single record.
Now that you have seen the devastating numbers, you will agree that the best approach to data loss is to not lose any– by BACKING UP ALL DATA.
Prevention is better (and cheaper) than the cure
As with all IT related issues, if you need to scramble to find a solution, the chances are a lot of damage has already been done.
The key to a successful and painless recovery after data loss is having a robust back-up plan and incident recovery process in place. This is something you should consult with your IT provider on what is best for your business. The cost to restore a single email can be more than the cost of a business-wide backup solution for a year!
The Solution: Cloud-to-Cloud Backup
At m3 Networks, we understand that when it all goes wrong, you need confidence that not only is your data safe, but that it can be fully recovered quickly, because downtime costs you money.
The answer to protecting data in the cloud, such as Office 365 emails and SharePoint data, is a cloud-to-cloud backup solution. This ensures you have a backup of your data out-with the ‘live’ environment, meaning that you have the ability to recover even in the event of Microsoft suffering an outage, or data loss.
We always recommend businesses take a layered approach to backup, ensuring that even in the worst possible situation, you are able to recover your data. We provide cloud-to-cloud back-up solutions for Office 365 and SharePoint data. Contact us for a quote.
To get expert advice on cloud back up for your business, book in your FREE 30 minute consultation with our MD Mark Riddell.
