Now hold on a minute, back up. We couldn’t let such an important event as World Backup Day go by without mentioning it. World Backup Day commences on 31st March this year which gives us an opportunity to remind both individuals and business owners about the importance of backing up their files. It is estimated that as much as 30 percent of computer users have never backed up their files. Ever. If a disaster struck that left their hard drives permanently disabled, how could they ever recover their files? They couldn’t, and as a result they would lose family photos, important documents and other files they will be hard pressed to replace. This is bad enough for an individual, but if you’re a business, you can’t afford to lose your customers’ data, or your own for that matter. It is absolutely necessary to perform regular system backups to protect yourself and others.
You never know when a disaster may strike. It could be a case of severe weather that floods equipment, or an electrical storm that causes damage to a network — even a flood could sink your data files. It’s hard to put a monetary value on all that lost data, but it would be quite expensive. To combat this, all of your system software and information should be backed up on a regular basis. Performing a cloud backup is well advised, and using a professional service such as AGT Computer Services can help safeguard your systems. USB hard drives and rotating hard drives may not offer enough protection by themselves. Even using a fireproof safe to protect a portable drive may not be enough to protect against damage entirely. Storing files in the cloud is added protection from any harmful event that may occur. A cloud backup can either involve a subscription backup service or an off-site FTP server with the backup performed over the Internet.
World Backup Day is a good time to start thinking about the future of data storage as well. Over the course of the next few years, data storage will be seeing a transition in format. 512-byte sector hard disk drives will be changing over to 4,096-byte sector drives. This may present an issue with users of Microsoft’s Small Business Server 2011. This sector, also known at 4K or 4KB, is more reliable and has an increased capacity, but this may cause issues with compatibility in current software applications and operating systems. If you use Windows operating systems it will be important to stay on top of this issue to ensure a smooth transition.
While World Backup Day may serve as a reminder of the importance of performing backups, but this should not be considered an annual event. Small businesses should be backing up their files continuously. If you operate a business in Blackpool, Preston or Lytham, contact AGT Computer Services to find out how we can help you protect your systems and data. Everyone who uses a computer should consider every day to be World Backup Day. We do.
