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Failed Backups in SMBs Leading to Loss of Revenue
As well as financial records, employee emails and social security
numbers
According to a recent survey, SMB businesses are losing
critical business information as a result of failed backups, and have suffered
significant impacts as a result.
Many IT administrators surveyed revealed that a failed
backup has led to a loss of revenue and important company documents, including
financial records, employee emails and confidential information such as social
security numbers. As a result, respondents indicated that failed backups have
affected customer relations, business operations and brand reputation.
The independent, blind survey of 200 IT
administrators who work at U.S. organizations with fewer than 150 employees was
conducted by Opinion Matters. The survey results highlight the backup behaviors
of IT administrators, including methods of managing data backup, the frequency
and speed of data backup and the impacts of a failed backup.
Managing Backup
One way to prevent data loss is to
backup critical business files on a daily basis. However,
more than half (53%) of the organizations surveyed revealed
they do not conduct daily backups. IT
administrators indicated the biggest reason for not backing up data every day is
that it's not an efficient use of their time, according to nearly one-third
(32%) of respondents. Nearly one-quarter (23%) of IT admins said backing up data
that frequently is "not necessary" or that there's "not much data" to backup. In
direct contrast, 10% of IT admins said the biggest reason they do not conduct a
daily backup is because they have too much data. Other respondents suggested
they do not conduct backups every day because they lack the resources, efficient
technology or sufficient storage space. Some respondents - including 75% of
those who work at organizations with 50-99 employees - said
daily backups are disruptive to workplace productivity.
The Need for Speed
When asked how their current backup
processes could be improved, the number one factor cited was speed, with half of
respondents indicating they wish their
current backup processes were faster or more efficient.
Other factors included cost (14%), security (6%) and reliability (5%), while an
additional 6% said they wish their organization's data backup processes were
managed by a third-party.
Data Loss
In order to protect critical
information, companies need to regularly test their backup solutions to ensure
they work properly. However, nearly
one-third (32%) of IT administrators surveyed revealed their organizations do
not conduct such tests. The healthcare
industry is among the most lax, with two-thirds of respondents revealing they do
not test their backup solutions for effectiveness. Perhaps not coincidentally,
two-thirds of respondents in the healthcare industry revealed their organization
has experienced a data loss. Other industries in which a high percentage of
companies do not test the effectiveness of their backup solutions include:
sales, media and marketing (63%) and architecture, engineering and building
(56%).
Data Recovery
Successful backup is critical. But equally, if not more
important, is the ability to recover that data when needed. While only 6% of
respondents rely on daily data recovery, one in five respondents indicated they
need to recover their data on at least a weekly basis. Additionally,
nearly three-quarters (74%) of IT admins said they
recover their data at least once every six months.
Those respondents who indicated they
were not able to recover data due to a failed backup cited loss of revenue and
critical business documents as the biggest impacts on their business.
Other IT
admins said their organizations suffered the following consequences:
- The loss of data "caused weeks of problems with clients."
- "We lost records pertinent to our organization that
were unable to be duplicated and had to be reinvented."
- The impact of the data loss was "...huge, in terms of
meeting deadlines and productivity."
A company's data is essential to its day-to-day operations
and, ultimately, to the success of the business. As
such, organizations need to be able to rely upon secure backup solutions that
are cost-effective and efficient. Speed is the number one factor IT
administrators said they wish they could improve about their current backup
process. It doesn't matter whether an organization is backing up its data
on-premise, virtually or to the cloud. Backing up critical systems and
applications on a large number of machines within an organization on a daily
basis needs to be a fast process that does not impede workplace productivity or
impact operational efficiency.
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