Data Protection for Your Business:
Key factors in assuring uninterrupted operation and the safety of your vital information

by David M. Fitzpatrick

(This article originally appeared in The Bangor Business Journal, Vol. 1, No. 3, March/April 2003)

You’ve heard it more times than you can count: Back up your data. You’ve probably answered any one of the following generic responses, or something along these lines: “I really have to do that”; “Someone else takes care of that”; “I have a fantastic backup system”; or “I really don’t know anything about computers.” They’re easy answers, but the truth is that you’re probably avoiding the issue—and exposing your business to a potential tsunami of data devastation.

Regardless of the size of your business, you almost certainly have computerized many—if not all—aspects of your operation. Consider the following: checkbooks; inventory; accounts payables/receivables; payroll; tax data, customer contacts; relevant customer data. Sound familiar?

In a world of ever-increasing reliance on computers in every aspect of our lives, coupled with ever-increasing E&O insurance rates for many professionals, none of this should be taken lightly. “That won’t happen to me” is nothing more than a prelude to disaster, because it happens to people every day. I know; on a regular basis, I clean up after frantic business owners lamenting the familiar cry of, “I wish!” Or, very often, the familiar cry of, “I should have listened to you, Dave!”

Point Number One: Listen to me. Listen very closely.

The Causes of Data Loss
Power outages and spikes, malfunctioning computer equipment, vengeful employees, structure fires, and just plain bad luck are some of the more common reasons for data loss, but they aren’t important. To put it succinctly, while there are many catalysts that contribute to data loss, there is only one that matters: lack of preparedness. If you prepare for every contingency by way of backing up your data and taking it off-site, you’re 99.9% of the way there.

Structure a Regimen
I strongly recommend my clients back up vital data locally every night and off-site at least weekly. (I am rarely heeded, until after a catastrophic event forces weeks—or even months—of data rebuilding.) Consider this: if you at least back up all your data once a week, if the place burns down, at most you have a week’s worth of data to recreate.

You generally don’t have to back up the entire contents of each and every computer. While it is often convenient to restore a damaged computer from a backup and not have to spend time reinstalling your OS and programs, backing up that much data regularly is immensely time consuming and, in the long run, not likely worth the time. Worst-case scenario, OSes and programs can be reinstalled; it’s protecting your data that matters.

Backup Methods
There aren’t many computers sold today without CD-ROM burners in them, and as long as you have just one on your network, you can back up data off all the network consoles to that burner. And, if you’re running multiple computers—even just two—and you’re thinking, “But I don’t have a network,” set one up. Right away. (That’s a topic for next month’s column.)

Possibly you use other popular forms of external backup, such as the popular Zip, Jaz, or LS-120 drives. Tape backups were once the de facto standard, and still function quite well (however, for speed and low cost, consider a CD burner). If you truly have to back up a lot of data, think strongly about investing in a DVD burner. Per megabyte, the cost is nearly equal to blank CDs, and the capacity and speed are generally far greater. For backing up large amounts of data (more than 700 MB), blank DVDs are the answer—no switching CDs and spanning your backups across multiple discs.

Getting Your Data Together
If you use Windows, Microsoft has set up an easy, convenient way to back up most of your data without having to hunt around your hard drive. This is known as the “My Documents” folder (or the “Documents and Settings” folder on Win2000 and WinXP systems). Make it a habit of storing everything pertinent in this folder. Some programs insist on storing data in other places, but you can always force virtually any program to default to the My Documents folder very easily.

Even if you prefer your data in their default locations, it only takes a minute with a CD burning program to browse your computer and add in the appropriate files and folders. You can even save CD projects to be automatically updated later.

Networks
There are different strategies for networks. If you’re running a client-server network—that is, you have a central server computer running something like Windows NT or 2000 Server—it would do well for you to ensure that all computers on your network use data storage on your network server. This ensures that all the data is in one place, and you won’t have to hunt across your network to find it. For such client-server networks dealing in huge amounts of data, setting up a second server—a file server—to handle the data is wise.

Most small- to medium-sized businesses, and a great deal of larger ones, are running peer-to-peer networks. While not as secure and robust as client-server networks, they are cheaper to set up, don’t require dedicated servers, and are ideal for networks with only a few computers. In this case, you’re likely going to store data on all the individual computers. The trick here is to ensure that all the computers on your network are on when it’s time to back up. From there, it’s just a matter of browsing the computers on your network and including files and folders as part of your backup set (again, automatic updates can work here, too).

How I Do It on Networks
There is software available to handle this, but it’s not necessary. I generally set each computer on the network up to store data in the My Documents folder. I then create something called a batch file that can be run from one computer; the batch file “grabs” the data from all pre-set folders on the network and backs all the data up to that particular computer, in a “master” folder. Done every night before shutting down and going home, this gives a daily backup of all data on all machines; if one machine gives up the ghost tomorrow, you fix it or replace it and restore the data.

Once a week, the client needs only to burn the contents of the “master” folder to a CD, and the weekly backup is complete.

THE MOST CRUCIAL STEP!
Once your backup is complete, don’t toss it in the filing cabinet or the desk drawer. Take it out of the office! Backing up every day won’t help you one iota if you leave the backup CD there and the building burns down overnight. This is known as the “Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket Cuz You Might Fall Down” axiom.

Preventive Medicine
You should certainly try to avoid needing to restore from any backup. There are a million things you can do, the most important being ongoing computer maintenance. Get a computer consultant you trust and like, and have him come in once a month or so to give your network a quick run-down. Be sure to get someone who knows his stuff; for instance, despite the commercial popularity, someone who is “A+ Certified” and charging $75 per hour is probably not your best choice. I haven’t met an A+ “tech” yet who had any real-life experience to apply to this field, and $75 per hour is just ridiculous no matter who you are.

Do preventive maintenance on your own, too. Have your employees run ScanDisk and Defrag on their hard drives once a week. Better yet, invest in a well-known software package by Symantec, Norton SystemWorks. It’s only $70 (less than an hour with an A+ tech, and far more valuable!) and includes the core Norton Utilities and Norton Antivirus programs, as well as other things. Any one of these programs usually runs $40 or $50 alone! It is by far absolutely vital; if you buy no other software for your computer, buy this one.

Finally, protect your computers from electricity. Surge protectors are not enough. For a few dollars more, get surge protectors with added features like phone line, DSL, and cable modem protection. Protecting the power lines isn’t likely to help if you have an unprotected telephone line connected and a lightning bolt hits the pole outside.

Conclusion
I’ve wrestled vigorously to keep this brief, and I haven’t covered it all. These are the basics, and the most important factors. Do these, and you’re well on your way to saving yourself from a potential disaster. If you don’t know quite where to go from here, don’t hesitate to call in an expert—it could mean the difference between a successful business and a devastating failure.