If you’re one of my clients or you read my website regularly you probably have heard me preach about data backup a hundred times. And it’s for good reason too! We keep some of our most precious possessions on these devices. Whether it’s photos and videos of our loved ones, important business documents, our taxes… the list goes on and on. In this post, we’ll look at the top 10 reasons you need to have a backup of your data.

Number 1: Things Can Go Wrong With a Computer

Crashes and viruses and Hard Drive failures, OH MY! Any number of things can go wrong and affect the information we store on our computer. Additionally, it’s hard to predict exactly when things will go south so having a backup of our important data and memories is essential.

Number 2: Human Error Can Catch Us Off Guard

To err is human and when dealing with electronically stored data, human error can cause big problems. One wrong mouse click and years of data could be gone in an instant. Like the time Pixar accidentally deleted 90% of Toy Story 2 while it was in development, erasing 2 months of work and hundreds of man-hours of work. Ouch! If you have a backup up your sleeve you can get right back on track. Pixar’s backup Plan at the time did not work.

Number 3: Mother Nature Doesn’t Always Play Nice

When disaster strikes you have enough on your plate to deal with. Whether it’s fire, flood, or a power surge from a lightning storm have a cloud backup of your data can really come in useful. It will be one less thing you need to worry about while you put your life or business back in order.

Number 4: Don’t Lose Vital Information

Medical Records, Critical Business files and other vital information should be safely backed up. Not only will this come in handy if something happens to the original copy, but most cloud backup services allow access to the files from any device you log into anywhere in the world. This can be invaluable if you fall ill while traveling and need medical files.

Number 5: Tax Time

Related to number 4, tax documents can very important and a big pain if the data is lost. I recently had a client come to me because his Tax file (containing the last 5 years worth of data) got corrupted when his computer crashed while he was working on his taxes. No matter what he did, he couldn’t access the file. He thought he was going to need to redo the last 5 years worth! Luckily, he used a cloud backup account and I could pull down a good copy of the corrupt file! Saved by the cloud!

Number 6: Save Time and Money

While having a good backup takes some time and money to set up, it’s nothing compared to what not having it could cost you. Imagine if my client had needed to spend time redoing his taxes. That would be time he couldn’t spend making money in his business or spending time with loved ones. If you have ever needed to redo a report or any other file because it was lost, remember that a good backup could prevent that.

Number 7: You Can Recover After a Computer Theft

Yes, having a computer stolen is still going to be bad, but how much worse is it to deal with the financial burden of the computer itself and deal with all the lost pictures, video or business data. If you have a cloud backup, once you replace the computer, you can simply recover your files and move on with your life. With no backup, the theft of a computer can set you back months.

Number 8: Disaster Recovery Becomes a Snap

Whether it’s a massive network failure, Natural Disaster, Ransomware infection or anything else a solid backup plan will have you up and running again before you know it! Don’t let disaster impact your business more than it needs to!

Number 9: Protect Family Pictures and Video for Future Generations to Enjoy

I have a number of friends that have lost their homes to fire and the one thing they always say they regret losing the most is pictures. Things can be replaced, but memories can’t. If you have old negatives or photo albums, why not digitize them and back them up to a cloud service as well? This is a better safe than sorry scenario. It’s not worth losing these memories forever.

Number 10: It’s Easier Than Ever to Do

With external Hard Drives more affordable and a multitude of cloud backup solutions out there, we have no excuse not to have a backup strategy in place. Why not contact Y-Not Tech Services so we can help set up a plan to ensure you never need to deal with the pain that data loss can cause.

Y-Not Tech Services recommends a 3-2-1 backup strategy:

• 3 copies of your data
• 2 different types of media (like on your computer and an External Hard Drive)
• 1 Offsite location for your data (like a cloud solution or a different building than the others)

If you want more information or for Y-Not Tech Services to assess your backup needs you can book an appointment by clicking the button below: