Remote Data Storage, what you need to know

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By: JoEllen Barton, SecurShred. March 2013

 

Off-site data storage should be a part of your company’s every day routine. If your company is not properly backing up your data and securely storing it off-site you could be setting your company up for disaster.

 

It truly is “all about the data”.

By now you realize that the daily montage of data flowing in your office is your company’s lifeblood. Without this data your company would be dead in the water. To keep business running as usual, your data needs to be accessible on a daily basis. In order to do this, you need to protect it. Protecting your customer records and vital business information is important for many reasons; identity theft, corporate espionage, as well as compliance regulations. Did you know that losing access to customer records, even temporarily, could put you in noncompliance with federal and/or state regulations, resulting in stiff fines or penalties? Depending upon your industry it could be quite costly. Has your company/organization prepared a recovery plan to handle disasters or employee errors?  Disasters and employee blunders are often unforeseen. Protect your data from being lost, create and implement a disaster recovery plan to ensure minimal downtime.

 

What can you do to protect your data?

Start by creating a well-rounded data backup and recovery strategy. This should incorporate off-site data tape and/or hard drive storage and online backup and data restoration. This plan will dramatically shrink the risk of possible downtime, should your network go down. The key to a good plan is making sure you can get your operations up and running as soon as possible after an outage.

 

It really is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Data backup and recovery can be as easy as 1,2,3 and just as easy to implement.

1. Back up your data to convenient storage format(s) (choose what media best works for your information storage needs; CD’s, thumb drives, backup tapes, external/portable hard drives)
2. Move your data to a secure off-site storage location (use a secure method such as a bonded currier service or information management company that is compliant with all state and federal regulations, adheres to strict guidelines such as; performing background checks on current and future employees, proper procedures in place that ensures your data is accessible by authorized personal only, and has a documented solid chain of custody.

3. Make sure you can quickly restore your data (Keep an accurate inventory of your data using an inventory system)

 

You know your organization needs to protect its data and the best way to do that is to back it up. Storing backed up data off-site can guard against disasters and/or employee errors. An important part of this process is ensuring the safety and security of that information once it moves off-site. How do you store your data properly and protect it while ensuring that it remains instantly accessible? It is crucial to back up your data using the right management tools, as well as security, tracking and environmental controls. Your data is no good to you if you are unable to retrieve it in a timely manner. Choosing a data storage partner is an important part of your data recovery plan.  Not just any storage partner should do! When it comes to your data storage you get what you pay for.  Make sure you make an informed decision when choosing where to store your sensitive data.

 

SecurShred can help with your recovery plan, by providing secure off-site data storage and data tape rotation.

To ensure all your data is protected when disaster strikes, each data tape can be individually barcoded, indexed, transported in our secure media containers and stored in our fire-proof vault storage

 

Understanding that rotating media in and out of highly secure vault storage is the most effective way to preserve data, we allow you to develop a customized daily, weekly or monthly data rotation schedule to suit you.

For more information about our Backup Tape Storage Services and to receive a free quote contact us at [email protected] or 1-877-863-3003 x 1.