During an economic downturn, many business owners will look at every aspect of their business to see where they can reduce costs. One area that business owners often focus on is their data backup process, which may be in-house or outsourced. Business owners may assume that it is cheaper to have backups in-house in the form of a tape system. However, outsourcing your data backups to an external online backup provider often proves to be a less costly, not to mention easier and more secure, course of action.
Online backup eliminates the time commitment and various risk factors of handling backups in-house. Also, outsourcing your backups to the right online provider means you have a support team of experts that you can always reach in the event of a disaster. As for the costs associated with both methods, here are three reasons why online backup ends up being less costly than in-house tape backups.
1) Moving backup in-house is a risky (and costly) business. You may believe that it would be cheaper to have an in-house tape backup system that you or your IT person manage and maintain. However, you need to consider the true costs associated with any in-house backup method. First and foremost, managing backups internally takes a great deal of time, which could be better spent improving and growing your business.
Successful backup and recovery activity relies on consistent management and testing. If you don’t have one person focusing solely on backup management, you may end up with skipped backups or faulty backups and not be aware of it until you experience a disaster and need to get the data back. Whether you have your IT provider or a staff member assigned to the task of backups, chances are they have plenty of other responsibilities and don’t have the necessary time to devote to ensuring 100% successful backups. A good online backup provider will have a staff devoted to monitoring your backups on a daily basis.
2) Online backup with good support pays for itself. A quality online backup service provider will bill based on storage and offer excellent support at no additional cost. Give this up and you could face additional charges for support calls, slower turnaround times on support requests, and more time spent trying to figure things out on your own, all of which can quickly erase the advantages of an choosing outside provider over in-house. Easily accessible support from capable, experienced technicians will keep your backups running smoothly, which means you’ll spend less time and money handling any issues that arise.
By allowing an online backup provider to take care of you, you’ll have time to focus on growing your business and gaining clients which will be more profitable in the long-run than cost cutting, especially if cost cutting means lost productivity.
3) Unrecoverable data comes with the highest price tag of all. Scrimping on backup can have the ultimate cost of not being able to recover data when you need it most. As technology becomes more complex, restoring data gets more and more complicated. If the person performing the restore doesn’t have the appropriate knowledge and skills, it can be a lengthy, frustrating and ultimately unsuccessful process. Whether it’s the result of a lack of technical knowledge or a failed tape backup, unsuccessful data recovery will cost you time, money and at worst, your business. According one source, 60% of all businesses that lose critical data will close their doors for good within 6 months of the incident. Additionally, the Strategic Research Institute indicates that companies that are unable to get back up and running within ten days of a disaster are very likely to go out of business entirely.
Even if you don’t face this worst case scenario, data loss can be costly. For example, losing data associated with a client could mean the loss of that account and all the revenue they bring your company. Worse yet, the incident can generate negative publicity and instill doubts in current and potential clients about your ability to handle their business.
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Ultimately, you want to ensure that your business is protected. Cutting costs in the short-run can end up being very expensive in the long run if you don’t consider what you’re giving up by bringing backup in-house. A good backup provider will work with you to come up with a solution that will adequately protect your business while being cost-effective. Ask your current or potential online backup provider to take the time to analyze your data and see if you are able to take advantage of cost-saving options such as archiving for older, unchanging data.
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Backup My Info! provides businesses with fully managed online data backup services. We provide clients with 24/7 support from experienced engineers and support team members who have the expertise required to quickly resolve problems, answer questions and ensure that they are always protected. Ultimately, we believe that when a client experiences a disaster, they don’t want to have to worry about how the technology works and they don’t want to have to figure it out themselves; they want to be able to pick up the phone and know that someone will be available to help them recover their data. For more information visit www.backupmyinfo.com.
