3 Reasons to Test Your Backups

Published On: August 31st, 2017Categories: blogBy

You know the importance of backing up your data. Whether your company manually backs up data regularly or you’ve automated the process, regularly testing those backups is even more important. After all, the purpose of backing up your data is so you can get back to work quickly if a hard drive crashes, a piece of software deletes critical project data, you get a malware infection, or your office is out of commission.

What if your most recent backup is corrupted? Testing your data backups is an essential part of a comprehensive disaster recovery strategy for your entire organization. Here are the top three reasons why you should ensure proper testing on your backups.

Hardware Failure

Believe it or not, hardware failure is the leading cause of data loss for companies of all sizes. The number one piece of hardware that fails, and with surprising frequency, are hard drives. In the U.S. alone, more than 100,000 hard drives crash or fail each week. Of those failures, roughly 60% are caused by mechanical failure of some type. The other 40% are a result of misuse in some capacity.

Inexpensive external thumb or USB hard drives can be great for quick use and backups of local files, but you never want your company data dependent on this backup solution. Frankly, they often create more problems than they solve.

Human Error

The phrase “We’re only human” gets tossed around quite a bit when someone makes a mistake – usually minor ones. It’s meant to make us feel better about the fact that we’re not infallible.

Even though we seek to learn from our mistakes, common errors can have ripple effects in situations such as when we:

  • Accidentally delete or overwrite an important shared file on the server
  • Install programs on computers that cause compatibility issues or worse
  • Open email attachments from a Nigerian prince

User error is often the highest cause of malfunction. When you have employees, there will always be a high probability of error. Testing your backups can help you combat that fact.

Minimizing Downtime

On average, it can take a business several weeks – and sometimes several months – to fully recover from data loss or any kind of downtime. That costs time and money that could be put to better use achieving company goals, as opposed to cleaning up a technology mess that could have easily been avoided with data backups that were useful and current.

An ounce of prevention …

If You’re Unsure About How or What to Test, Consult Professionals

KJ Technology works with clients to back up and test their data restorations regularly. If your organization wants to make sure it’s on the right track with data backup and disaster recovery planning, our team of IT professionals is available to speak at your convenience.

Contact KJ Technology to find out if your restorations will pass our rigorous testing.

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