“Don’t be an April Fool.” That’s the tag-line for World Backup Day.  World Backup Day is a global campaign designed to educate consumers on the importance and simplicity of data backup.  While World Backup Day primarily aims to inspire consumers to regularly back up their critical files and data – it’s equally important for business organizations.

Is your business ready for World Backup Day?

For many business owners, taking the necessary steps to protect their data, and ultimately their business, is rarely a formal process. But what many of these businesses fail to realize is that this laissez-faire approach to backup is putting them at risk. Data loss is a real threat for businesses.  Consider the following statistics:

“Data loss is often closely associated with personal files like pictures or personal documents,” says Chief Technology Officer of Intermedia, Jonathan Levine. “But businesses need to be wary of what data loss means to them. What are the costs of losing important files? How much time, money and effort are involved in trying to recover lost files?”

Many businesses are trying to avoid data loss by implementing free data backup tools. While this Band-Aid approach to backup may help to cover up the symptom, it does little to mitigate the underlying problem.  When it comes to data backup, how can businesses identify the right tool for them?

What tools does my business need?

Many businesses backup their files with generic, one-way tools that only capture data a few times a day. These tools tend to just store files, without any additional data features or benefits. Businesses should evaluate what is needed for a true business-class file backup solution to make sure they are using the best backup tool for their business needs.

Here are a few questions businesses should ask themselves:

Do I have business-class file backup?

  1. Are my files immediately backed up whenever a change is made?
  2. Are files backed up in world-class data infrastructures with a service level agreement and an uptime guarantee?
  3. Can my business easily access backed up data anytime?
  4. Does my backup tool provide compliance across industry- and vertical-specific standards?

Do I need more than just file backup?

  1. Does my backup system allow me to share data with people inside and outside my company?
  2. Under my existing system, can employees collaborate on their data with others?
  3. Do I have versioning history of all my files?

When evaluating backup providers, be sure to look for a solution that delivers more than just backup. Also consider that some cloud-based file sync and share tools can provide the same functionality as most backup tools on the market today—but with added benefits such as external collaboration and mobile access.

Looking for a new solution? Consider traditional backup providers, as well as file sync and share solutions like SecuriSync, Box for Enterprise and Dropbox Business. These file sync and share services let you store your important business data while delivering additional functionality unmatched by file servers.

Take the backup pledge

The World Backup Day website calls for users to take the pledge to backup their files: “I solemnly swear to backup my important documents and precious memories on March 31st.”

Make this the year of data backup for your business by taking the Business Backup Pledge today:

“I solemnly swear to implement a backup solution that enables my business to instantly back up all work files to a world-class data infrastructure, allowing us to easily recover data anytime, with the added benefits of file sharing and collaboration.”