3 pillars of successful CFOs: Strategic leadership, technological integration, and work-life harmony
Discover the 3 critical areas of success that constitute the foundation of contemporary financial leadership.
World Backup Day founder, Ismail Jadun, has said that March 31 will “will make everyone think about their situation, learn about the various options and get their files backed up”.
World Backup Day, first celebrated in 2011, is an annual event (taking place on March 31) that’s dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of data backups and encouraging individuals and businesses to back up their important data regularly.
The purpose of World Backup Day is to remind people about the importance of their critical data in case of data loss, theft, or damage to their devices. It has become a global movement with individuals, businesses and organisations participating in the event by promoting backup awareness, sharing backup tips, and encouraging others to take backups of their data.
Data is now a critical asset of businesses and organisations and over 1.8 zettabytes of data is being generated per year (according to IDC Digital Universe), which is a lot to back up!
If businesses don’t backup their data, they can be at risk of losing critical information that could have severe consequences, including:
That said, according to a Backblaze survey, nearly 30 per cent of people say they have never even backed up their data.
There are many ways that critical business can be lost such as theft (theft of hardware and cyber-attacks), hardware failure or loss of a device, natural disaster, fire/flood/damage to premises and equipment, and obsolete file formats.
Backup What?
According to World Backup Day sources, items to back up data from should include your computer, laptop, phone, iPod, tablet, other wireless devices, photos and even videos on social networks.
One of the goals of World Backup Day is to make people aware of the different backup options. There are two main types of backup solutions:
Having both local and offsite backups can give businesses peace of mind, knowing files are safe and secure should anything happen.
When backing up data, it is important to make sure that the chosen backup option is safe and reliable, has been set up correctly and has been tested, and that it happens automatically and regularly.
In general, businesses should backup their data regularly to minimise the risk of data loss and ensure that they can quickly recover from any data loss event.
A good rule of thumb for businesses is to perform daily backups of critical data, including customer data, financial data, and other mission-critical information. For less critical data, such as email or other non-essential files, weekly or monthly backups may be sufficient.
However, it’s important to note that businesses should also consider the type of backup solution they use. Some backup solutions allow for continuous backup, which means that data is backed up in real time as changes are made. This can provide an extra layer of protection against data loss and ensure that the most recent version of the data is always available.
Most businesses now opt for cloud backups. 95 per cent of small businesses and 85 per cent of all businesses store data or backups in the cloud.
Using the cloud for backups offers several benefits, including:
Having an annual World Backup Day acts as a reminder of the importance of having an effective, regular, and automatic backup solution in place for one of the most critical assets of a business. With so many risks and threats to business data (e.g. cyber-attacks), backing up data is crucial for business continuity and disaster recovery and, therefore, for the survival of a business. The many benefits of the cloud (as outlined above) now make it a sensible and cost-effective option for the majority of today’s businesses and organisations and using the cloud for communications, storage and backups has become normal practice for many businesses, particularly since the collaborative online working in the pandemic, and with today’s cloud-based SaaS apps like Microsoft 365.
Hopefully, World Backup Day will motivate the 30 per cent of people who say they have never backed up their data to understand the reasons for doing so, how easy it can be to set up and to decide to start doing so as soon as possible.
Discover the 3 critical areas of success that constitute the foundation of contemporary financial leadership.
The term “Big Stay,” reflects the current trend of declining staff turnover and a reduction in job vacancies. In this new era, employees are increasingly prioritising stability over change, leading to fewer job openings and a growing reluctance to switch employers.
With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft 365, businesses can establish a unified experience where data seamlessly connects with productivity apps including Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Teams.