Data recovery is the process used to recover or recall data from any form of storage media that is facing a data loss crisis. Situations like accidental deletion of data, accidental formatting of the hard drive, partition loss, Windows re-installation, system boot failure and many more, require data recovery attempts to be made. This process attempts at recovering or recalling specific information that might have become inaccessible, owing to physical or logical damage of a particular storage device.
Investing in data recovery software is probably one of the most important things that small business owners need to focus on, owing to a simple fact that very few small businesses have a data recovery plan, to begin with. This notion can be corroborated by research conducted by Symantec, which revealed that as many as, 57% of small businesses don’t have an existing data recovery plan.
Despite such under-preparedness, data loss seems to be a major concern that most small businesses face annually, with, as many as, six outages within a year being the standard occurrence rate of data loss scenarios. The most common reasons for such situations arising include natural disasters, power failures, and cyber-attacks.
In this article, you will find adequate information regarding data recovery, what its benefits are and three important tips that will help small businesses bolster their data recovery strategy.
What is meant by data recovery?
Data can be recovered from a list of different types of storage media including SSDs, HDDs, USBs, desktops, laptops, internal hard drives, SD cards, flash drives, amongst others. The common thing between all these types of storage media is the use of electronic equipment to store and record data.
Data loss happens only when the aforementioned equipment fails abruptly, stops working or becomes damaged, resulting in the compromise of all saved data. For instance, SD card recovery aims at foraging the storage areas inside your SD cards and locates the desired files, despite the storage media being non-functional or inaccessible through normal means.
Advantages of data recovery
Data recovery is a coveted procedure owing to the many advantages it provides. Some of the advantages that you can expect from having a solid data recovery plan include:
1. Saves time- Data recovery, if done by professionals, can take no time at all to be completed, as you gain access to your lost data within a matter of a few minutes.
2. Economical- Based on your requirements and scope, you can choose various data recovery plans that best suit your business needs. It is an affordable solution that has the option of being customized to your preferences.
3. Versatile- Data recovery solutions do not focus on a simple way of recovering data, or on a specific type of storage media, but encompasses various methods and almost all forms of storage media. This leeway and versatility is a huge advantage, given the different types of storage media, a business is known to use.
4. Peace of mind- Having a data recovery plan in place provides you with the peace of mind you deserve, while managing a business, allowing you to focus your efforts and attention on other pressing needs of the organization.
3 tips in data recovery every small business should follow
1. Protect and back-up: The intrinsic values that drive data recovery
As the saying goes, ‘Prevention is better than cure’, similarly data recovery can be much smoothly managed if you plan for a robust plan to back-up all your data as and when they are being created. Investing and establishing a structured and redundant data back-up system will allow you to create copies of all vital data, with the help of software.
Such software also allows you to create proper databases of all important data stored, and you need to verify from time to time that the process is being completed properly. Make sure that you maintain at least one copy of the verified and backed-up data on an offsite location.
Protection is another important aspect that you need to pay attention to, as most data loss scenarios happen because of security breaches. The use of software that has been updated, the use of virus protection software and firewalls like antivirus, malware protection, and the likes, are essential in protecting your data from security breaches. Regular scanning of all your systems for potential viruses is also an important step as it will reduce the chances of data loss and protect you from crises.
2. Train your employees
Your employees might be the root cause for your small business facing multiple data loss situations in a year. Training these employees on the proper do’s and don’ts of data safety is very important if you want to maintain data integrity and protect your data from being lost.
Human error is only natural and can happen in the hands of even the most skilled employee in your organization. Therefore, it is pertinent that you educate your staff regarding the intricacies of data security and imbibe in them a clear and elaborate understanding of data security and the rules they must adhere to.
3. Build a recovery strategy
If you want to avoid any kind of disruption to the continuity of your business, and restore your company’s workflow during a data loss event, creating a robust and well thought out data recovery strategy is a must. You need to remember that even backups can be deleted since even these backups use hard drives to store the critical data and are prone to accidental deletion and corruption.
Takeaway
A data recovery plan is exactly what comes handy during data breach or other similar situations. Having such plan gives you a peace of mind, as you already have a strategy in place to restore or recover your lost or obsolete data as a preventive measure.
The use of the right recovery software and tools is critical in minimizing the collateral damage caused by cyberattacks. That’s why you need to look for the ones that best-fit your data recovery plan, as well as your company’s overall disaster recovery plan.