Five Tips for Data Backup
- Establish a File Organization Standard: sorting your files so users will always know where files belong.
- Determine Which Files Need to Be Preserved: which are important, can’t do without, and might need in the future.
- Create a Local Backup System: ensure your backup files are physically with you at your office which allows for easy retrieval, and you maintain control.
- Create an Off-Site Backup System: copy files to a different secure location which provides redundancy and catastrophe prevention. Having an off-site backup procedure means that even though your office is destroyed, your files aren’t.
- Automate Your Backup Procedures: remember to check that the backups are running. Never assume that they are; know that they are—it’s that important.
- Test restore periodically to verify the quality of your backup.