Knowing the basics of backing up your small business tech can save you time, headaches and financial woes – and it all comes down to the ‘3, 2, 1’ rule, writes The IT Lady‘s Louise Ridlen.

I’ve been helping people with their computers for many years and I’ve witnessed some truly traumatic incidents of lost data, documents and photos.

Losing precious memories or important business information is nothing short of heartbreaking and distressing.

I’ve also got plenty of stories starting with a telephone call from a scammer who’s locked a computer, a hard drive that’s failed, or a server that’s crashed. But instead, these stories have finished with a full backup restored so that nothing was lost and everything arrived magically back to how it was left before the incident.

As a business, our intellectual property is one of our most important assets. Losing vital company documents is not only a critical issue for ongoing business but in many circumstances, particularly where records need to be kept for a number of years, also very problematic from a financial and legal perspective.

So based on all of that, you definitely want to be in camp two from the stories above. Read on and I’ll share with you how your computer misadventures can turn into happy endings and not sad ones.

The 3-2-1 rule is the way to go

This means having three (3) copies of your data, two (2) on external back-up drives, and one (1)  at a remote location. This can either be an off-site storage company, or in a cloud-based backup environment.

Off-site storage companies will come and pick up your backup on a daily, weekly or monthly basis and switch it with your second drive so that one is always kept offsite.  You can also set yourself up with a rotating selection of devices and take one home with you each night.

Watch video: The 3, 2, 1 rule and more basics of backing up

Article continues after Kochie’s Business Builders clip.

Small external hard drives are notoriously sensitive

That’s why it’s important to make sure you maintain these regularly so you’ve got some safety built in if one fails. A more robust NAS (Network Attached Storage) device will allow you to access your backups easily from your network. Duplicate NAS devices can also be kept and swapped out as described above.

Your backups should contain all of your important shared business documents

It’s a good idea to ensure that you either have an office server with your shared data or an online version such as Sharepoint, Google Drive or Dropbox. If you are looking for a robust and secure on-premises office server, Dell Technologies’ PowerEdge Servers offer intelligence, automation and recovery tools tailored to modern workplaces. Find out more here.

How often should I do backups?

Your backups should be as regular as the last bit of information that you could not live without. As small businesses grow, we’re dealing with more data than ever, so you need to backup or synchronise regularly – and by regularly I mean at least every half an hour! Most backup applications will keep daily, weekly and monthly snapshots and as the backup drive fills up, it will start removing the oldest backups to make room for new backups.

Windows File History works very well for constantly synchronising your data to your backups on local machines. Using Microsoft OneDrive or Sharepoint will also allow you to ensure that no data is lost by keeping it in the cloud. A Windows server manager installed on your server, such as the PowerEdge Server, will allow you to also have a shadow version of all of your network drives. This means that if a document is accidentally deleted or has become corrupt you can very easily restore from a previous version.

If you keep these rules in mind, you won’t have your back up against the wall over a backup.

Louise Ridlen runs The IT Lady, a technology company in Sydney.

Need some help to power up your business? A Dell Technologies trusted advisor can help you find the right tech solutions. Visit Dell Small Business Solutions for more.

This article is brought to you by Kochie’s Business Builders in partnership with Dell Technologies.

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