Data Loss: Protect your Business against Data Loss

What information do you need to backup?

Ideally you should back up all the files on your computer that if lost would be devastating to your business.

For example if you work in the financial sector and have information on all your clients stored in a database, you should always have an up to date back up copy of this database. If you are an architect then you should have backup copies of all your design plans, specifications and correspondence.

Additional files you may wish to consider backing up include:

• Financial records, such as accounting spreadsheets, invoices and forecasts.
• Business plans and other documents critical to the running of your company.
• Emails, contact lists and perhaps your Outlook calendar
• General letters and correspondence
• Scanned documents
• Presentations
• Personal projects
• Digital photos
• Music files

Program files such as Microsoft Office or Sage can normally be re-installed from the original CDs that you purchased, as such these don't need to be backed up. The same applies to your operating system (i.e Windows), which can usually be recovered via the installation CD or system restore facility on your computer.

Essentially, you should backup anything that cannot be replaced. This way when the worst does happen you will have your backup copy available to restore from and company downtime will be minimised.