Top Nonprofit Technical Challenges: Continuity And Data Backup Solutions

 

Business continuity planning involves developing procedures and policies that can be used by your organization to mitigate risk and make sure your operation work will be able to continue in the event your technology solutions are disrupted, whether this is caused by natural disaster or human error. A very important aspect of business continuity planning involves identifying your essential operations and mapping out which technologies need to be set up with redundant systems or backup plans so that your work can continue in IT Solution in Surrey.

For example, the Northeast in 2012, which included New Jersey and New York City, faced its worst disaster in more than a century. Numerous organizations whose missions were to help those who had been adversely affected by Hurricane Sandy faced disruptions of their own, including lack of public transportation, electrical outages and flooding that the storm caused. For the organizations that had their IT infrastructure and data housed in-house and didn’t have a cloud backup solution, there was no remote access and in many cases invaluable donor and constituency data was lost.

The foundation of preserving business continuity is creating and deploying data backup protocols to safeguard your daily operations. We have outlined below some information regarding online backup services that work to support data security and business continuity.

What does online file backup refer to?

Online file backup refers to storing the contents from the hard drive on your computers, like media files and important documents, via the Internet using an online backup service provided by a third party. If you erase important information accidentally from your computer, your computer is damaged or stolen, your hard drive crashes or you lose access to any of your important files in some other ways, online backup services provide you with the opportunity to restore lost information quickly.

Are online file backup services secure?

Yes. Online backup services make use of the same security measured used by financial institutions for protecting sensitive data. What that means is your data that is stored on an online backup service is just as secure as your credit card or bank account information.

How does an online backup service work?

When you use an online backup service, you download a computer program onto your desktop or laptop computer. This small applications lets you choose which files you want to backup and you then can set automated scheduled backups up of your files. We handle all of the logistics for your employees and you here at Sinu.

How can I use an online backup service to restore my files?

The process for restoring your lost files will vary depending on who your service provider is. Usually, it is as easy as access your account online and then downloading the files that you backed up earlier. How long it will take for you to download your files will vary depending on how much data you have stored at the online backup service. It may take a couple of hours if you just have a small number of backed up files or if you have many large files that need to be recovered it could take several days.

Isn’t it safer to you in-house backup compared to the cloud which I keep hearing all the time that it is getting hacked?

No. Nonprofits and small businesses don’t have the necessary resources for investing in getting their data secured in the same ways that large cloud data storage services do. Millions of dollars are spent by the cloud service providers to offer safe data storage and backup. Their revenues and reputation depend on it. Their reputations would be seriously harmed by breaches in security, in addition to the overall industry. That is why they have significant incentive for ensuring that their clients’ information is protected through fast adaptability protocols, expert talent and security investments.

Don’t forget about your laptops!

A majority of organizations backup their servers on a regular basis. However, they don’t have systems in place for backing up the data from their laptops that are being used increasingly in the workplace by employees. Since when people using laptops frequently store data on their local drives instead of on the organization’s service, there is a data security risk posed by mobility if it is not mitigated properly. We recommend that each laptop have an online file backup solution associated with it.

The cloud has turned disaster recovery into a natural extension of the overall data management process through making it possible for most organizations to be able to access online backup services.