Imagine arriving at work tomorrow to find all your business files gone. Customer records, financial data, years of documents — everything. It happens more often than you'd think, and the businesses that survive are the ones with solid backup strategies.
The 3-2-1 Backup Rule
The gold standard for backup is the 3-2-1 rule: maintain 3 copies of your data, on 2 different types of media, with 1 copy stored offsite. This protects against hardware failure, theft, natural disasters, and ransomware.
For most small businesses, this translates to: working files on your computers (copy 1), local backup to external drive or NAS (copy 2, different media), and cloud backup (copy 3, offsite).
Cloud Backup Options
For businesses using Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, your emails and cloud documents are already stored offsite — but they're not truly backed up. These services have limited recovery options and don't protect against accidental deletion or ransomware that syncs encrypted files.
Dedicated backup services like Backblaze, Carbonite, or Acronis provide true backup with versioning and extended retention. Prices run $5-$15 per computer per month for comprehensive protection.
Local Backup Matters Too
Cloud backup is essential, but local backups offer faster recovery. Restoring 500GB from the cloud could take days; restoring from a local drive takes hours. For critical systems, you want both.
A network-attached storage (NAS) device with automatic backup provides reliable local backup for multiple computers. Entry-level options start around $300 and can protect an entire small office.
What to Back Up
At minimum: customer data, financial records, contracts and legal documents, email (if not cloud-hosted), and any work product your business creates. Don't forget application settings and licenses — losing these means hours of reconfiguration.
For critical operations, consider full system images that capture everything including the operating system. These allow complete recovery to new hardware if needed.
Testing Your Backups
A backup you've never tested is a backup that might not work. Schedule monthly tests: try recovering a specific file or folder to confirm the backup is actually running and files can be restored.
Quarterly, do a more comprehensive test: restore to different hardware or a virtual machine to verify full recovery is possible. Discovering your backup doesn't work during an actual emergency is devastating.
Getting Started
If you don't have backup in place right now, start simple. Enable OneDrive or Google Drive sync for your most critical files today. That takes 10 minutes and provides immediate cloud protection.
Then plan a proper backup strategy. I help Orange County businesses implement complete backup solutions tailored to their needs and budget. A backup assessment consultation can identify gaps and recommend the most cost-effective approach for your situation.