Canadian Chiropractors Take the Pain Out of Data Backup

Responsible document archiving is a task many people would prefer to forget about. It’s dull, time consuming, technical, often confusing and a royal pain in the neck for the chiropractic clinic. But your information is your practice’s most valuable asset. In fact, your data—including your appointment calendar, accounting records, contact database, client files, email and more—is your practice. If you lose your critical data tomorrow, it is unlikely that your practice would survive. Rubbish? Not according to the Globe and Mail, which says that “70 per cent of small businesses go belly up within a year of suffering a major loss of data” (Joanna Pachner, Globe and Mail, May 16, 2007). So, what are you doing to protect your information? If you are currently backing up your data to CD, tape or external hard drive, you’re on the right track. But when was the last time you tested that backup? Backup media are widely known to become “unreadable” over time, corrupting your data just as VCR tapes chew up your home movies. Moreover, these methods require that you (or your staff) perform the backup and store these unencrypted duplicates in a safe place away from your office. These manual systems tend to break down over time, leaving your precious data—and your livelihood—in a precarious position. Thanks to new technology, however, there is a better way. You need to protect your practice’s information by using a reputable online data backup and recovery service that specializes in providing secure digital document management to small and medium-sized businesses. These online services completely automate the backup process, encrypt your data, and store it safely offsite. Plus, they are affordable! Not sure where to begin? Here are a few suggestions for what to look for when comparing online data backup and recovery services.nnPersonalized Onsite Service Online service providers need not be impersonal or absent. Be sure to partner with a company that includes both onsite and telephone support 24/7/365 as part of your package. Ideally, a Storage Specialist should complete a full data survey at your location at the time of installation. Such personal attention will ensure that all of your critical data is stored safely at the time of installation and going forward as you create new files.nnEncryption Level Nothing less than 448-bit encryption will do. To understand why, consider that online banking uses 128-bit encryption. For each additional bit, the security and protection level doubles. So 129-bit is twice as secure as 128-bit encryption, 130-bit is twice as secure as 129-bit encryption, and so on. This means that 448-bit encryption is many millions of times more secure than banking online.nnBuilt-in Redundancy and Secure Storage Once your encrypted data arrives at the primary storage site, additional copies of it should be made immediately and stored in at least one other secure location. You’ll also want to make sure that your data is always housed on these offsite servers in its encrypted state.nnHistorical Versions The ability to store multiple “snapshots” of your data is another exciting benefit of online storage applications. Much like a time machine, you can turn back the clock to retrieve your files as they appeared in the past. This feature is particularly useful if you need to retrieve files that were deleted weeks (or even months) ago! Make sure, however, that your chosen partner does not charge for this additional storage.nnRegular Communication from Your Service Provider You should receive a daily email from your chosen partner confirming that your backup was completed in full and on schedule. Alternatively, you may be able to opt for receiving communication only if your backup was not successful—as may be the case during a power outage. If your files have not been stored, for any reason, the next time you turn on your computer you should have a message from your provider giving you the option to perform a backup immediately.nnMultiple Users and Computers Flexibility in terms of your account set-up is an advantage offered by the best service providers. Ideally, you should be able to add multiple users and computers under the same account at no extra charge. Just be sure to verify that only you, not your individual users, have the ability to recover your data, as protecting your intellectual property from malicious or soon-to-be-leaving employees is imperative. In conclusion, please remember this crucial point: Your data is your most valuable asset. Protecting that asset must be a priority, because the survival of your practice depends on it.nnCopyright 2007 - Blue Melnick. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, and include the following byline: Blue Melnick is the Co-Founder and Lead Storage Specialist of Virtual Tape Drive Canada. Blue invites you to contact him through www.vtdcanada.com or by phone at 416-462-3323. Not sure if online data backup is right for you? Why not sign up for Biz Link News—Blue’s free monthly ezine—to learn more about how this new technology can “save” your business?