Power Blips - The Stuff of Data Loss Nightmares

On January 30, 2007 an oily capacitor bank at Hydro One's Richview transformer station in Toronto failed, shot a powerful arc of electricity to the ground, and then exploded. The result was a power dip of roughly 1,500 megawatts of capacity, and though it lasted for less than a second, this mysterious blip turned the stuff of nightmares widespread data loss into a frightening reality for business owners from here to the Quebec border and down into the U.S. The Hydro One “blip” proved, once again, that things that are totally beyond our control—things that can wipe out our hard work and progress—just happen. That’s why the daily backup of your company’s critical data to an offsite location is so important. And thanks to new technology, data backup is easier and more secure than ever. Recently, online data backup and recovery services that specialize in secure digital document management have emerged to completely automate the process of data backup. Each night, your data is automatically encrypted and safely transferred over the Internet to secure offsite locations, eliminating your risk for unforeseen data loss. Plus, these services are affordable for small and medium-sized companies, including home-based businesses. Not sure what to look for in an online data backup service provider? Here are a few suggestions:nn• Find a local company that includes both onsite and telephone support 24/7/365 as part of your basic package. Your service provider should understand the importance of personal attention, and should be happy to customize their service to your individual backup needs.n n• The most secure encryption technology available today will encrypt your data at 448-bit, so nothing less should do.nn• Be sure to verify that at least one additional copy of your encrypted data is made upon arrival to the primary storage site. This copy should remain housed in its encrypted state, and stored in at least one other secure offsite location.nn• The best service providers will keep historical “snapshots” of your data at no extra cost for the additional storage.nn• You should receive daily communication from your chosen provider confirming the success of your automatic daily backups. If, for any reason, your backup was missed, you should receive a message the next time you turn on your computer giving you the option to perform your backup immediately.nn• Ideally, you should be able to add multiple users and computers under the same account at no extra charge. Although document archiving is a task many business owners would prefer to forget about, the fact is that most businesses rely upon their digital information to conduct their day-to-day operations. So, do yourself a favor and make sure your business is protected the next time others are living a nightmare.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?