Regular data backups are absolutely essential for every company or organisation and their importance cannot be overstated. Whether you’re in bookkeeping services yourself or simply balancing your own books, you’ll realize that losing your financial records alone would send your business into a tailspin – never mind the thought of losing all of your business’s data.

At any time, you could experience a situation that causes your data to be compromised. For example, your computer or IT system could be damaged or stolen, data could be destroyed or corrupted by a virus, hardware problem or human error, or malicious hackers could play havoc with your network.

Even if the data is recoverable, without a backup you’re stuck waiting for technicians to fix the problem – which could leave you having to suspend operations altogether, potentially for a lengthy period.

An onsite backup, such as an external hard-drive, is a good start. However, it is not enough on its own. In the event of fire or theft, or a natural disaster such as flooding, onsite backup media will be just as vulnerable to the same catastrophe that befell your original data.

Ideally, your business or organisation should store copies of its data in at least three locations: locally on the original machine(s), in a backup kept onsite, and finally in a backup secured safely off-site.

An external hard-drive or similar which is kept at your home or some other location is a potential off-site solution. However, data backups need to be done regularly – ideally, at least once a week. Remembering to lug the hard-drive back and forth and manually back everything up can end up becoming a chore. Opting for online or cloud storage gives you an easy, secure way to backup your data and store it off-site.

Cloud storage protects your backup from local disasters, is accessible anywhere you have an internet connection and can be set up to perform data backups automatically, on a regular schedule.