Here is a great game for the summer.
Line up all your devices on a table;
- Desktop PC
- Laptops
- Ipad etc
- Mobile PHones
- External Drives
Now get a very big Hammer.
Where is your data?
if you smashed any one of these items at random, what would you lose?
The answer should be nothing, because everything should have a backup or copy elsewhere..but does it today?
Diary
Most of us use the diary on their phones, but how does that balance with the diary on your PC? – maybe you use Google calendar in both places. if you do, then that it tied to a google login account and the diary is kept in the cloud by Google. So that data is safe.
If you use Apple for your diary then that is probably in the cloud too. It should be tied to your Apple ID.
You may, like us, use Outlook for your email and refer to the outlook calendar. This could also be stored in the cloud, but maybe on your desktop.
So, you could have a diary on the phone and one in Outlook. You may want to be able to synchronize these.
Your Contacts
Contacts, like your diary, can be on your mobile phone – either Google or Apple. You may also have contacts in outlook, which could be local to the device, or in the cloud. You may also have contacts in a CRM or email marketing programme.
Your Email
You should be using an email address attached to your domain name (website name), not a Gmail account or similar. Email can be downloaded or stored in the cloud, make sure you know because if it is downloaded and that device is lost, you will lose your email.
Your Accounts
Do you use a local account program or an online app? That is your accounts data, but do you create invoices separately. If so, are they stored and backed-up?
Your Software
if your machine was lost, do you have all the information to get your apps installed on another device available?
Your Pictures, Videos and Documents
All that content you have spent hours creating. Do you have a backup in case it was ever lost?
What about Website backups
Check with your host for how and when backups are made of your website. Also, what would you do to download these backups yourself?
Offsite data
The biggest issue would be in the case of a fire or burglary. What would be the situation if you lost EVERYTHING in your office?
Around 40% of businesses who sufferred a severe data los were not trading a year later.
That is not a new statistic, it has been tested and reported for years and always stays around the same number. So, you need to ensure it does not happen to you.
