If someone asked you right now where your business data is backed up, could you answer with confidence? Do you know when the backup last ran? Do you know how long it would take to restore everything if your computers were gone tomorrow?
The 3-2-1 rule is a simple framework to get to yes on all three of those questions.
Three copies of your data. Two different storage types. One copy offsite.
Three copies means your original data plus two backups. Two storage types means you are not relying on a single technology. A local external drive combined with cloud storage covers this. One copy offsite means at least one backup is stored somewhere physically separate from your main location.
The offsite requirement is the one most businesses skip, and it is the most important one. If all your backups are at the office (an external drive in a desk drawer, for example), a fire, flood, theft, or ransomware attack can wipe out both the original data and the backup at the same time.
An offsite copy means cloud backup (Backblaze, Wasabi, and Azure Backup are all solid options) or physically moving a drive to a secondary location on a regular schedule. Cloud backup is usually more practical for small businesses.
Copy one is your live data on your computer or server. Copy two is a daily automated backup to an external drive or NAS device at the office. Copy three is cloud backup running nightly.
This is not expensive. A decent external drive costs $60 to $100. Cloud backup for a small business typically runs $10 to $30 a month. Compared to what data loss costs, it is one of the best investments you can make.
A backup you have never tested is a backup you cannot trust. Try to restore a file from your backup every few months just to confirm it actually works. A lot of businesses have discovered their backup was silently failing, and only found out when they actually needed it.
If you want help setting up or auditing your backup situation, reach out. We can put together a solution that fits your business and make sure it is actually running. Check out our backup and recovery services or reach out to get started.