As we approach the one-year anniversary of the September 11
terrorist attacks, there will be no shortage of media
commemorations. Most if not all of them will focus, as they should,
on the horrific loss of more than 3,000 American lives.
One of the most compelling images from that terrible day will
probably not, however, be given the media attention it deserves.
I'm referring to the sight (televised live on CNN) of millions
of pieces of paper, hour after hour, drifting over New York City
from the wreckage of the World Trade Center--legal documents,
accounting statements, computer printouts and other important
business and government records that could never be replaced.
Now please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying or
implying that anything can be more devastating than the loss of
loved ones, co-workers or friends. Those deaths can never be fully
avenged or compensated for, and our hearts and prayers should go
out to them, those that loved them and those that tried to save
them. I merely suggest that we should spend at least a few minutes
to reflect on the fact that a lot of businesses also died a
horrible death on September 11, 2001. Many, if not most, of those
businesses could not recover because their data--the living,
beating heart of any business--were consumed by fire, crushed by
falling debris or sucked out into the ozone over New York
Harbor.
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So, a year later, what have we learned as business owners? A
recent University of Texas study tell us that more than 50 percent
of small and midsized businesses that lose their data in a disaster
go out of business within two years. Yet many, if not most,
business owners fail to do all they can to protect their important
information properly, leaving themselves vulnerable to fire,
floods, computer viruses, terrorist attacks and other natural and
man-made disasters. Why?
Bob Cramer, president and CEO of LiveVault Corp., a
data protection and disaster recovery firm based in Marlborough,
Massachusetts, thinks there are two reasons: "Most
small-business owners either think they don't have the budget
to properly protect their data or that they need a large in-house
staff of experts to get the job done." Cramer says that's
not the case, and that it's "an absolute requirement, no
longer a luxury" that every business, no matter how small,
have a disaster recovery plan in place.
A lot of business owners think they're doing a good job by
backing up their computer files at the end of each week, or every
night before they go home. According to Cramer, though, that's
not enough: "The very scary fact is that 20 to 50 percent of
all computer backups are not fully recoverable." Sometimes
that's a result of human error--you back up all your computer
files onto a CD-ROM or tape, but leave the backup lying on top of
your computer, so that when a fire breaks out, both the computer
and the backup are destroyed. A lot of times, though, even what
appears to be a properly-done backup may not be 100 percent
recoverable, simply because you configured the backup software
incorrectly and you don't find out until it's too late.
For rates that start at $295 a month for a single computer
server, LiveVault can automatically send copies of your
business's computer records offsite via the Internet, either at
the end of each business day or continuously throughout the day
(for example, every hour), and store your data at a secure Iron
Mountain facility ("You can't go there and I can't
tell you where it is," says Cramer).
In the event of a disaster, says Cramer, "you go to your
LiveVault account, click on a button, and you can recover
everything that was backed up the night or the hour
before."
For those who still want to do it themselves, here are three
pieces of advice:
- Make sure you back up all your business data every single
day--if you have a small amount of data (less than 1 Gigabyte),
recordable CD's are inexpensive, and you should be able to buy
a year's supply for less than $200 at most office supply
stores. (Save even more by buying CD-RWs that can be erased and
re-recorded over and over again.)
- Regularly check to make sure that you can recover data from
your backup disk, tape or CD-ROM--try downloading specific files
from the disk onto your home PC or a computer that is configured
differently from your office server.
- Make at least two backup disks, tapes or CD-ROMs, and keep one
in a secure offsite location, protected from natural disasters and
theft. One more thing: Don't forget that whoever hosts your Web
site may also suffer a disaster. If a disaster destroys the
computer server on which your Web site is located, your site is
gone. Make sure that your Internet service provider or Web hosting
service gives you a CD-ROM containing all the HTML, Java scripts
and other software code for your Web site. Whenever you update or
change your site, be sure to get an updated CD-ROM for the entire
site.
Cliff Ennico is host of the PBS television series
MoneyHunt and a leading expert on managing growing companies.
His advice for small businesses regularly appears on the
"Protecting Your Business" channel on the Small Business
Television Network at www.sbtv.com. E-mail him at cennico@legalcareer.com.