What would happen if you arrived at work tomorrow and discovered that it was all gone from your hard drive? (insert freak out here)

Data back-up is like flossing your teeth or checking your car’s tire pressure. It’s something you should do regularly but probably don’t. Lots of people don’t. There are usually 3 reasons why people don’t back things up:

1. It took a lot of time to back things up;
2. It could cost a lot of money for storage space;
3. It was a hassle.

Fortunately, those aren’t excuses any longer. Advancements in data storage have dramatically improved backing-up opportunities and have resolved these three issues. Now, there are all kinds of options that you can implement to back up your data.

Here are the three that I use.

External Hard drive. For a hundred bucks or so you can get a TON of space (probably more than you’ll need for the amount of information you currently have). I keep my hard drive connected to my computer and have it set on "auto sync" (the synchronizing software came with the hard drive). So, every few minutes, my external hard drive whirrrrs for a moment and everything is mirrored between my computer and my hard drive.

USB stick. I like the external hard drive for a close-at-hand solution that carries a lot of information. But sometimes I like the security of knowing that my information is easily accessible but not at my office. At the end of every day, my receptionist takes 3 minutes to copy over my computer files to a USB stick and puts it on my desk where I pick it up on the way out the door. If I need to do work offsite, this is a handy way to have everything with me.

Amazon. This is the mother of all backups. I love it and highly recommend it. It costs just a few cents a month (no, that’s not an exaggeration. I think I pay 50 cents a month). You go to www.JungleDisk.com and follow their instructions to download their program. Then sign up at Amazon S3 (JungleDisk has all the details). Then run JungleDisk on your computer. You can configure it to save regularly to Amazon’s "cloud". It’s so easy.

Now that I’ve given you these 3 storage ideas, here’s a best practice: Do all 3. Your data is your business and if it were to be lost, it could cost you. Like paying for insurance, it can seem unnecessary… UNTIL you need it! So, for the cost of an external hard drive, a USB stick, and Amazon’s back-up, it’s well worth the peace of mind and business continuation that you’ll get. Take an hour or two and get it all working together. Get a back-up system in place. Yes, you’ll lose an hour of productivity, but if disaster ever strikes your business, you’ll be able to bounce back fast.

Today’s technology solves all three previous excuses you had for not backing up data: It’s so quick (and sometimes automated) to back up your data. It costs so little now to back up in all three ways. And, it’s as easy as dragging files from one place to another.

Okay, you’ve reached the end of this post. Did you write "put a back-up plan in place" in your schedule? Scratch it out. That’s right, scratch it out. Don’t schedule it. Do it right now.

I’m watching you. Do it now.

No, don’t even think about clicking to another site. Put a back-up plan in place.

Think I’m nagging you? Trust me, you’ll thank me some day.

Contemporary VA

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