Top 7 steps to effective data backup and recovery

Your company depends on data to drive productivity and stay competitive in the industry. Imagine, for example, losing customer records and project timelines due to a system crash or malware attack. You’d face immediate challenges that would affect client relationships and your reputation in the marketplace.

With a robust data backup and recovery strategy, you can quickly restore content and get your operations back up and running, reducing the potential impact of data loss. To prepare your business for security threats and unforeseen incidents, take a look at the components of an effective backup and recovery plan.

What is data backup and recovery?

Data backup and recovery are data management processes that involve creating and storing copies of your content and ensuring its restoration in the event of loss, corruption, or disaster.

These practices are helpful for a business in situations like:

• Accidental deletions, allowing quick restoration in case someone overwrites or discards critical documents or files by mistake
• Cyberattacks, enabling recovery from ransomware or other malicious intrusions
• Natural disasters, protecting data from physical damage due to events like floods, fires, or hurricanes
• Unexpected disruptions, minimizing downtime during power outages or system failures
• Content migration, securing original information while transitioning to new systems or platforms
• Compliance audits, keeping you aligned with data retention and protection regulations

What is the difference between recovery and backup?

Data recovery and backup work together to improve information security. Their main distinctions are their timing and purpose.

• Data backup is preventive, ensuring that you have a copy of your files in case of loss
• Data recovery is remedial, allowing you to retrieve lost data if necessary

Here’s a breakdown of the differences between backup and recovery.

Benefits of cloud backup and recovery

While traditional on-prem solutions often come with hefty upfront costs and ongoing maintenance, cloud services provide a cost-effective solution that can help lower your content management overhead.

Before selecting a platform to back up and restore information, explore the benefits of cloud backup and recovery systems.

Scalability

The amount of data your company creates increases as your business grows. Cloud backup platforms with file recovery options make it easy to scale your operations without the headache of investing in new hardware. To prevent running out of space, you can increase your cloud storage capacity to accommodate your data before launching a new project or taking on a major client.

If you have a growing company, services offering cloud backup for small businesses often provide flexible pricing that adjusts to storage needs.

Data integrity and compliance

According to IDC, 60% of organizations experienced unrecoverable information due to ransomware attacks, jeopardizing data integrity and compliance. HIPAA compliance requires healthcare organizations to back up patient information, enabling easy restoration in case of natural disaster, system failure, or any other event compromising data access.

Backup and recovery solutions offer extra measures like file encryption and retention policies that prevent your content from being lost or modified while meeting regulations that mandate specific data protection practices.

Information security

With a secure cloud backup platform, your IT team can enhance protection against cyberattacks using granular access controls, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and password protection, minimizing disruption and financial losses.

Strengthened information security saves you money. In fact, Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report indicates that 62% of financially motivated incidents involved ransomware or extortion, with an average loss of $46,000 per breach.

Discover the top benefits of password-protected file sharing.

How to do data backup and recovery: A 7-step guide

If you don’t want to worry about manual backups or security processes slowing down your operations, consider switching to cloud backup services. They let IT teams automate regular backups, monitor for threats in real time, and enforce compliance policies, all while reducing the manual effort needed to keep your data secure and available.

If your goal is to develop secure backup and recovery strategies for your business, follow these seven steps:

1. Create a backup and recovery plan

A clear backup and recovery plan outlines how your business backs up content and restores it in the event of a loss. It details the types of data you’ll back up, along with backup frequency, storage locations, a disaster recovery plan, and the responsibilities of each member involved in the process.

This roadmap helps you set backup and data recovery objectives, reducing guesswork during emergencies by documenting best practices for data loss prevention.

2. Choose your backup and recovery solution

Now that you know your business requirements, it’s time to opt for data backup and recovery software. Look for cloud solutions based on your business size, industry requirements, and data sensitivity with:

• Encrypted document sharing: This feature lets you collaborate on files by protecting all shared documents with encryption, so only users with the decryption key can view and change the information
• Mobile access: Accessing data from anywhere supports flexibility and productivity, which can be especially useful for remote and dynamic teams
• Audit trail: This capability offers a record of data access and modifications, helping you detect any unauthorized activity or breaches
• Version control: This function allows you to track and manage changes to documents, eliminating confusion and allowing everyone to work on the latest version
• Cloud storage solutions: With scalable services in the cloud, you accommodate increasing data volumes and pay only for the storage you use

3. Use a cloud sync service

Cloud sync means the automatic synchronization of files across multiple devices and your cloud storage. Any changes made on one device are instantly accessible on all others, making it easy to access and collaborate on contracts, project plans, or reports.

Suppose members of your sales team work remotely and need access to the latest client contracts wherever they happen to be. With cloud sync, they always have access to the most current versions. This prevents errors like sending old versions of agreements or delays caused by outdated information.

4. Assess data recovery options

Once you have a backup solution in place, make sure you understand your data recovery options. Test how quickly and effectively you can restore lost data. Knowing your recovery capabilities ensures you’re prepared to restore only what’s needed and can avoid restoring unnecessary information.

5. Restore your files

Restoration is a best practice for implementing backup and recovery procedures because it serves as the ultimate test of your backup plan. By regularly practicing file restoration, your IT team becomes familiar with handling real-life data-loss incidents efficiently. This proactive approach minimizes the panic and confusion that can come up during actual emergencies.

6. Protect your data recovery and backup processes

Proofpoint’s 2024 Data Loss Landscape Report shows that 85% of organizations experienced at least one data loss incident in 2023. Such incidents can happen for many reasons, from human error to cyber threats, so you need security measures that go beyond just backup solutions.

Consider data backup and recovery services with data leakage prevention, data classification, and file and folder permissions to make sure only the right users can access sensitive information.

7. Review and update your plan

Keep in mind that backup and recovery isn’t a one-and-done deal. Regularly reviewing and updating your strategy keeps it aligned with your evolving business needs and advancements in technology. However, be aware that these processes can be time consuming, especially when relying on on-prem solutions.

Cloud backup streamlines these efforts, so you gain the flexibility to access your data regardless of your location. Plus, with enterprise-grade security and compliance features, you get peace of mind knowing your sensitive information is protected against threats like ransomware and data breaches.

Improve your backup and recovery strategies with Box

Box is the Intelligent Content Cloud: a secure platform that empowers teams to manage the entire content lifecycle in one place. With Box, you benefit from file creation, storage, collaboration, e-signature, and so much more.

You also avoid the hassle of manual backups. You can sync files of all types from anywhere, on any device. Our scalable data storage is easy to upgrade, allowing your business to accommodate growing data needs without worrying about storage space.

Back up your sensitive data with frictionless security and compliance to enhance your security posture and keep your content safe. If a data loss incident occurs, you benefit from failsafe cloud backup, supported by reliable power sources and backup systems that offer 99.9% SLAs and redundancy.

Contact us today, and let’s discuss data backup and recovery solutions for your business.

While we maintain our steadfast commitment to offering products and services with best-in-class privacy, security, and compliance, the information provided in this blog post is not intended to constitute legal advice. We strongly encourage prospective and current customers to perform their own due diligence when assessing compliance with applicable laws.