Cybersecurity

Data Backup Solutions for Small Business

Today, businesses of all sizes are handling more data than ever before. According to a recent estimate, global data creation reached 149 zettabytes in 2024 and could reach up to 294 zettabytes by 2028. Storing, managing and maintaining this data can be challenging because of the increased volume, quality and complexity of business data.

Without an effective data backup and recovery strategy, small businesses risk losing all this data, significantly impacting their reputation, productivity, efficiency and bottom line. In addition, it maintains data integrity and fosters customer trust while ensuring business availability and continuity.

What Is Data Backup?

Data backup refers to the process of duplicating data and other business information and storing it in different locations. It helps maintain digital assets’ security and integrity while ensuring a fast and seamless disaster recovery.

Businesses need to perform regular and periodic backups to ensure business continuity in case primary copies are lost, deleted or corrupted. Backup data copies act as insurance against potential data loss caused by accidental deletion, external attacks, data breaches, hardware failures, software crashes, virus attacks, natural disasters or human error. Learn more about the importance of data backup for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Why Is Backing Up Data Important?

According to a research report by Ponemon Institute and IBM, the global average cost of data breaches increased 10% in 2024, reaching $4.88 million. Having backup data copies helps with fast recovery, which is essential for business continuity and prevents significant financial and reputational damage.

Additionally, it prevents legal implications of data breaches to customers’ data and ensures compliance with the more stringent compliance regulations. There are many advantages of data backup and recovery, here are some of the main ones:

Prevent Data Loss

Reliable data backup and recovery services secure sensitive customer information, financial records, administrative documents, system files and personnel information. Scheduling automatic regular backups ensures all data has copies, ensuring secure storage, maintenance, management and retrieval of backup data. Backups bolster data security and provide protection against cyber attacks like data sprawls and breaches.

Simplify Business Recovery

Secure backups simplify recovering or restoring data lost through accidental file deletion and other events. They also save employees time and energy they’d typically spend redoing reports or reproducing data copies. Data recovery provides a seamless transition to data backup without losing records to ensure efficiency and productivity and maintain trust in client relationships.

Save Costs

Data loss can cost businesses thousands of dollars because of the downtime associated with IT disruption and downtime. Small businesses lose money every minute of unplanned downtime. These costs can be up to $1 million or more in annual revenue and intangible costs like reputational damage, loss of productivity and stalled projects.

With backup, you also avoid lawsuits and legal penalties associated with unauthorized access and misuse of sensitive customer and employee information. It prevents the extraneous costs of crisis management businesses incur after a data breach.

Ensure Compliance

Data backup for business ensures the safe storage of customer records to ensure compliance with data protection legal standards. It helps develop archives that allow businesses to have records of essential data necessary for auditing and legal reasons many years down the line. Data backup may also keep you in business by ensuring you’re operating under the laws and regulations of your industry, which is especially important for companies in the health, legal and finance industries.

Types of Data Backup Methods

Different types of data backup solutions exist for your small business enterprise. The right choice determines your business’s long-term sustainability and seamlessly integrates with your business recovery plan. The following are the main data backup methods to consider for SMBs:

Full Backup

A full database backup refers to creating copies of all the information in your database. This should be done regularly to ensure all your organizational data is duplicated and that recovery times are shorter and faster. However, it can be a resource-intensive process that takes up a lot of storage space, especially when you have limited bandwidth.

Incremental Backup

This involves making backups only on data that has changed since the last backup. It is an efficient process done in small parts that takes up less storage space and can be completed faster than a full backup. Because it requires fewer resources, you can make frequent and real-time updates to your database. Unfortunately, incremental backup presents a small risk of data loss when a certain instance of changed data is not captured during the backup.

Differential Backup

Differential backups are a hybrid of incremental and full backups. They involve making copies of all the data that has changed or been added since the last full backup. They also involve incremental backups between each full backup to allow for a complete record of data changes. Differential backups provide a similar level of accuracy as full backups with considerably fewer resources but more than you’d use with incremental backups.

Small Business Backup Strategies

There are two main backup strategies to consider for your small business:

• Off-site backups: Off-site data storage is becoming increasingly popular for its many advantages, including regular, automated backups. It involves leveraging the services of an external storage service provider to manage and maintain the data.
• On-site backups: On-premise storage relies on physical infrastructure, such as servers, drivers and computers, to store data locally. Businesses need a dedicated in-house IT team or a managed service provider (MSP) to manage and maintain the data.

Frequently Asked Questions

Get answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about data backups for SMBs:

• Is it mandatory for businesses to back up data? While backing up data may not be universally mandated, it’s essential for complying with data protection regulations. It also helps comply with industry-specific standards and regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) for healthcare businesses and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for businesses in the EU.
• What is the importance of backing up data? Backing up business data helps to safeguard your business’s data assets and ensure you’re prepared for unfortunate data breach situations.
• What is the best strategy for protecting critical business data? The 3-2-1 backup strategy is the best for protecting sensitive business data. It involves having data copies in three different locations, including on a local hard drive, another device on your business premises and off-site on the cloud.

Reach Out to Kirbtech for Corporate Data Backup

Kirbtech is a managed IT service provider that offers small- to medium-sized businesses customized data backup and management services. We provide on-site support and cloud storage management solutions for your business’s unique goals and needs. Contact us today for a quote or more information about how our cloud management services can help you scale your business.