Photo by CC user Wikieditor243 via wikimedia commons
When you take a moment to think about it, your data is the heart and soul of your business.
If your company’s data is breached and/or wiped out due to a natural disaster or some other calamity; your business can end up being gone too.
With that being the case, what protections do you have in place so that your data is safe and secure?
If the protections are lackadaisical at best, the time to change that is now.
Make Data Protection a Priority
For your business data to stay safe and secure, remember these tips:
- Choosing the right provider – Your data center is oftentimes only as good as the company providing it. In searching for the right provider, make sure you look at how long the company has been around, what level of satisfaction it receives from customers, and whether it offers on-site support or instead outsources assistance needs. There are a number of ways to go about selecting the best provider, one of which is searching the Internet. By doing a Google search involving data centers, visit a number of data center provider websites, comparing each as to what they offer customers. Given one of if not your top goals is limiting your expenses, find the provider that is best able to eliminate redundancy in your business;
- Central focus – Having a Data Center that is centralized in one location makes it easier to troubleshoot any problems that may arise. Instead of having multi-tenant data centers to keep an eye on, having one central focus makes monitoring and fixing when need be much easier. By going with an enclosed cabinet structure, you also improve the surroundings by where your servers can properly do their jobs. Finally, better efficiency and conditions for your data centers allows for longer usage of the equipment, something that will save your business money over time;
- Importance of security – Securing your company’s data center should always be a major priority, especially in today’s heightened environment of data breaches and identity theft worldwide. Whether the attempted crime of stealing data comes from outside or within your organization, any attempt must be thwarted and dealt with immediately. If they aren’t, you run the risk of your customers losing faith in your ability to protect sensitive data. Your company data should be treated as money, much in the same way that banks protect the countless sums of money they protect on a daily basis within their confines. By having the right data center in play, you decrease the odds of a planned or accidental data loss. From not leaving wires exposed to making sure only authorized personnel have access to your data center (you should monitor each and every person accessing the center via keycards or other means of gaining entry), never take security for granted. A sound data center infrastructure also has physical security as one of its calling cards against attempted thefts;
- Disaster recovery – Finally, what happens if there is a data breach or a natural disaster? How soon can you access the data you’re in need of to run your business efficiently? Worse yet, is the data gone for good? Making sure your data center provider has a recovery plan in place is critical. Protecting your data and equipment are two of the most important items on your agenda. In the vetting process to find the best data center provider for your business needs, emphasize the importance of being able to recover your data at a moment’s notice. If the proposed provider can’t tell you how this would be done, move on to another provider. As more and more companies move to having most or all of their data stored on computers, protecting and being able to recover that data during an accidental or malicious breach is crucial. In the end, many customers won’t care why the data went missing, just what you’re going to do about it.
If your company’s data center does not currently have everything it needs, make that a priority moving forward.
When you stop and think about how important your data is to being able to run your business efficiently and within your financial means, having a dedicated and productive data center is a necessity, not a choice.