By Jon Thordarson, European Technical Support Manager at KeepItSafe
September 25, 2015

KeepItSafe Cloud Backup Expert Tips: How Do You Make Compliance So Easy?

The life force of any company is its data. Most business owners now know that protecting their data is one of the most crucial elements to a company’s survival. From the most mundane documents to highly sensitive data, such as credit card or health information, social security numbers of employees or customers, all data needs to be safeguarded. In fact, regulatory bodies have become more aware of the fact that digital records present additional risks to privacy and consequently have instated legislation that makes protecting sensitive information not only wise, but also a legal necessity.

Some of the common regulatory compliance laws that a small business could be subject to are the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, European Union Data Protection Directive, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and Japan’s Personal Information Protection Act, among several other regulations.

One of the most important parts of compliance is ensuring access to stored data at all times. This means that an organization needs to be prepared for any type of failure in their storage systems. And if you think it will never happen to you, then think again! Disasters happen to organizations almost every day: a business system database becomes corrupt in the middle of a quarter-end financial audit, or the electronic message server goes offline in the middle of an SEC investigation. These types of data losses can result in losses of productivity, customers, and revenue, and in many cases, significant data loss can even force a business to shut down! Here is where a data recovery service comes to the rescue.

If you are concerned about compliance, start with regular backups. Here is what needs to be addressed. First, consider whether or not all of your company’s data needs to be backed up and if certain files are more valuable or irreplaceable than others. Deciding what data is critical and what you are obliged to keep can help you in backing up the important files. For most companies, this includes emails, customer data and financial data, which should be backed up every day and must be recoverable. Then, consider how often the data needs to be backed up and how long you need the records to be stored. Some businesses backup data on a continuous basis so that any new file updates will be recoverable immediately, while others do it at the end of each day with a scheduled backup. Then, consider storing the data in more than one place so that a flood, fire or power outage at the primary storage site does not destroy your backed up data.

Many organizations are now required by compliance regulations to have a contingency plan in place so that they can continue to operate in the event of data loss. While there are many data protection options available such as Tape Drives, Removable Storage Drives and External Disc Media (CDs, DVDs), many businesses find that they still have to allocate time to maintaining these systems. Even if you have good backup practices such as conducting regular backups and taking the media off-site, you may have concerns about the reliability of these systems. Tape-based backups are well known for recovery failures., and if that is the only backup you have, it could spell disaster. Here’s where you want to consider the benefits of online backup.

Remote online data backup has many advantages, starting with fully automated data backups at secure off-site facilities, and low service costs compared to external media. There is no media to buy, rotate, catalogue or store off-site, and your data is encrypted so you know that it is always secure.

There are obviously many important compliance issues to address for your particular business. Starting with regular backups is an easy way to cover some of these regulations and ensure that your critical information is securely stored for as long as necessary, yet quickly accessible when needed. And the use of an online backup service makes this even easier.

KeepItSafe supports compliance through automated, continuous off-site data protection with on-demand recovery, while ensuring strict data security and confidentiality. And that is compliance made easy!

About the Author:
Jon Thordarson, KeepItSafe’s European Technical Support Manager, has over 15 years as an industry executive. He is an expert in the world of online backup and data protection. Prior to leading the development of technical infrastructure at KeepItSafe®, Jon co-founded and served as CTO for SecurStore – a leading provider of cloud backup services for enterprise networks. Thousands of businesses trust Jon’s guidance with fluctuating data-compliance requirements through the online publication, “EU Data Protection Regulation”. As a principal contributor, Jon identifies the challenges and opportunities of the EU Data Protection Regulation, while providing expert advice for readers to meet new compliance standards. Visit KeepItSafe’s website here: www.KeepItsafe.com

 

 

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