Most businesses today rely on lots of data in order to run well. For this reason, information is considered an increasingly important aspect of running any business, and can even be thought of as an asset. Being one of the most important assets in most firms, you should consider doing as much as you can to protect it. Storing it in such a manner that the risk of loss is low is usually the ideal. To achieve this, you should consider planning on storing your company’s data offsite, rather than within the company’s premises.
Benefits of doing this
The major benefit of storing the data offsite is that it will be easier to manage. Most firms that provide offsite data storage and management services will provide the hardware and expertise needed for this, which means that you can then focus on running your company. In fact, you can use this as an opportunity to get rid of company positions that will be taken over by the firm.
This way, you can reduce your staff and consequently reduce how much you need to spend to keep the company running on a monthly basis. Choosing to store data offsite also provides other benefits including the ability to access it from anywhere around the world, and making your office a leaner working environment. Once the data is offsite, you won’t need to clutter the office with hardware such as many servers for this data.
Questions you need to ask yourself before making the conversion
Once you have decided to move your data offsite, there are a few questions you should ask yourself and your team. Having comprehensive answers to these will make the move seamless, and will also reduce the risk of other complications arising. Some of these include:
• Who will handle the legwork? Ideally, a party that has a lot of experience in providing such services should be left to handle the movement of data to an offsite storage facility to reduce the risk of complications. If you intend to use an OEM appliance in Washington, DC, for instance, you could choose to give this duty to the contractor providing the appliance.
• How much time will you give the process? You need to be clear about the amount of time it will take to switch over to an offsite facility. This becomes very important if the data is critical to the functioning of the company, and needs to be updated in real-time. In such cases, your goal should be to minimize the amount of time it takes to make the switch.
• Will the company need to shut down? Sometimes, the process of moving data to other storage facilities will be complex enough to require the company to stop operations for some time. If this happens to be the case, you need to plan for it. For instance, you may need to notify your clients in advance that you are going to stop all or specific operations for a specified duration of time. In some cases, you may need to invest in temporary measures to cover for this.
• How will you handle testing and quality control? Once the data has been moved, its integrity has to be checked to ensure that it’s not been corrupted. You also need to find out if the company can still run as required while depending on offsite data. To do this, you will need to plan for quality control checks as well as systems testing well in advance.
Consulting a firm that has a lot of experience in offering storage solutions is an excellent way to ensure that all the above factors are handled right.
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