DAISNAIDThis statement, often used to point out hypocrisy, played out for me in a way recently that I’d like to use as an illustration for driving home a point.

As I’ve pointed out repeatedly on this website and my Facebook page, having current backups is an important part of an overall security strategy. If everything else in your protection fails and your files become corrupted (whether by outside interference, aka ransomware, or by normal hardware and/or software failures), having a good recent backup can be a lifesaver. Many times it can mean the difference between performing a quick restore and re-entering data for the time period since the backup or having to start all over again. Many times, I suspect businesses may never quite recover from a disastrous data loss.

In my case, my lack of current backups came to light when my web host notified me that his server had had an unusual (and almost unheard of) total failure of multiple hard drives. He said he was going to have to restore my website back to his last backup which was many months old and was prior to the entire redesign and rewrite I had done on my website. (I will point out here that it is not the responsibility of your web host to back up your website so this is not unusual for the industry.)

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. I had spent countless hours creating a new website and writing content and did not relish the thought of doing that all again. And the fact that this happened at the same time I had closed my offices and moved them back into the home, already taking me out of the public eye, made me wonder at one point if this might mean the end of my business.

I was able to work with my web host and started picking up the pieces from various different places. In the end, I was able to restore my website to a functioning state without having to start all over, although it did take some valuable time and impacted my day-to-day business activities for several weeks.

This was a very embarrassing learning experience for me in heeding my own recommendations. Since that time, I have implemented better backup practices in my own business and hope to never repeat this kind of experience again.

My hope is that you too will take away something from my experience and examine the backup practices in your business to make sure they are appropriate. This includes data of yours that may or may not be on your own network.

If you need support making that assessment, The Brush Geek can provide help!