How to back up?
Making a security copy, or simply backing up, is an essential task both for businesses and for anyone who uses a computer. Backing up personal data is obviously much simpler than backing up a company's data, but in both cases backup is extremely important.
What is a backup for?
We can lose our files for many reasons: computer or software malfunction, viruses, power outages, theft, fire. Users themselves may delete information by accident, or we may want to recover an older version of information that has since changed. For these and many other reasons, the only way not to lose information is to back it up. The chart below shows the main causes of data loss.
How to back up your personal computer?
In this case, the data is usually photos, personal documents, schoolwork, videos and other files.
To make this backup, first decide what you want to back up and where that information (files and folders) is on your computer. Next, define when all the information will be backed up at once (what we call a complete or full backup) and when only the most recent information will be saved (an incremental or differential backup). Finally, define where these backups will be stored (the destination). The destination can be a USB flash drive or the cloud, for example (or both). It is important that the destination is not physically close to where the original data is. In short, once you know what to back up, when and where, all that remains is how. You have two options: manual or automatic backup.
Manual backup: choose the important files and folders to include in the backup and, using a compression tool, create an archive containing them and save it to the chosen destination.
How to back up your company's computers?
In a company, both the amount and the complexity of information are greater (disaster recovery and databases in use, for example), so the backup policy must be more elaborate. More robust destinations are also needed, capable of handling larger volumes of data at higher speeds, such as magnetic tapes and libraries. In this case, manual backup becomes unsafe, inefficient and expensive (because it requires more staff than a backup automation tool). Automatic backups are recommended for businesses.
How to back up to the cloud?
To back up to the cloud, estimate how much space you need to implement your cloud backup policy and hire a provider you trust. Then choose backup automation software to implement your policy - or use S.O.S Cloud, which already offers everything: backup software + cloud storage, making implementation much simpler.