Small Business Data Backup Strategies

When a crypto-virus hits you not only lose every database, letter, logo, spread sheet, bookmark, employee record, and email—but years of decisions, collaboration, and money poured into your business. Countless hours of work are locked in plain sight, morphed into random characters with unbreakable encryption.

Paying the ransom isn’t smart, ethically or financially. Cyber-criminals are as untrustworthy as their land-based counterparts. While big business has reportedly lost hundreds of millions of dollars to the NSA’s EternalBlue exploit adopted by criminal hackers, the impact on small and medium sized business goes largely unreported and certainly underappreciated.

The only way to safely recover your data is to have it backed up. And while cloud backup checks all the boxes in terms of security, functionality, and cost, a $30 flash drive and a diligent assistant can also be your savior. To that end, we’ve put together several data protection strategies along with our honest assessment of their efficacy, reliability, and cost.

Flash/Thumb Drives

These little guys get faster and more jam packed every day. Right now, 2 terabyte drives set the limit. That’s a tremendous amount of data and enough to backup several computers, which might be your entire office. If you backed up the documents folder on each of your computers you wouldn’t regret it, even if you only did it once. I would have given my right arm for year-old backup.

There are plenty of drawbacks with flash drives. Most noteworthy, if all your data is portable it can walk out the door with an employee or thief. The drives are very small, which is a blessing and curse; they’re as easy to lose as Chapstick. So if you use this strategy be sure to store the drives in a safe place.

In this scenario, the responsibility of keeping your data backed up is yours alone. We don’t recommend it, but it can work and if you have a tight budget and it’s infinitely better than doing nothing.


IT'S FAST Local data transfers quickly. IT'S CHEAP Although you can pay lot for large capacity drives, smaller drives are inexpensive and have enough capacity for most backup needs. IT'S SMALL Like a pack of gum small.		NOT AUTOMATED Data is not routinely saved. Data will likely fall out of date. NOT SECURE Vulnerable to crypto-virus and ransomware attacks. No encryption or protection on sensitive data. Drives can be easily lost. Drives can be easily stolen. VULNERABILITIES No protection against lightening strikes. No protection against power surges. No protection against drops or falls. No protection against natural disasters. LOCAL HARDWARE All hardware has a lifespan and will fail at some point. Local hardware failure goes largely undetected so data is lost when it fails. NO VERSIONING Files are saved normally, overwriting previous work. Other backup systems will keep older versions for a period of time.


AUTOMATED Backups can be scheduled which ensures that backups will be up to date in the event of loss. AFFORDABLE Drives are relatively inexpensive. SOME SECURITY Most software packages include some security configurations. FAST RESTORATION Local data can be restored quickly.		NOT SECURE Vulnerable to crypto-virus and ransomware attacks. No encryption or protection on sensitive data. Drives can be easily lost. Drives can be easily stolen. VULNERABILITIES No protection against lightening strikes. No protection against power surges. No protection against drops or falls. No protection against natural disasters. NO VERSIONING Files are saved normally, overwriting previous work. Other backup systems will keep older versions for a period of time. LOCAL HARDWARE All hardware has a lifespan and will fail at some point. Local hardware failure goes largely undetected so data is lost when it fails.

External Drive Backup

Most external hard drive solutions come complete with software to automate your backup. This solution works fairly well for desktop computers. You can ‘set and forget’ backups to run overnight and they are reasonably priced. I don’t recommend for laptops for the simple reason that they’re cumbersome and unsafe to travel with.

There are several weaknesses with this strategy, however. First, they’ll suffer the same fate as your computer in a natural disaster. A lightning strike is just as likely to take out your external drive as your internal one. Since the drive connects to your computer its files will be encrypted and held for ransom in a crypto-virus attack as well. Physical security raises another concern, if a thief is jacking your computer he’s taking the drive too.

Mirrored Drives

If you can afford IT services, installing mirrored drives can almost zero out down time. Your main drive perpetually writes an exact copy to the mirrored drive. So if the main drive fails, you simply start up your computer on the mirrored drive like nothing happened. Of course, you’ll need to fix the root problem and get a new primary drive right away, but you won’t miss deadlines or disappoint clients.

Mirrored drives share the same vulnerabilities as external drives in terms of natural disasters, vulnerability to crypto-viruses, and theft.


AUTOMATED Backups can be scheduled which ensures that backups will be up to date in the event of loss. QUICK RECOVERY Local data is always present.		NOT SECURE Vulnerable to crypto-virus and ransomware attacks. No encryption or protection on sensitive data. Drives can be easily lost. Drives can be easily stolen. VULNERABILITIES No protection against lightening strikes. No protection against power surges. No protection against drops or falls. No protection against natural disasters. NO VERSIONING Files are saved normally, overwriting previous work. Other backup systems will keep older versions for a period of time. LOCAL HARDWARE All hardware has a lifespan and will fail at some point. Local hardware failure goes largely undetected so data is lost when it fails. PRICEY Setup by experienced IT staff can be expensive.


OFFSITE STORAGE Files are stored offsite which eliminates local hardware vulnerabilities. REMOTE RECOVERY Files can be restored to any computer in any location. AFFORDABLE File sharing services are generally priced competiviely.		NOT AUTOMATED Data is not saved unless you copy and paste it intot the file shareing directory structure. Although in some cases versions are saved the restoration process of these files is typically not automated. FILE LIMITATIONS Database files and files that must reside within a definined structure are not backed up. NOT SECURE* Since files reside on your system as well as in the cloud, they will still be modified by crypto-viruses. *However, old versions of files can generally be restored.

File Sharing Software (e.g. DropBox)

Services like DropBox are evolving to meet the needs of small business. Like dedicated backup services, they keep versions of your files that can be restored. I implemented DropBox as my first backup solution after our data loss. But if you’re using file sharing software for its intended use, file sharing, you’ll quickly find that your files will outgrow your hard drive. In addition, files are not backed up on a schedule and if your working files reside in a shared directory, your hard drive and bandwidth will take a bigger hit.

Cloud Backup

Cloud backup consists of client and remote systems working together to store your data offsite. This automated system runs either continuously or on a schedule you choose. When you edit files, the system saves a new version of the file to the backup system. The software securely transmits this new version to the backup server, making it recoverable for the period of time specified your agreement. Cloud storage also comes with end-to-end encryption so your data cannot be stolen in transit.

The most basic level of cloud backup saves one computer’s “Documents” folder. In this scenario, if your computer were hit with a crypto-virus, for example, files are safely stored offsite. Most Operating systems have the ability reinstall themselves quickly, wiping out the virus, and your files can be safely restored.

More robust cloud backup options include entire system image backups. Instead of reinstalling the OS, computers and servers are restored entirely to the last time good data was saved, restart and they’re up and running.

While no perfect system exists, Nordic Backup evolved over the years, guided by our mission to protect our customers from data loss. Our diligent staff, built-in warning systems, and smart client software ensure your data is always backed up and there when you need it.


FAST RESTORATION Depending on your service level recovery ranges from fast to to extremely fast. Server images can be switched on in minutes and file restoration can begin as soon as hardware is available. OFFSITE STORAGE Files are stored offsite which eliminates local hardware vulnerabilities. AFFORDABLE Cloud backup services are generally priced competiviely. SECURE 256 bit encryption from end to end Secure data centers Redndant backups		PERMANENT Cloud backup has one mission: to protect data in perpetuity so that if and when it is needed, it's available immediately. Data is stored on multiple redundant storage systems in redundant data centers that are monitored 24/7 and can survive multiple simultaneous hardware failures with zero loss of data.