As a business owner, your data can be a critical element to doing business. If you're without it even for a day, how would that affect you? What if you lose it permanently? Would your business survive? Would it suffer? Would it cost you a lot of time to re-do or replace files?

Apart from business files, many small business owners keep their personal files on the same machine. So consider the loss of precious photos or home movies, as well as personal journals or other files.

Any number of things could happen which would leave you with your critical files; fire, flood, theft, hardware failure or just accidental deletion. When looking for a solution, here are a few things to consider:

Automatic

The one thing about business women is they are busy, busy, BUSY! I know. I am one. I don't have time to spend copying files every day, every week or even every month, and I'm sure you don't either. Not that month old files would be any good to anyone. And, even if I did have time, I probably wouldn't remember or want to spend my time doing this.

For me, the only option that makes sense is a software solution that send my files to an online data backup service.

Offsite

God forbid your office explodes from the friction caused by your fingers on the keyboard, you want to ensure your files are backed up as far away as possible. I don't necessarily mean in India, but outside the walls of your office or home office will do.

Secure

Wherever you do store your backed up files, you want to ensure they are safe and secure. If it's through an online data backup service, check with them on their security procedures. You want to make sure no one has access to them, especially if they contain private, confidential information.Also, check with them on the transfer of data. Does it get encrypted while sending?

Of course, if you choose a physical off-site location, you want to ensure they have physical security on their location and that employees do not have access to the disks.

Unlimited Space

One terabyte of hard drive space goes for less than $200 these days, so there should be no qualms about you backing up all your files. Look for a solution that doesn't limit the amount of files you can backup.  

So whatever solution you choose...my recommendation is to at least choose one! Don't let another day go by without the security of knowing your digital life is taken care of. It will help contribute to your physical life being more relaxed.

Here is the one I recommend. It's simple to use, works automatically in the background and is less than $60/year for unlimited space. You can't beat that! One caveat...they don't backup external drives although the company says it won't be long before they do.

Carbonite Online Backup. Unlimited backup--secure and encrypted, for just $54.95 per year. Start your free trial today!