Since data is the heart of your business, it's crucial for you to protect it, as well as to protect the ability to access it in the event of a system failure. If you have no backup solution that automatically stores your data offsite and allows you to continue operating while your server is being repaired, you are not as well protected as you could be!

The type and nature of the data you use in your business, as well as the business needs that must be met during a recovery determine when and how often you should perform backups. There are a few questions to consider when evaluating data backup solutions: How long can your business remain productive without critical data? How long can you wait for parts and service if you experience a server hardware breakdown without hurting your business or reputation with customers? What kind of method or backup solution should you use? Is there a cost effective way to have a reliable backup and disaster recovery solution?

We've all heard horror stories about lost data, and the effect of lost data on a business. There are numerous ways a company can lose data. It can be as simple as accidental corruption of data, or as complex as a server crashing. It can take days to diagnose server failure, order parts for repair, or physically replace a server. Most small businesses have mission critical data that is necessary to accomplish daily initiatives and drive revenue. Could you come into work tomorrow and be productive if you didn't have access to all of your files and records?

The majority of small businesses use tape drives or no backup solution at all. Tape drives, while relatively inexpensive, are not highly reliable. They use magnetic tape to store data that is susceptible to deterioration, breaking and stretching, resulting in a failure rate of over 40%. Even the tapes that do backup successfully can lose information over time and can degrade when being transported to a remote location for storage. They can easily be dropped, stolen, or damaged by heat while simply sitting in an employee's car when they stop after work to grab a gallon of milk. Even if the tape solution was error-free, it can't help you when the server hardware is down.

Many businesses don't use a reliable backup solution, or consider how they would recover from a disaster because they don't think they can afford it. Guidant Partners is having much success bringing an affordable combination of new technologies to small businesses. Our backup and disaster recovery service presents an entirely new value proposition to the small business community. For a flat monthly fee, we provide our clients an enterprise-class solution that eliminates the cost of additional equipment or hardware for the end user's backup, while providing a nearly continuous capture of data as it is created and modified. In the event of disaster, the data is encrypted and safely stored in a remote data center, so even if the client's server is physically destroyed, we can recover the data to new hardware from the remote copy. If one of our client's servers experiences a failure, we can have them temporarily restored and running from a virtual server maintaining the continuity of their business while the problem is resolved. Once the physical server is back in commission, we move all the new data on the virtual server back to their server for a full and permanent recovery with minimal interruption to the business.

It's time to stop risking your business on unreliable tapes, and losing productivity when you experience system failures. Guidant Partners can deliver you a robust and affordable solution to back up and protect your critical business data and servers from employee misconduct, hardware failures, theft, fire, flood, or tornado. Guidant Partners would be honored to show you a better way to protect your business! For more information, or to receive a free Backup and Disaster Recovery Assessment, please call us at 615-327-9111 or send an inquiry through our website at http://www.guidantpartners.com.