When we talk about data loss, we often talk in terms of big losses. We talk about legal fees due to hacking and the loss of personal information from customers. We talk about the cost of downtime due to computer damage after a natural disaster. We may even talk about the struggle of a small business entrepreneur who loses their home computer system in a disaster or virus attack, and loses their business along with it.
These costs are important, but today, let’s look at the specific costs of losing actual files that you or your business use on a regular basis. What are the costs, tangible and non-tangible, of that kind of loss?
Memory Loss
Our lives have been digitized. Tax records, photos, and contact information are all contained on our computer drives. This is fantastic for those who are trying to live in smaller spaces and lead more portable lives, but if malware or a virus wipes out your computer, and you have no backups, you can lose all of those important memories. At best, you are going to spend a lot of time recreating financial records; at worst, you will lose precious photos and irreplaceable memories that you can never recapture.
We don’t talk about it as often, but businesses also have institutional memories. Losing client records, document templates, and history files can have a severe impact on business operations. Like personal files, at best, you will need to spend labour hours on recreating what you’ve lost; at worst, you will have lost institutional information that you cannot retrieve.
Time Loss
In both of these scenarios, you will need to spend some time figuring out what you’ve lost, and if it’s retrievable. Some documents are; you can call your accountant for a new copy of your taxes, or redownload them from the site where you completed them. You can contact relatives and comb email files to find copies of pictures. But all of that takes time, and it’s time you could be spending creating new memories. Businesses which have just suffered a loss of data are often at a disadvantage in the marketplace, and they simply can’t afford to spend their time this way.
Trust Loss
The most difficult loss for businesses when they lose files is the loss of trust from their customers. If a customer is used to platinum level service when they call, suddenly having no one know their name or their record is going to be incredibly displeasing to them. A good customer service agent can probably make it okay, but it’s better to just not have the problem in the first place.
The solution to avoid all of these problems is to make good backups of all of your important files, whether they be personal, business, or somewhere in between. Make sure that your backups are stored somewhere other than your home or business, so that they’re protected in case of disaster. If you need help setting up backups, contact Nerds 2 You. We’re happy to help!
