It’s the one thing that security experts say again, and again, and again: backup your data! But it’s the one thing everyone ignores right up until they suffer a ransomware attack.

From website data to business data, backups are easy to do. Most require simple software that performs these backups immediately. Now you might be wondering how often you should backup to the cloud.

Every business should backup its data, but these backups are just one part of the puzzle. In this guide, we’ll help you determine when is the best time for cloud data backups.

How Many Different Ways Can You Backup Your Data?

Backing up data can happen in typically three different ways:

  • Full backup: you perform a file-by-file complete backup of everything on a system
  • Incremental backup: you only backup files according to changes, rather than the entire thing
  • Differential backup: a backup that ignores incremental backups since the last full backup

So the first question is, which backup method should you use, and how often?

Choosing the Right Backup Method

Full backups are great because they don’t miss anything. They capture an accurate image of your network at a certain point in time, making a rollback easy.

However, they take a long time to complete and could take a big cut of system resources. You should do a full backup on a regular basis, at least once a week. It’s ideal to schedule these backups off hours so they don’t interfere with normal operations.

Between full backups, you should have an incremental backup running. This means that minute-to-minute and hour-to-hour changes have a secure place in the cloud. Most cloud backup services do this automatically.

Differential backups should be your halfway point between a full backup and an incremental backup. Incremental backups are great for backing up data as it changes, but oftentimes those changes don’t remain. A differential backup will ignore all the incremental changes over the week and keep the permanent ones.

Trust Your Backups to Inception

Backups are a crucial component of your overall IT strategy, so why not give the task to the pros? Have a third party help you to backup your data. 

Inception understands the importance of doing consistent backups. They’ll be able to keep your website data and business data safe from ransomware. They can build a backup schedule with you that doesn’t interrupt your workflow.

When you trust Inception, you don’t have to worry that your local IT team may have missed something. You can rest assured that your information is ready in the event servers crash or a data breach occurs.

 

Find Managed IT for Your Business

Backup your data on a regular basis. Backups to the cloud should be an everyday practice that you never skimp on. Make sure to do full backups about once a week or month, then incremental and differential backups between.

Managed IT is here to help you in the meantime. Contact Inception Network Strategies to find the right solution for you.