With all this talk about floods and Disaster Recovery, it has only highlighted one of the key issues facing SME Businesses and that is where and and how securely is your companies data stored. Time and again we come across companies who are only backing up a small proportion of their data and that is not because they are not doing their daily backups, it is because they are unaware of where their data is being stored.

Most small businesses do not have a full time IT person, instead the function is covered as a secondary part of somebodies job description or by their IT Provider who is usually only called when when there is a problem and doesn’t have time to look at the overall systems. As a result for most small businesses, their computer systems have evolved in a haphazard way rather than grown in a planned structured and documented way.

This is not necessarily a problem when you are dealing with a small number of computers, small quantities of data and everything is going fine, however when something goes wrong or a computer breaks down then this can be a real issue. In a well structured small business network, all business data will be stored centrally on a server (or at least on one desktop that is designated as a server). With all the data in one location it is easy to backup and if it comes to it, restore. If one of the desktops gives up the ghost then that’s not a major problem, just go to another PC and access the centrally stored data.

If on the other hand everyone is storing their data on their local hard disk, then it becomes very difficult to co-ordinate backups and make sure that critical data is not lost if there is a failure on an individual PC. It is relatively easy to fix or replace computer hardware and software but nothing can be done if there is no backup for the data.

The second issue when it comes to these unstructured networks is that there is probably very little security for the data and that means that you are failing to meet your obligations under the Data Protection Act.

In the vast majority of cases the solution does not usually cost very much and generally does not require the purchase of new computers. A good computer services company should be able to organise the network using the existing equipment and put an Online Backup solution in place to ensure your data is backed up securely.

If you can establish a relationship with a local Computer Services company who understands your business and can document your systems and some simple procedures, then the time taken to recover from major system failures can be greatly reduced, which can save you money and give you peace of mind.

The final point is that you should view your computer systems the way you view your car. If your car does not get serviced at least once a year then things go wrong a lot more often and you can dramatically reduce it’s life span. Your computer systems are no different. An annual Preventative Maintenance visit can eliminate the majority of issues before the arise.