Data storage is becoming an increasing concern for the small business, as growing volumes as well as the value of the data itself for business purposes require a carefully considered approach.
This is according to Anamika Budree, sales manager branded products at WD SA, who notes cost implications are one of the reasons SMEs are not paying attention to protecting their data. However, the more pressing reason is that this is not prioritised.
She notes small enterprises often only realise the importance of data protection after critical data has been lost.
"That then escalates the costs and what SMEs don't realise is it is cheaper to budget for data protection than it is to try and recover lost information," she says.
"Data needs to be protected, as the consequences of data loss events can be catastrophic to the small business."
Budree says data losses can go as far as closing down a small enterprise. Even after a loss of data, not all the information is always recovered. Companies sometimes cannot recover from such losses, she says.
A small business - of, say, one or two people - can use an external portable drive, or a few of them as it is advisable to have a backup of a backup, says Budree.
She also says there is a move to network-attached storage (NAS) globally. A recent IDC research reveals by 2017 there could be nearly 13 million NAS systems in use, a large portion of which will be one- to five-bay small office, home office systems.
Budree notes disk and cloud are options and if companies can afford both, it is even better.
At the same time, she points out small businesses require greater storage capacity to cater for data growth, and as mobility increases in popularity, centralised storage that enables anywhere, anytime access is increasingly important.
"SMEs require smarter ways of storing data, smarter in a sense that they want their information to be centralised. Having it in one place makes it easier to access, share and backup."
Budree believes for SMEs starting to focus on protecting their data, it makes sense to store it in one place. It doesn't necessarily have to be cloud-enabled, but at least stored in one place.
Users can back it up and connect it easily. Also, the redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) functionality received from a NAS device is an extra backup and the user can mirror the drive, which enables a higher RAID capability, she says.
"As a result, NAS storage that offers the ability to leverage RAID and that incorporates personal cloud capability, is emerging as the ideal solution for the small business storage dilemma."
These solutions offer large capacity, security and access to ensure small businesses can store, share and protect all of their important digital content, she notes.
Share