If you are responsible for IT Services in your company then data backup is something that you regularly need to think about.

You may just be responsible for calling your IT provider if a problem occurs and if this is the case you need to ask your IT provider regularly about your data backup.

A company's data is just too important not to back up. Recent research from Garther states that 75% of companies go out of business after having a major data loss.

Out of all the backup options available at present, online backup options are proving the most popular as it takes the human element out of the backup process hence reducing the risk .

How online backup works:

• A programme is installed on the computers you want to back-up;
• This programme is pointed to the information that needs to be backed up (daily, weekly etc);
• The programme will copy this information onto a secure server that is based on the Internet.

This means your information is backed up in a different location to where you operate which protects you against fire hazards and the theft of your data.

Most times the excuses I hear are "the person who looked after the backup tapes left the company", or often times the person looks at me for a minute before saying, 'I was supposed to be doing that'. So the next time you are talking to your IT provider ask them about the pros and cons of using an online backup solution on your network. Like all questions, it is the questions that are not asked that are the stupid ones.

Your data is important so be sure to back it up.