How can you determine if your customers need backup?

Service providers and reselling partners have a wide variety of clients they serve on a regular basis. As such, each customer will be looking for something different, and not all solutions are beneficial for every organization's needs. For this reason, it will be critical for you to consider which backup software will fit their requirements and what types of features must be included to address specific demands.

Strict regulations are key

For many businesses, it's a matter of when, not if, their data will be stolen, compromised, or destroyed. This is especially true for companies in industries like law, health care, education, and retail that deal with a lot of personally identifiable information that could lead to lucrative hauls for cyberattackers. In an attempt to better secure this type of data, many sectors have established regulations that organizations must comply with. Many of these rules entail using backup solutions as a means to not only protect files but ensure that they can be easily restored in the case of an outage or hardware malfunction.

Regulated industries like health care require some extent of backup services.

Timing must be on point

Every minute of downtime businesses experience due to disasters or system attacks results in missed revenue opportunities and can even lead to closures in some cases. If your customers need a significant amount of time to resume operations, they may need a backup solution that better fits their unique demands and gives them the speed they require. TechTarget contributor Greg Shields noted that you should determine how long hardware can be inoperable before it makes an impact as well as how long restoration testing takes to complete. These evaluations will reveal a lot of information to help you determine not only what backup solution your client needs, but what features will be most beneficial to overcoming challenges.

"Admittedly, mission-critical server losses don't happen all that often, and employing the scare tactic of their potential loss only gets you so far," Shields wrote. "Smaller disasters that happen every day, such as users losing documents, servers, email or database entries, are more likely to get the attention of a potential customer."

Prioritization of data

Organizations collect so much information, but not all of it is useful. You should categorize your customers' data and evaluate what types of consequences would occur if certain files were lost. Many industry regulations for health care, for example, require that patient documents be kept for a certain amount of time. While a physical copy could be kept, a fire or flood could easily destroy this necessary record. However, online solutions aren't the sole solution either. If an online provider is compromised or an attacker infects company hardware, your clients could be at a loss. The Var Guy noted that data is the lifeblood of organizations, and backup strategies must protect against all scenarios. This is why the rule of three backup copies, stored on two mediums, with one stored off-site, is so crucial.

Every business requires some extent of backup services. By following these tips, you can determine which backup solutions your clients need and what types of features will help them protect their data.