Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Key Takeaways Most businesses invest in backup recovery tools, but fail to actually test them. Testing should occur at least once every year or every three months for critical systems.
To carry out a successful backup recovery testing plan, start by defining your goal, then test real-world scenarios, set clear success criteria, assign a team and conduct follow-ups.
Be sure to also conduct an analysis and post-analysis to identify vulnerabilities and improvement points.
Over 67% of businesses suffer from data loss, either because of an attack or mismanagement. Most companies understand the importance of investing in backup recovery tools, but miss the crucial step of actually testing them.
Testing the effectiveness of your backup recovery systems is one of the easiest ways to save your data from being lost forever. This can, at times, mean the difference between survival and failure of the business.
In fact, 93% of small businesses that suffer from consistent data loss go bankrupt within a few years.
Related: 5 Data Backup Mistakes that Could Bankrupt Your Startup (and How to Quickly Fix Them)
The importance of testing backup recovery
Companies spend a lot of money on software, tools and hardware to ensure their data is secure and easy to recover. The idea is to make sure that in case of theft, attacks or other failures, you can always recover your data.
... continue reading