Is Your Storage Solution Adequate for Your Small Business?
A Home Business Article Contributed by Elizabeth Fox-Wise
A Data Storage Solution is Like an Insurance Plan for Your Small Business
Like an insurance plan, a data storage solution and back up data is something that your small business has to have but hope that it never needs.
For a small business, which typically will not have an IT Staff, a reliable and sufficient storage solution is critical. Like an insurance plan, in the event of an emergency, you will really regret not having it.
Small business storage solution needs are similar to large business in many ways. Like a large business, in the event of a technological disaster, your storage solution and back up data has to lead the patch to a quick recovery.
Small Business Storage Solution Needs Will Grow by Fifty - One Hundred Percent Each Year
Because the rate of growth within a small business storage solution needs, it is important for the small business owner to find easy to use storage technology, to improve the total cost per Gigabyte (GB) of storage that the small business is paying for the storage solution.
Small business will often choose DAS for their storage solution. DAS is an acronym for for Direct Access Storage Device. It is pronounced daz-dee. According to the Small Business Computing Directory, DAS is another name for "disk drive in the world of mainframes". Small business users of a DAS storage solution, will typically log on and store their files on the networked server for back up.
A DAS storage solution is fine for a small business at first when there may be only one or a few people using it and data storage amounts are limited. However, as your small business grows and your online applications and databases contain the core of your small business, or the volume of the information that your small business needs to hold in its storage solution goes above about fifty GB, then it might be time for a new storage solution for your small business.
Consider the Following When Determining Your Small Business Storage Solution Needs
To evaluate your small business storage solution needs you will need to explore the following:
What data and information is crucial to your small business? This means data that your business not afford to lose?
How long of a period could your small business survive in the event of a technological disaster that destroyed all your small business' computers and/or their contents?
How much time is being wasted by using your current small business storage solution? This includes time backing up onto floppies, backups of individual servers and workstations, etc.?
How much have your small business storage solution needs expanded in the past year. What are your projections regarding how much more storage solution space your small business will need in the next year? What are projections for the next two years?
If the answers to these questions indicate that your current small business storage solutions are no longer adequate for your small business needs, then it is time to seek another storage solution for your small business.
