A data backup strategy is a fundamental component of a business continuity plan. It ensures the organisation can continue essential operations despite unforeseen events like natural disasters, hardware failures, or cybersecurity incidents.

By working with the research consultancy Censuswide, we’ve been able to create a series of well-informed estimates for the number of UK businesses following good data backup practices today:

1. Offsite Data backup – with you in control

Today, over a fifth (22%) of UK businesses systematically back up their data to a dedicated offsite facility or provider, with full knowledge and control of backup policies and procedures and where their data is held. This represents a significant increase from 2019.

The ability of the business to control how data is backed up, where it is backed up, in how many versions, and how it is protected are vital benefits of private data centres and colocation solutions.

4% of businesses go a step further, reducing the risk of all data being affected by a catastrophic event by backing up to locations at least 30 miles from their primary data centre or business location.

2. Daily backup of mission-critical data:

41% of businesses back up their data at least once daily, the maximum time recommended for data essential to business operations.

However, our research indicates that around 100,000 UK SMEs have abandoned daily backups in favour of less frequent backups in the last five years. This could be a response to growing data volumes or the incorrect belief that their cloud providers would handle all day-to-day data management.

Either way, 61% of large businesses continue to do daily backups because weekly or monthly regimes are not frequent enough for mission-critical data. Those with daily backups find it much easier to return to business as usual in the event of a cyber-attack or another disruptive event.

3. Air-gapped data backup, isolated from the internet:

A third (34%) of UK businesses add an extra layer of protection to their data by maintaining a backup that is physically isolated from the internet.

Air-gapped data backups are increasingly common as companies get bigger, rising from 29% of one-person businesses to 69% with more than 250 employees, and are less susceptible to remote attacks, insider attacks and other unauthorised access that could compromise data. They also protect against cloud service outages or disruptions, ensuring there is always an accessible and reliable copy of the data, independent of online services.

4. Data encryption:

Good data backup practices involve encrypting data where stored and when it travels between their primary data centre or business site and backup location. 29% of UK businesses today use either Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology or Managed Networks to encrypt data in motion. VPNs establish secure, encrypted connections between locations over the public internet, while managed networks go a step further and use private circuits for encrypted data separate from the public infrastructure. As with other good data backup practices, the use of encryption to secure data becomes increasingly more common as businesses grow in size, exceeding well over half (59%) of micro-businesses (2 – 10 people), up to nine in every 10 (88%) big companies.

Beaming offers comprehensive data backup solutions tailored to your organisation’s specific needs. Our expertise and commitment to customer satisfaction ensure your data is protected and accessible, no matter what.

Contact us today to learn more about how Beaming can help safeguard your organisation’s critical data.