You know that gut-wrenching feeling you had in school when you’re just about to turn in that incredibly important term paper, only to realize you’ve lost it? As any business owner who’s experienced system downtime can confirm, data loss feels a lot like that. Data loss is defined as any instance in which a computer file is either temporarily or permanently unrecoverable.
This can be anything as simple as a file corruption to as complicated as outright data theft. When proper backup and restore policies are put into practice, mitigating the damage of data loss is as easy as pressing a button. Unfortunately, on average only 50% of enterprises back up their employee data with some sort of endpoint backup in the first place. This means that only one half of enterprises keep their data protected against computer crashes, natural disasters, and human errors, all of which could happen at a moment’s notice. With each enterprise experiencing an average of of 13 instances of unplanned downtime per year, companies who refuse data backup stand to lose not only time and money, but reputation and business opportunities as well.
The infographic below from SingleHop outlines the key causes and costs of data loss and recovery. Fortunately, today’s IT Leaders recognize the importance of keeping an up-to-date backup plan. 64% of IT leaders keep company information stored off-site in the cloud for easy recovery, with 78% looking to update their data backup plan within the next year. Preventative data backups can be the difference between a small hiccup and a major failure. The best way to mitigate a major data problem is to prepare for it in advance. 
