Storing information digitally has made operating a business a lot easier. You no longer have to dig through drawers of files or figure out how to hunt down a file that was misplaced.
But that doesn’t mean that paper copies are completely obsolete. Make sure that your documents are digitally stored, and you should also consider having paper backups for these important reasons:
Migrating to the cloud can make life a lot easier, but the process of migrating can be tricky. Among the common hurdles in executing cloud migrations is the loss of data.
There are multiple reasons why data can go missing during a migration. It could be:
Having paper copies ensures nothing falls through the cracks. If something goes missing, it can always be uploaded directly to the cloud after the migration has been completed. All you have to do is access the paper file and recreate a new digital file to replace the one that went missing.
Data centres go above and beyond to avoid outages. They have redundant power and connectivity setups to help avoid outages, but they still happen.
Obvious reasons, like power outages due to a storm or natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes, cause power outages, but the truth is, most power outages can be prevented. Error-related outages caused by humans are actually quite common. From staff not following procedures to installation issues and poor data centre design, outages are always a possibility.
When those outages happen, you’ll be glad you have paper copies of your most important information. It enables you to continue operating, even if you’re operating at a slower, lower capacity, while you wait for the data centre to get back up and running.
Cyber risks continue to rise as hackers get more and more creative with ways to compromise your data. But they can only compromise data that is stored electronically. They do not have access to hard copies of your information.
If you have information that you really don’t want getting into the wrong hands, consider storing it the old-fashioned way instead. Just make sure you have physical measures in place to keep it secure too, as paper copies can still be compromised by current and past employees, as well as burglars.
Having hard copies makes it harder to be blackmailed by hackers as well. You may not have to hand over a large sum of money to regain your files if you have paper copies of all the information you need.
Most people don’t know that digital data degrades over time. Even more people don’t realise that digital files actually degrade faster than hard copies.
Data degradation is a real threat that requires constant vigilance. Data centres have redundancy and update plans in place to ensure data remains fresh, but that means you’re at the mercy of the data centre to keep your files up-to-date.
It means you have to keep your own files up-to-date too. Flash drives, hard drives, and even solid-state drives fail over time. Data has to be migrated and updated in order to ensure it doesn’t fail.
Paper copies actually last longer than digital copies. By keeping old-fashioned paper files, you will always have the information you need, even if a file becomes corrupted.
Deleted information isn’t ever really deleted. There are some programs you can use to ensure your data is actually deleted, but savvy hackers can sometimes find their way around those as well.
Paper copies, on the other hand, can be completely destroyed. Paper can be shredded or even incinerated. You can more easily keep track of paper copies, in contrast to digital copies that can float around out there on the internet even if the original copy is destroyed.
Storing your information in the cloud is convenient, and it can make running a business a lot easier, but that doesn’t mean paper files are completely obsolete. Have paper files on hand as an additional way of backing up your most important information.
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