The Crucial Importance of Data Backups

Consider all that is done each day on your computer. Now consider all the work each member of your team does in their day-to-day operations? Things just got big, didn’t they, and maybe a little overwhelming. Now that we squeezed that elephant into the room... How would you feel if you couldn't access the information stored in your QFloors software? Customer Information, Sales History, Orders, Stocked Materials, Payments, even your recorded bills. Here at QFloors, we want to remind you just how important backups are.

I always feel like a broken record when I ask "Are you doing regular data backups?" But this is something I ask every chance I get. I'm always surprised when the response I get is not simply "Yes."

Please know that I (or anyone on our support team) will HAPPILY take the time to show you how to make a QFloors backup and save it where you can find it. You simply need to reach out.

A common answer to my question about data backups is, "My IT company does that." Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again. You are only as good as your last backup. How much data do you want to lose? A day? Or a month? All of it?

If you answered that question with "None," then make sure you have a contingency plan in place for the unexpected. What is your plan, should your system go down? How will you run your business while you are down? How long will it take to get back up and running? Your backups impact that. If you have a third-party IT company in charge of making your data backups, you still need to test them regularly.

Disconnected backups are done daily for QCloud customers, but those who host their own data need to make sure backups are happening. Don't just rely on your IT or tech company to do the backups for you. It's great to use their service but as an extra layer of protection, you should test the backup. You can also do a backup yourself and we will test it for you. Please be aware that we would highly recommend when doing your QFloors data backups that they are being stored and/or moved somewhere off of your computer.

QFloors is a software program installed on a computer. If something happens to your computer, like a virus, ransomware attack, water damage, fire, etc., then you need to recover your data via your last backup. If your backup is very old or not done correctly, you may lose quite a bit of data. If you do not have a backup, or if you only keep it on your computer, then you risk losing all of your data and will have to start over from scratch.

We have written many Knowlege Base articles and even created webinars going over backups and setting up your automated data backup software. To access these resources, log in to the QFloors Support site, and visit the Knowledge Base page. Under the top left search bar, type in the keyword “backups” and click the “Search” button.

Read over this Knowledge Base article on our Support site and come up with your own contingency plan: Creating a Contingency Plan for Technology Outages. Whether you host your own server computer or use a third-party tech company like QCloud, you can make sure you are covered by making your own data backups.

Once your backups are in place, we recommend having a “fire drill” where you test them to make sure they are set up correctly. In this crazy, unpredictable world, sometimes despite our best efforts, technology fails us. These simple things can help keep your company up and running in the event of a technology outage.

In the event of a QCloud outage, we will send email updates as well as post on our Facebook group page. Make sure you know who in your company receives our email updates, and that they check their emails regularly. If your QCloud is down, check our Facebook group page for updates, and follow any instructions given there. If it is our QCloud we will have all hands on deck, getting all of our customers back up and running as soon as possible.

Your contingency plan needs to be in place and understood before any type of outage happens. Having data backups and a contingency plan will save you, should the unexpected happen. And we all know, life is unpredictable. So next time I ask, “Are you doing regular data backups?” please know that I truly have your best interests at heart.