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Analyst company Gartner has urged businesses and CIOs to rethink their strategies when it comes to backing up data as they estimate businesses worldwide are spending 20% more than they need to on IT storage. They suggest that businesses are spending money on backing up ‘unnecessary data’ and it is costing them $10 billion.

The most common reason for wasting money on backup is that businesses fail to update their backup policies and systems. Gartner have said that there are many businesses who use backup systems that do not distinguish between important business files and unimportant, personal employee files. Dave Russell, research vice-president of Gartner used iTunes as an example, stating that, ‘If you are backing up people’s iTunes libraries, that is a big problem.’

A second common way for businesses to waste money on IT back up storage is simply by storing data for too long. If you have files that have been in backup storage for 10 years, you need to ask yourself two things: firstly, is it likely that you will ever need it again? And secondly, if you do happen to need these files, are they likely to be in a format that your current operating system can work with? It’s all well and good backing up files to ensure they are not lost, but there is little point in paying to store files that are so old that they’re written in a dead language. An exaggeration, perhaps, but it gets the point across well.

Gartner are trying to push businesses towards a 90-day backup policy. 50% of companies already do this, but the other 50% do not. With the world of technology moving at a faster pace than ever, Gartner suggest that 90 days is a good time for companies to hold on to backup data for. However, every business must assess its own specific characteristics and work out its own data storage plan.

If you are looking for assistance with your company’s offsite backup plan, call IGC Technical Solutions today on 0845 868 9928.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]