IT and the Lost & Found Box

Have you lost something at a suspected location and subsequently returned to conduct an inspection of the lost & found box to – lo and behold – find your lost article in the box. If you raised children this discovery scenario has probably played out a few times more than preferred. The joy of being reunited with something that you potentially thought was gone forever is a sense of relief. On the other side of this coin, we all can relate to the level of frustration when the lost & found box does not contain the article we are looking to recover. We may resort to a sense of hope and hold out for a period of time for it to show up unexpectedly. As time passes, hope wanes and eventually we write it off as lost forever and consider a suitable replacement.

In the digital age upon which we live, the article equates to files of information, pictures, videos, etc. and although they may not seem tangible, they are extremely valuable, and in essence, digital files can often be equivalent to an irreplaceable family heirloom. Unlike a misplaced pair of gloves or coffee mug, the contents of a file may be vital to your business with years of historical information that CANNOT be replaced. Talk about despair!! As much as we all want to trust technology and explain away “technological events” with a cause and effect thought process, things happen out in the cyber world that even the most competent IT professional may have difficulty explaining. Let alone events that happen due to unintentional user error or intentional attacks from malicious hackers. Data loss, regardless of how it happens, is painful and can be downright devastating. The world is an uncertain place and technology is a part of it… hence technology can be uncertain.

Is there a moral to this story? Yes, there is… BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP. Can we say it one more time for emphasis… BACKUP. If you don’t have a regular and reliable backup system in place for your business and personal information, then to put it in blunt terms… you need to have your head examined. Sorry to be so direct, but difficult problems sometimes require tough talk, and data loss in the absence of a backup system is such a talk.

Unless you prefer to live life on the edge, roll the dice, and take a risk, file-level backup at a minimum is truly common sense and can save you from enormous pain and frustration.