You must backup your data. Hard drives can fail, data files can become corrupted, roofs can leak, buildings can burn down, hackers can hack, and ex-employees can sabotage your computer equipment. If you do not backup your data you are placing your company at serious risk for catastrophic failure.
At 8 out of 10 small publishers, and 1 out of 10 growing publishers we find that their data backup system is flawed or non-existent. Although some book publishing software systems like Acumen Book automatically maintain a backup copy of the data file on the hard drive, this does you no good if the hard drive itself fails.
We recommend that;
1. One employee be responsible for data backup and he should know that a key responsibility area of his job is data backups. One other employee should be trained in the backup procedure and restoring data files. A log should be maintained of data backups and this log should be reviewed by management monthly.
2. Back up every night using a rotational set of at least five tapes. The backup media (usually tapes) should be stored in a small fireproof (also water proof) safe. (PS: Given the low cost of CD-RW discs some companies back up each day's data onto a new CD)
3. Create a weekly backup tape and store this offsite.
4. Test your backups quarterly with a test restore procedure to spot any damaged tapes or backup devices.
5. Use an online backup service to supplement your on-site backup. Connected.com offers a service that backs 4GB of data for only $14.95 a month. If you need to restore the data you can download it or request a copy on CD(s) via overnight mail.
6. You backup all important printed documents - such as royalty contracts - through document image scanning.
