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Do you suffer disturbed nights worrying about the loss of your business data? Do you constantly discuss data backup in team meetings, or does it just languish on your to-do list? Don't feel lonely, because you are probably like many other businesses in the UK, backing up your data to a network server without much insight as to what happens if that server fails or is hacked or contracts a virus - or is even accidentally wiped. When you call technical support to see if they can get your data back, it may be too late.

In the past businesses used tape backups, which would be taken offsite to ensure business continuity. There were limitations including tapes wearing out, substantial restrictions on how much data could be stored, and an unmanaged reliance that someone would actually change the tape.

When cloud backup came along, it seemed like the perfect solution. Backup became an automated task and data volume was no longer a limitation; something that grew in importance as businesses began to accumulate more data and less paper.

Now we all use the cloud, some of us more for personal use than for business use, but all email clients offer cloud backups, most of the time for free. When you save files that you receive with an email, you're able to save them directly to your cloud server, so that even if you open the file on a public computer, it's saved forever in your folder of choice.

But stop: think of this public cloud as being somebody else's computer and consider how safe you really feel about where your documents are being stored? Complacency when it comes to data storage is the main reason for lost data, hacking and viruses, so while you may trust the company that is taking charge of your cloud storage, this doesn't mean that your files are being stored correctly. Neither does it mean that the server is as well monitored or controlled as private cloud services are likely to be.

Documented cases of a company having their business servers hacked and documents tampered with or removed have now spread to cloud backups too, and businesses who thought they had business resumption planning sorted end up going bust. So how do you protect against this?

One solution is to store your data in multiple places. Start by backing up to a network server but then use a private cloud backup solution as well. Private cloud services differ from public clouds hugely because their cloud infrastructure uses a secured connection, designed entirely for the use of a single organisation.

Company data including documents, employment and employee records, and even payroll details, will be more secure when using an encrypted private cloud service as opposed to using a public cloud service. What's more important is that should anything happen to your data, recovery from a private cloud service is quicker and easier, not to mention achievable, than when using a public cloud. It brings back one of the advantages of tape backup; your data backup is not visible on the public internet.

There are many established products that can help you. Essentially a private cloud-based solution which has been designed especially to tackle fast data recovery issues, that allows you to back up as often as required, with multiple encrypted versions of your data, is now a reality.

Instead of losing millions of pounds worth of data, invest in private and secure cloud storage services, as well as your hard drives. It'll save you money in the long run and may even improve your sleep. NC