How Secure Offsite Data Storage Solutions Can Ease Your Work Life

“Back up your data!”

We hear that reminder often. But is your important information being backed up properly? Unless you make use of offsite storage, I’m afraid the answer is no. If you solely rely on regular back ups to a hard drive or USB, you miss the critical part of a robust data protection strategy. Organisations who store records and archive boxes on their own premises put their greatest business asset, information, at risk.

Files stored in only one location are vulnerable. To best organise and protect data, secure and efficient offsite storage solutions protect your physical files and archive boxes.

Should You Save Everything?

There is good merit behind the ‘save everything’ approach. You never know when a particular record will be needed for reference, proof, precedent, etc. The cost of not having access can be both expensive and frustrating. However, you must separate documents between those frequently accessed and those less so depending on company needs. This sorting helps determine where they are best stored.

What exactly is a document storage system?

Combined with document management software, an offsite data storage system provides a catalogue and scan for every document. Once your documents are converted into digital versions, you get the convenience of easy access from anywhere.

You can also access your complete inventory online to retrieve and destroy files as per your requirements.

Benefits of a quality archiving solution:

1. Storage of various document types i.e. PDFs, Word files and Spreadsheets
2. Search and scroll through the entire cabinet of files by individual keyword
3. Control and restrict access to documents
4. Track who is viewing your documents and when
5. Regulate and delete out-of-date information

You enjoy the benefits of organising all your files in one central location, where only those authorised have access to the saved data.

Some of the many problems secure offsite document storage solutions will help you solve

Moving data to a separate, offsite location called vaulting dilutes risk and protects against data loss. You can streamline all your operations and stay ahead of the competition by keeping the paperwork organised and readily accessible.

Here are the biggest challenges your business might not have to worry about anymore:

Wasted physical space

If your company relies on physical papers then there’s inevitably a great deal of office space that must be allocated towards storage. This not only requires significant investment to maintain the space but has a high opportunity cost as you can’t utilise the area for anything else.

High-security risks

Paper records have a high vulnerability to security breaches. It can be a challenge to keep sensitive information such as social security numbers, bank account details and individual identity data safe from information theft.

Document storage brings in an additional layer of security to keep your information safe and secure. You can not only track and view who has edited the documents but also control and restrict access by only allowing authorised personnel to view and/or edit data.

Professional offsite storage should provide tight security measures, including security-vetted employees, gated premises, warehouses with gas fire suppression systems and 24/7 video monitoring.

Lack of search-ability

Say you must find a specific document stored by someone else in your company. This can easily turn into a cumbersome task, wasting time and resources. Poor document organisation can cost a small fortune in lost productivity. A document storage system facilitates a clutter-free office space. As well as saving you money, storing documents off site increases staff productivity.

The trick is to make your documents easily searchable. You can make use of your storage provider’s online culling tool to barcode individual files and lodge new files in storage while keeping them readily accessible.

A complete archiving solution keeps your files orderly, eliminating lost productivity due to misplaced files.

Data Retention Schedules

Do you know how long you are legally required to keep each record type? A complete archiving solution should help you with this process. As you set up your data storage, you can secure them with the document lifespan in mind. At the end of the document’s lifespan, it is automatically flagged for destruction, usually with no additional fees.

Keep in mind that any files stored off site are barcoded and available on demand.

Threat of disasters

In the event of a natural disaster i.e. earthquake, flood or fire, you could unexpectedly lose some or all your mission-critical information. This is a risk you cannot afford, as it comes at an exorbitant cost.

Offsite document storage combined with proper online backup is a smart solution. Because the process is automatic, you can conveniently set and forget.

Much of your information is irreplaceable. Be sure to implement a secure offsite storage and backup solution to keep it safe.

TIMG offers a secure online web portal with a complete archiving service. Contact the TIMG Team today to discuss your unique requirements.