Keep in mind, a crucial failure doesn’t just mean that your server crashes, which can be a costly fix in itself, but failure can also mean that your organization was part of a ransomware attack or suffered a fire or natural disaster that rendered your server inoperable.

In that case, a remote backup means your organization can be back to full operating capacity in a matter of hours vs. weeks or months.

The most obvious choice for offsite data storage is to use one of the myriad of cloud storage systems. You may think because you use Google Documents or share files via Dropbox that your data is backed up, but your data is not. These services simply store your files, in order for your data to be safe you need a cloud storage service such as Carbonite, Backblaze, or CrashPlan.

These services store all your data in a remote server. All your data is encrypted and only accessible to your authorized representatives. These companies offer different levels of service that let you chose to have your data backed up daily, weekly or any other time frame and you can set up the backups to be done automatically.

If cloud storage is not an option for your organization there is another way to safely store your data remotely that are both efficient and cost effective. Your organization can go old school and use an external hard drive. Using a USB connection to offload your data to an external storage device. This device can then be stored in offsite or fireproof onsite location.