Is there a backup?

That's one computer question that no one likes to hear. It’s even less popular when the answer is "No". This is normally followed by either silence or bad words. Most of the time, computers, as reliable as they are, still fail without any warning. "It was working, but then…" And after that starts either a nightmare or the relief that the planned backup system has saved the day.

You can make local backups, you can use an online service, and some applications (such as our CPS™ shipping software) have a built-in backup to save those specific applications. Local backups might be set up by your network person, or you might just copy your important files to a file server using a backup application or Windows Explorer or the Windows backup program. Online backup systems include Carbonite.com and Symantec. Finally, some applications have built-in features to backup themselves. So there are solutions out there to help make your data safer.

But it's not just a computer failure. Data corruption due to a power failure (we'll cover this in another Blog), files that are deleted accidentally (or otherwise), and other things happen. A current backup can save the day. Be ready.