Your company’s email accounts represent some of the most vital assets of your business. They contain important client correspondence, extensive team processes and projects, working copies of various reports and deliverables, and a host of additional valuable bits of information.
A loss of a record, or the inability to find or retrieve archived information, can cause tremendous harm to a business relationship with a client, vendor, regulator, or even your own employees. That’s why responsible business administrators take steps to protect their business email accounts through comprehensive email backup solutions.
Finding the Right Email Backup Solution
Let’s be honest, as a business owner, you’re more at home selling a client on the value of your services, finding that next great team leader, or setting the long-term direction for your growing business units. Understanding the nitty-gritty of email setup does not, and should not, rank high on your priority list.
That said, protecting your business emails is a real need – all the more pressing if your company is growing. So, how do you know what to look for in an email backup service?
To help business owners navigate the search for the right email backup solution, we’ve put together the below list of requirements.
Email Backup Solution Assumptions
1) On-demand email retrieval
Mistakes happen. Important emails containing sensitive or proprietary information get lost or erroneously deleted all the time. It’s been happening since the beginning of time… or, you know, the business computing era, at least.
No matter how well-intentioned your employees are, and no matter how many stringent protocols you put in place, it’s going to happen. Sure, prevention efforts are important. But, for when the worst does happen, a robust email backup solution makes sure it’s reversible.
2) Protect data in email accounts of former employees
What happens to the email accounts of your employees who leave? You’d be surprised how many small businesses don’t have a plan for retiring the email accounts of former team members.
Yes, in a majority of cases, your former employees are trustworthy individuals who would never dream of taking advantage of continued access to their old work account. But, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
A good email backup service will feature a plan to save and convert employee email accounts into archives, preventing any unauthorized access after employee separation.
3) Compliance with industry data storage requirements
Your industry, or the industries in which your clients operate, may have requirements governing various aspects of data storage. Some businesses in the health care space, for example, are required to keep backup data physically on-premises.
The right email backup service will help you both, understand the data security requirements applicable to your business, and structure your email solution to be in full compliance.
4) Easy search of archived and backed-up files
Have you ever had a client ask for historical data from a project completed years ago? Or, maybe tried to recall that perfect response to a complicated technical question? The team members involved in those initiatives may be long gone. But, with the email backup solution in place, you still have access to their correspondence and files.
A search of your business email archive can bring back the needed historical information quickly and efficiently. Having an easy-to-navigate archive of your old business information is a valuable resource.
5) Portability
As small businesses grow, many of their operations mature to become more detailed and complex. This can even impact the email provider you choose to contract with.
If you think you may upgrade or change your email service provider in the future, you’ll want to make sure that the email backup solution you select is compatible with a number of leading email providers.
Beacon Knows Email Backup
Considering an investment in a robust email backup solution? Beacon can help. As a Datto partner, we install and maintain some of the most trusted, industry-leading IT solutions around, including Backupify for email. Get in touch with our team today to learn more.
Technology is changing constantly. Please note that technical information published in the BITS blog may be inaccurate if posted prior to 2022.
