Of all of the things that a company could not replace after a break-in, a fire, flood or other natural disaster, records are at the top on the list. While you can back up paper files on the computer and you can back up computer files on a disk, what happens if the whole place is leveled, including all of the methods you have just painstakingly used to back up your data? It does not matter how many copies you have of a file, if they are all in the same place, at the same time, they will all be wiped out by the same disaster, the end of the story.

 For the larger companies in the world, most records can be backed up and stored in a number of locations, including a centralized location set up just for that purpose. However, small to medium sized companies may not have that advantage, and in most cases will not. For them, they must consider using an outside source for their data storage needs, especially if they will need this information for a long period.

There are a number of reasons that the small to mid-sized companies should consider converting to online, offsite data storage providers, including security, accountability and their own size constraints. Looking at them one by one, we see the advantages to using this type of service in relation to the smaller companies.

 A company is only as strong as its weakest IT link. A smaller company may not be able to afford all of the security upgrades that it might need, leaving it vulnerable to computer viruses, hacker threats and other issues that could lead to crash or breach. Being able to access sensitive records allows a hacker to gain the social security numbers, credit card numbers and other information that they need to devastate your customers. In addition, if this information is on disk in your building, it may be stolen during a break-in. Even if it is encoded or password protected, the savvy hacker can get through in no time at all. The more information that is stored onsite, the more of a risk you are running.

In middle-sized companies, there may be multiple levels of security for information, but no one set plan for who is backing up documents and where these documents will be stored. The system’s problems will become abundantly clear when there is a snafu and everyone starts pointing fingers at the other department and saying they were not supposed to do it, “they” were. With an outside resource handling the backing up and storing of the documents, the accountability is established, ending one more worry from the company owner’s mind.

Many companies are moving their base of operations to smaller buildings to save overhead costs. Some of their staff may telecommute instead of coming into the office, so they do not need the space for them anymore. Some of the functional operations have moved into other areas, so that space is not needed anymore. How counterproductive would it be to have to keep paying a higher rent and other overhead expenses to continue maintaining disks and files? Sending these documents to the outsourced company frees up the need for that space and allows the company to move to a smaller, more cost-effective building.