Best Offsite Backup for a Dental Practice
As today’s modern dental practices rely more and more on electronic and digital technologies to run their daily operations and service their patients, it’s critical that they have a reliable and secure backup and recovery solution in place to safeguard their practice management data. Digital x-rays, electronic patient data, and financial records are just some of information that must be kept secure in order to protect the business and meet privacy regulations such as HIPAA.
But the reality is that many dental practices are not adequately backing up important data which can put their business at risk and compromise their patients’ private health information. Not performing backups on a regular basis due to the time and hassle involved, lack of staffing resources to administer backups, as well as the unreliability of tape backups are just some of the reasons that many
dental practices are not fully protected in the event of a catastrophic loss.
According to Gartner, at least 20% of computer users lose data annually. Whether it’s a hardware or software crash, theft, an act of nature such as a flood or fire, or even simple human error, the cost of data loss can be significant. It’s estimated that a single incident of data loss can cost a business an average of $10,000 (Gartner). In addition to the financial costs of lost business and possible fines associated with non-compliance of privacy standards, a business must also deal with the consequences of damage to its reputation and brand, and the loss of customer loyalty.
With these kinds of challenges, it’s easy to understand how most small businesses fail after a major interruption such as a catastrophic data loss. But as Rich Mogul, research vice president for Gartner, points out, “Data loss and information leaks are not random acts of nature too costly to prevent.“ With the right backup and recovery strategy in place, dental practices can successfully protect their valuable data and gain peace of mind knowing that the lifeblood of their business is secure.
Why Expert Backup Now For Dental Practices?
Although many dental practices still rely on traditional backup methods such as tapes, CDs, or ZIP drives, these methods can be expensive, labor intensive and highly unreliable. Research by the Gartner Group indicates that as much as 50% of all tape backups cannot be recovered in full due to errors in handling. As dental offices look to store even greater amounts of their practice information in electronic format, the reliability of the backup method is crucial.
An automated online backup system can provide today’s dental practices with numerous benefits over traditional methods, including:
Superior Protection Against Catastrophic Loss
It’s a fact that data disasters can happen to any business, but an online backup solution can safeguard vital practice management information by providing automatic backups that run with virtually no user intervention. Backups occur automatically over the Internet and eliminate the time-consuming process of having to continually change and rotate tapes, as well as the hassle of having to store tapes at another secure location. The dental office no longer has to worry about whether personnel are available to administer the tape backup and instead can focus on serving their patients’ needs.
Confidentiality Of Protected Health Information
Online backup systems are designed to safeguard protected health information. For a dental practice, this means that any sensitive health information that is electronically created, received, maintained, or transmitted is automatically protected from unauthorized disclosure. The dental practice can be confident that there are maintaining their patients’ privacy while at the same time meeting stringent regulations such as HIPAA. Failure to comply with HIPAA can result in civil and criminal penalties as well as significant damage to a company’s reputation and brand.
Off Site Storage & Redundant Data Centers
One of the most critical components of an effective data backup and recovery solution is the ability to store the data offsite in a highly secure data center. This ensures that in the event of a disaster such as a fire, flood, or theft, the data will still be safe and recoverable. Expert Backup Now Online Backup solution also offers an added layer of protection with redundant offsite data storage facilities. These geographically separate, highly secure data centers ensure that vital data is kept safe from natural disasters and other catastrophic occurrences. In the event that the dental office does need to recover data, the process is quick and secure, requiring just a PC and an Internet connection to retrieve the lost files. The office can resume operations with minimal disruption to servicing their patients.
Real-time Recovery
When disaster strikes, a business needs a reliable recovery solution that will enable them to restore their data in almost real-time. Unlike tape backups where it may take days or even weeks to be back in full operation, Expert Backup Now provides almost instant access to files 24×7. All or selected files can be restored quickly, and in most cases, a business can be completely back up and running after a system failure in just a few hours. For a dental practice, this means that they can get back to taking care of their patients instead of tediously searching through tape backups for lost data.