Spring has Sprung – It’s Time to Spring Clean your Data
Winter is sluggishly leaving our shores, but as the spring weather begins to provide new energy for productivity, now is the best time to do a digital spring clean of your company’s data for streamlined storage and enhanced cybersecurity.
While spring cleaning is traditionally thought of as a seasonal clean-up of your personal space that helps to clear your mind and create a more organised outlook, it makes sense to extend the decluttering into your digital environment; personal and business.
On a personal level a digital spring clean means doing a clean out of your social media platforms and your browser history, a full password manager reset and getting rid of unwanted emails by unsubscribing from e-mails you no longer want or need to receive.
Keeping your confidential business data safe though isn’t simply a matter of clearing out your history. With the tons of files stored daily, monthly, annually – data cleansing could be the best thing you do for your cyber defences this year.
Let’s take a look at the digital data cleansing you can implement in your business as the warm weather approaches.
Is your backup folder becoming a junk pile?
There’s no doubt that backing up your crucial company data is a non-negotiable. Current copies of your customer and financial data as well as proprietary documents related to product development, and HR records could save your business from ruin in the event of a cyberattack.
All the same, there’s no reason to hang on to files that have ceased to be useful, contain inaccurate information, or should be replaced with new versions.
With the world producing 402 million terabytes of data per day, the number of files in your backup folders may be growing exponentially – and that’s not always a good thing.
Data cleansing can be time-consuming and labour intensive; however it makes sense to ensure that your database and files are accurate and up to date, saving you the time and effort it takes to sift through folders and folders of inaccurate data.
A clean database ensures efficient time management, increases productivity, and improves data analysis, but only if the whole company is following a standardisation of how data is entered, labelled and stored.
Unnecessary or incorrectly named files take up unnecessary space and this ultimately leads to unnecessary costs. Reducing the number of files in storage means your quota will be filled up more slowly, helping you to streamline your monthly cloud storage costs.
- Multiple copies of the same file can cause confusion, especially if you’re trying to recover the latest version with the most recent or correct information in the wake of a cyberattack or if an existing file becomes corrupted.
- Implementing standard naming protocols is the best way to overcome this going forward but you’ll need to take the time to review and cleanse old files, either manually or with tools that detect duplicates.
Having a compact set of files that comprise the most crucial information your business needs to function is not only good for your bottom line and the efficiency of your digital admin. It’s also good for efficiency and customer relations.
Keeping your data in secure cloud storage, consolidating multiple files, and checking information for errors are just a few ways to achieve this. Let’s explore some more data cleansing strategies.
How to spring clean your data this spring
Spring cleaning your files is no different than spring cleaning your house. It’s simply a matter of identifying the most critical data, deciding what you never use, what no longer works, and getting rid of all the unnecessary items.
- Get rid of multiple copies. The most recent and accurate version of the file is always preferable to an updated old version.
- Back up essential information only. Data that’s crucial in the running of your business deserves a place in a secure backup folder – but obsolete files and folders full of junk email certainly don’t. Cloud security should be a team effort, working together to backup data regularly and securely.
- Train your staff to be careful with data. Having your team regularly delete files that are unnecessary, check customer and financial data for accuracy, and remove junk files means that these pointless items don’t end up being backed up in the first place. This can significantly reduce your data usage in the long term.
Soteria Cloud’s range of secure cloud storage packages for businesses feature immutable, encrypted storage in a range of package options that scale up with the needs of your business.
To learn more about our packages and select the one that’s ideal for your business, visit our product page today.
