Austin Data Storage, LLC

We all remember the corporate accounting scandals that led to the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002. And now financial institutions have to follow strict rules when it comes to accounting, document retention, and data backup and recovery. There are many sanctions within SOX that pertain to data storage - specifically how long you have to retain data and what type of data you have to keep.

Back in the day, important documents were stored in file cabinets and basements. You wouldn't rely on paper copies these days but is your data backup method nearly as outdated? Traditional methods of data backup include tapes, CDs and DVDs, portable USB hard drives, ZIP drives and floppies. All of these methods have significant disadvantages and put your data at risk.

You may have recently seen advertisements for low-cost data backup services from companies like Carbonite and Mozy promising unlimited data backup for $49.95-$59.95 for an entire year. When it comes to your data, you can't take any chances, so we recommend factoring the true benefits against the seemingly too-good-to-be-true bargain basement price.

You don't want to wait until a disaster happens before you choose a data storage solution. In addition to onsite measures like external harddrives and mobile storage devices, you may need additional data storage space to ensure that you never exceed data storage capacity and can get back up and running quickly in the event of system failure. And for small to medium sized businesses, online data storage is an easy and cost effective way to protect critical data.

Did you know that there were approximately 40 million PCs and laptops that were retired last year? You can bet that those numbers will go up along with increased Vista deployments. Also, consider that the average lifespan of a laptop is two years, a desktop PC three years, and a server three to five years.