By Mozy Guest Blog 1

In our blog “Data Losses and Downtime Are No Small Issue” we mentioned that the annual cost of losing data is almost $1.7 trillion. More than half of that is the result of downtime disruptions. And data loss doesn’t discriminate; everyone is vulnerable. Businesses large and small are losing data—and money.

A recent global study examined 277 cases of large data loss episodes and found the following causes for data loss on storage devices:

With the massive amounts of data stored on laptops, smartphones and tablets, there’s an often overlooked cause for data loss: the daily commute. Employees carry around their data every day on the way to and from work, risking the data whenever and wherever the employees have it. But exactly how much data is being carried around?

A recent survey by Mozy discovered that 66% of commuters take home an average of 470GB of company data every day. That’s 2,500 times the amount of data those same commuters access and download on the Internet when they’re not commuting! When you consider that in the past 12 months 41% of people have lost a device that stores data, it’s easy to see that the data carried by commuters to and from work is highly vulnerable to loss. Data—and lots of it—is at risk of being lost forever if it’s not properly backed up.

We’re going to continue to lose devices that contain data; fortunately, the data doesn’t necessarily go the way of the device. What’s important to recognize is that we can eliminate the risk of losing our data forever. Reliable and cost-effective technology exists today to enable businesses to back up their digital content and protect themselves against permanent data loss. For example, cloud backup services can automatically generate copies of data to securely store it offsite. So, if the worst happens to a laptop or a smartphone or tablet on the daily commute or any other time, you can recover the data from the cloud and be back in business quickly.

So, don’t be afraid to carry around your data—just be sure it’s protected. Protected data is like money in the bank.

Partner with Us!

Mozy by EMC would like to hear about ways we can partner together to provide your customers with a secure, cost-efficient and scalable cloud backup solution designed to back up their critical business data—from computers to servers. We offer a robust reseller program designed to create a long-term, revenue-generating extension of your cloud portfolio.

Learn more about the Mozy reseller program by attending our 30-minute webinar or visiting us at mozy.com/partner/resellers.

Guest blogs such as this one are published monthly and are part of The VAR Guy’s annual platinum sponsorships.