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World Backup Day 2022: Why backing up your data is important

Posted March 30, 2022 by Jennifer G

Most of us have gone through losing some sort of data from a computer, mobile phone or tablet. Whether it’s personal, such as pictures, school assignments, or tax files, or business-related data like patient records, x-rays, or accounting files, losing important information unexpectedly can be a nightmare.

World Backup Day

Data backup has your back!

The 31st of March is World Backup Day and serves as a reminder to take measures to prevent data loss. However, a data backup plan is not limited to one day of the year. It is vital to follow a backup strategy throughout the year as a continuous cyber hygiene process.

What is data backup?

Most everyone using a computer either in their practice or at home is likely aware of what a data backup is but it’s worthy of a quick review. A backup is a separate copy of all your important files. Data backup guides you to save a copy in another secure location rather than storing all your data in one device. In case anything happens to your device, your data will stay safe and can be restored easily.

Why should you backup your data?

Data loss is way more common than anyone would think. It usually happens in several forms, such as hard drive failures, cyber-attacks, human errors, or physical theft. The event of data loss urges the need to implement a data backup plan.

Facts and figures about data loss

  • 30% of all computers are already infected with malware1
  • 29% of data loss cases are caused by accident2
  • It is expected that ransomware attacks a business every 11 seconds by the end of 20213

How XLDent helps you protect your practice’s data

When backing up your data, consider the solution that best suits your data protection strategy. Not all solutions are equal! It’s important to consider the method (how and when the backup is done) and the service that accompanies it. XLBackup is a managed and fully automated, online, off-site service making it easy for your organization to restore lost files, images and critical data during a disaster recovery situation. Automated means it is scheduled to run at regular intervals (daily) so a current copy of data is available if needed. XLDent conducts routine audits of the backup with each client to ensure the service is best meeting their needs. The backup service is managed by XLDent’s team of experts who know your dental business. Whether you are using XLDent Practice Management Software or another practice or imaging software, this offsite backup solution is compatible with all.

Resources
1Dataprot, Malware Stat. 2021
2Ponemon Institute, 2013
3https://cybersecurityventures.com/global-ransomware-damage-costs-predicted-to-reach-20-billion-usd-by-2021/

Posted in: Dental Software, Dental Technology, Electronic Dental Records, IT Services, XLDent Company, Leave a comment/ No Comments »
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Your 2021 Backup Audit

Posted March 24, 2021 by Beth

XLD_BAckup_Blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is that time of year again! World Backup Day is on Wednesday, March 31 this year. It is a great time to review your backup procedure and disaster recovery plan with a 2021 Backup Audit. The following questions are what you need to know your backup solution is on track for the coming year.

 

1) Is my practice creating a backup?

If you are not sure of the answer, you’ll want to find out as soon as possible. Backups are the only way to protect your practice from catastrophic data loss of all your patient charts and health information. To find out that your practice is not creating a backup of any kind should be a wake-up call to prioritize a new process. 

 

2) How is your backup created?

Practices can create backups in a variety of ways. One might manually run a backup using a software program at regular intervals. They might store those backups both on an external device and offsite to the cloud to create a reliable redundancy. Backups should always be encrypted, and you should also know the process for restoring a backup and test that the process and your backup files both work. 

 

Make a list of your answers to these questions so that you can review your current backup plan for any flaws:

  • Who is in charge of running the backups? 
  • What software program, if any, is running the backups? 
  • Where is it installed? 
  • When and how often do the backups run? 
  • Where does the backup go? 
  • Flash drive, external hard drive, network storage appliance, offsite to the cloud? 
  • Are the backups only on one device, or is there redundancy?
  • Is there a time in which data expires from the backup? 
  • If a file was deleted several months ago, would I be able to restore it from a backup? 
  • Are the backups encrypted? 
  • What is the process for restoring data from the backup?

 

What does the backup include?

Make a list of all your most important programs and where the resulting data is stored. Compare that list to what is included within each backup that you create. You may already back up your practice management database and patient x-rays but overlook data from your accounting software or email. Include anything that you would want to restore to a brand new computer in your backup. 

 

Does your backup work?

The only way to make sure that your backups are reliable is to conduct a periodic audit. An audit should check to see that the backup is complete of all of the data you need to include, that the backup is correct, that the backup file is not corrupt or too large for the external and cloud spaces in which it will be saved, and that your restore process is functional.

 

Could this process be more manageable?

With the help of a trusted solution like XLBackup, your backups are already sorted. From secure encrypted data transmission to an offsite location, daily monitoring to ensure your backups are running without error, annual audits of your backups to restoring your data in a disaster recovery situation, XLDent makes your backups our business. 

 

Posted in: Dental Software, Dental Technology, Electronic Dental Records, IT Services, XLDent Company, Leave a comment/ No Comments »
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How Are You Celebrating World Backup Day?

Posted March 27, 2019 by Nathan N.

Dental_Software_XLDent_XLBackupSunday, March 31st, is World Backup Day. It may not be as exciting as something like National Cheesecake Day, but it does serve as a good reminder to set aside time to go over your backup procedure and disaster recovery plan. Here are some good questions to ask yourself.

AM I DOING ANY KIND OF BACKUP AT ALL?

This is the most important question. The answer should be a strong, confident YES. If it isn’t, I urge you to find a solution ASAP. Trust me, you do not want to be a victim of major data loss!

HOW AM I BACKING UP?

Who is in charge of running the backups? What software program, if any, is running the backups? Where is it installed? When and how often do the backups run? Where does the backup go? Flash drive, external hard drive, network storage appliance, offsite to the cloud? Are the backups only on one device or is there redundancy? Is there a time period in which data expires from the backup? If a file got deleted several months ago, would I be able to restore it from a backup? Are the backups encrypted? What is the process for restoring data from the backup?

WHAT IS GETTING BACKED UP?

Is everything important getting backed up? The obvious things are your practice management software database and patient x-rays, but there are other important things than can get overlooked. Do I use a software program for accounting and financials, and is that data getting backed up? Do I use Outlook to receive and view e-mails? Are e-mails stored on the mail server or do they get saved locally to the computer? Are important documents getting backup? Where are they stored; on a front desk or office computer? Or are they on the server and shared to the other computers in the office? It is a good idea to make a list of all your crucial data and where it is located so that you can ensure it’s backed up and protected.

IS IT WORKING?

How do I know everything I need backed up is getting backed up? Are the backups running every day? How do I know the backup data is good? How do I know it can be restored in a disaster recovery situation? Make certain that your backup is reliable by conducting periodic audits of your backups to make sure everything you need backed up is getting backed up, the backed-up data isn’t bad or corrupt, and the restore process is functional.

WILL MY HAIR GROW BACK AFTER I’VE PULLED IT ALL OUT?

While this may feel like an overwhelming, hair-pulling topic, it doesn’t have to be! With the help of a trusted solution like XLBackup, each of the above questions is answered. You’ll have peace-of-mind knowing you’ve done your part, and we’ve done ours. From secure encrypted data transmission to an offsite location, daily monitoring to ensure your backups are running without error, annual audits of your backups, to restoring your data in a disaster recovery situation, we take care of it.

As you work on this list of questions, if any remain unanswered or have left you feeling uncertain, contact us for more information about the XLBackup Offsite Storage Solution.

Posted in: Dental Practice Management Software, Dental Software, Dental Technology, Electronic Dental Records, Leave a comment/ No Comments »
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World Backup Day 2018

Posted March 26, 2018 by Nathan N.

It’s inevitable; one day you will lose your data. If you haven’t, that’s great! But in all reality, you probably just haven’t yet. Hardware failure, virus, ransomware, theft, fire, flood, accidental deletion, misuse, natural disaster. These are all determined to take precious photos, videos, documents, and critical business data away from you. As Murphy’s law says: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong (and at the worst possible time!). It can be a painstaking and time-consuming process to rebuild what you’ve lost, and in some instances, there is no recreating what was lost.

This can be a scary thought, but it doesn’t have to be if you have a trusted backup solution.

I expect that most are familiar with what backups are and why they should be done. In my line of work as XLDent’s Technical Support, it’s shocking how many people I encounter that know this, but still aren’t backing up what’s most important to them. Imagine losing just one year of patients, appointments, history’s, x-rays, and clinical notes. Recently, this just happened. Contrary to our recommendation, this client hadn’t performed a backup for that long. One year. One day their server hard drive failed. Money was spent sending the drive to a data recovery company only to find out that none of the data was recoverable from the failed drive. With a good, responsive IT company and a daily backup, a practice can usually be up and fully operational the very next day with minimal loss. Unfortunately, for this practice, lack of a current backup led to an attempt to recover data from a bad drive, which was ultimately unsuccessful.

Dental_Software_XLDent_XLBackupTo honor World Backup Day, this is a reminder to take a look at your backup. Your business data is invaluable and we don’t want this scenario (or worse) to happen to you. If you aren’t confident in your current solution, contact us about our World Backup Day XLBackup promotion.

Posted in: Dental Practice Management Software, Dental Software, Dental Technology, Electronic Dental Records, Leave a comment/ No Comments »
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What World Backup Day Means To Me

Posted March 27, 2017 by Ryan S

A Day in the Life of an IT guy.

It’s Tuesday, 8:22am, and I just got a call from a panicked office manager. She’s having problems getting into her system and things are not working right. Nobody in the office can get into their software to start their day. Unfortunately, as an IT technician, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this happen. A virus attack, hard drive failure, or even something as simple as accidental deletion of a file can quickly create chaos for a business. My first question…Do you have a backup?

The next part of our conversation can go one of three ways. 1) There is no backup. 2) There is a backup. But, it wasn’t working properly or backing up the right stuff. 3) There is a backup and it’s good, it’s recent, and we’re on our way to restoring the data and getting them up and running. What path would you be headed down?

Backups can mean the difference between picking up where you left off or starting completely over from scratch. Backups should be one of the most important decisions a dental practice owner makes. They can be done multiple ways. It may be as simple as plugging in an external hard drive and manually copying the files you want. Or, it could be a fully automated, encrypted, secure backup to an offsite storage location.

What type of backup is right for me?backup

The answer to that question all depends on the type of business you’re in, the amount of data backed up, and how quickly you need that data back if it’s taken away. More often than not, dental software and digital imaging relies on hundreds or thousands of files and folders and even multiple databases. Your day to day operation depends on all of them to be there and working. Considering anything less than a fully automated offsite backup solution is a gamble you don’t want to take.

Putting your data at risk each day at the cost of a cup of Starbucks isn’t worth it. It is far too easy to accidentally open an email and get hit with a ransomware virus, for a hard drive to reach its end-of-life, or for any number of unforeseen things to happen. Data that is held hostage or even damaged can leave you with a business that is brought to a screeching halt. If you have a good backup and a reliable service partner who makes it a priority to get you through a crisis, you can recover with relatively little pain and interruption.

Let’s get back to where my call started on Tuesday morning. Fortunately for her and the practice, we headed down path #3. They were doing a secure offsite backup. I was able to clean the virus from the computer, reload the operating system and programs, and get the data restore underway. Soon they were back to their business of taking care of patients.

If I can leave you with one piece of advice on this World Backup Day, consider your data. Consider its value, the role it plays in your everyday, how hard it works for you from scheduling to clinical notes, planned treatments and taking x-rays. Electronic dental records are amazing and I don’t know of anyone who wants to go back to paper chart days. But those records need to be protected and a reliable, secure, offsite backup is the first step in doing so.

Posted in: Dental Practice Management Software, Dental Software, Dental Technology, Electronic Dental Records, Leave a comment/ No Comments »
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