How much of your business is currently stored in Zoho CRM? How many Zoho Creator applications does your team use on a daily basis? Which Zoho Reports hold the key to your marketing strategies? What if you came into the office one morning and discovered all of that data was gone? For some businesses, this scary thought has become a harsh reality.

man sitting at computerZoho is a reliable tool. (We should know. We use Zoho on a daily basis and are certified Zoho Creator developers and partners.) However, recent hacks and data breaches have shown that even the most reliable tools and databases are not immune to data disasters. Sometimes it’s best to play it safe and give an extra boost of security to already powerful tools such as Zoho by having a Zoho data recovery plan.

Businesses should use multiple database backup processes. It’s the standard. If your backup is lost or stolen, your entire business will go with it.

Even the largest companies have failed to adequately backup their data. Microsoft and T-Mobile had to deal with severe backlash in 2009, when over 800,000 Sidekick users found all of their contact data had been lost due to a server failure. Meanwhile, only a year prior, the British Home Office (home of MI5) lost data on nearly 85,000 prisoners when an employee misplaced a single flash drive.

While Zoho CRM or Creator data loss at your business (hopefully) won’t cause a national security disaster, it will sorely impact the reputation you’ve worked so hard to build. Your business will have to start from scratch—building new contact lists, new order histories, new marketing campaigns, new reports, new customer records, new sales pipelines, and more.

So how can you ensure this doesn’t happen? The general rule of thumb is to keep redundant backups outside of your existing website or Zoho application. There are several ways you can do this.

• Port data to a backup website. This simple, limitless way to access your existing data can sync as little as one to two times a day, or as much as every hour. You’ll always have a recent version of your data on hand.
• Use Zoho Reports. Zoho Reports can act as an additional backup to your Zoho Creator or CRM. This is among the least expensive ways to backup your data. If you’re a Zoho One user, you already have access to this tool.
• Find a hosting partner. A hosting partner can either host your backup on their own database or on your database with regular syncs and simple access.

No matter the amount of data your business currently supports, it’s never too early to find a Zoho data recovery and backup option right for you…but one day it may be too late.

If you need help choosing the perfect backup solution for your Zoho data, contact our team of Zoho partners, custom software developers, and small business IT experts today. Together, we can help ensure your business and its data are safe, even if disaster strikes.