feature backing up data Storage strategies that bring peace of mind Dr. Stephane Laverdiere is a 1995 graduate of the National University of Health Sciences in Lombard, Illi-nois. He is president and co-founder of Atlas Chiropractic Systems, a pa-perless office solution. He is also founder of the Internet video mar-keting company, ChiroVMail. He can be contacted at 877-602-8527 or [email protected]. Please visit www.atlaschirosys.com and www.chiroVMail.com for more information on digital solutions for your practice. t’s Friday and you’ve finished adjusting. Everyone in the office is anxious to get out the door and start the weekend. One small detail was forgotten – the backup. Not so small a detail when disaster strikes. It’s something simple that can take seconds or just a few minutes to update on a daily basis and can save you and your staff – and your patients – time, frustration and money. Like the invincible male teenager who thinks he can take on the world, we often think losing all our data won’t happen to us. When one sits at a terminal each day, one expects that one’s computer is going to function properly, and that whatever they were working on previously will be just as it was when they left it. Unfortunately, that is not always true, and without a solid backup plan in place, that information can be lost forever. It’s a well-established fact that the more important something is, the more you will miss it when it is gone – that definitely can be said of computer data. I HoW iS data loSt? Data loss can be attributed to many different causes, perhaps the most obvious being hard-ware failure. Computers can falter for many reasons as they are mechanical devices. Manu-facturing defects, or simply old age, can be responsible for failure. In such cases, simply having important data stored on another form of media is usually enough to recover data that has been lost, and this works well for most offices. However, hardware failure is not the only threat to data, and this simple approach is not suitable for all chiropractic offices. Natural disasters, such as fires and water, not only have the potential to damage the computer, but they also can destroy the structure that it’s in. Theft of the hardware, espe-cially in the case of laptops, is a major concern, as is theft of the data itself while leaving the hardware in place. In these instances, simply having an onsite backup is not good enough, as that backup can be destroyed or stolen as well. Viruses and malware are another concern, as they pose a serious threat to any computer and the data contained within. Some viruses and malware are more of an annoyance than anything else because they simply display ads or useless messages on the screen. Others are much more problematic, as they can intercept data or corrupt entire systems and ren-der them useless. Poorly set up computers and office networks can also be the cause of corrupted data and loss of information. A good software company can, in most instances, www.canadianchiropractor.ca Stephane Laverdiere, DC 34 • CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR | JUNE 2012
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor June 2012: Page 34
