Dying for success on the internet
Succeeding online is critical for small businesses to become globally recognized. At the same time, using these resources makes the process of backing up corporate data increasingly difficult, to the point where some entities refuse to use the service over compliance and eDiscovery concerns. It turns out these suspicions are well-founded.
Following the law
Using online resources is totally reasonable and openly encouraged by small business specialists the world over. Putting a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other networking sites increases visibility and transparency while encouraging consumers to do all the marketing work for a company. No questions asked, no funds allocated, just constant shares and re-tweets and pins on other walls, networks and circles outside the original sphere of what an entity of any size may have reached.
As Law.com pointed out, however, every original record created by a business constitutes documentation. Posting a single tweet must be backed up somewhere to meet federal compliance, as that information can be subpoenaed in an eDiscovery case. If a company hasn’t been taking precautions to record every last Facebook post since the account was founded, it may require dozens of hours and a hefty sum of money to go back and replicate the requested files after the fact.
Every communique counts
It isn’t just social networks, though, that businesses need to be wary of. Any online communication at all must be recorded somewhere, and with the massive volumes of information a company creates each day, standard virtualized and cloud servers may not be able to handle the load. Tape tracking software will allow a company to store these files to tape in such a way that they are specifically earmarked as online-only files, so that a request for those kinds of documents can be expedited.
Computerworld commented that such a backup archive is essential for any company trying to expand online. Even if eDiscovery should never come up, being able to reference prior posts and online achievements can help target future advertising, fix things that didn’t work and revamp a company’s internet image. Simply allowing these resources to languish online is a major wasted investment.
For businesses intimidated by the online recording process, there are a number of methods and services available to speed up media management. Snapshots, web crawlers and other software tools will find information on a scheduled basis, run backups and ensure continuity for the future.