The Ultimate SaaS Data Protection Checklist

In the modern world, data security is a top priority. You may have spent months or even years building up your business, but if that data is lost or stolen, you’ll have to start from scratch with no guarantee of success. The good news is that there are many ways to protect your company’s assets—and these days, software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies can make it as easy as possible for their customers to protect their own information. But how do you actually go about doing this? Here’s a checklist that will help simplify the process:

Create a backup strategy.

Your backup strategy is the plan for how you will protect your data. It needs to include:

• How often to backup (and what types of information to keep in each backup).
• How long to keep backups, whether indefinitely or for some other period of time (e.g., three days).
• Where to store backups, either online or offline.

Create a master copy of your data.

A master copy is a backup of your data that you can use to restore your company in case of an emergency. It’s also important because it allows you to keep track of who has access to what, since there are many ways to share information online today. A master copy keeps everyone on the same page when they’re looking at their data and helps prevent accidental deletions or overwrites from happening without anyone noticing until it’s too late. For example: if someone accidentally deletes an important file from their computer, then all future users will see this as well as any internal reports related to the file being deleted—but if they had been using a backup type called “master” instead (like Rsync), then only those affected would know about its removal (as opposed to everyone else).

Ensure that backups run frequently and regularly.

Backups should be run at least once a day, but preferably more often than that. The frequency of your backups depends on how much data you need to protect, how much storage space is available in your SaaS solution (in other words, how many files), and whether or not you want to be able to recover from any disasters or hacks that might occur in the future.

• Make sure that the backup process does not interfere with normal operations of your system—if it does then consider switching off this functionality until such time as your backup schedule is complete.* This may mean setting up an online backup service like Crashplan or Backblaze instead of using Dropbox-style sync mechanisms within existing applications such as Salesforce CRM which can slow down response times when users are working offline.*

Prioritize the most important files, folders, and databases.

The first step in data protection is to prioritize the most important files, folders, and databases.

This can be done by using a data classification system (e.g., D-Labs), or simply prioritizing them based on their importance, criticality, and value for your business.

In addition to considering the importance of each type of file/folder/database within your organization, you should also take into account what platform it’s stored on and how easy it is for people outside your company to access those files if needed (e.g., via SaaS applications).

Keep your backup software up-to-date to prevent downtime.

Updating your backup software is an important step in the process. It’s also one of the most overlooked steps, but it can make a world of difference to how well-protected your data is.

Updates come in two flavors: automatic and manual. Automatic updates allow you to configure your system to automatically download new versions of its software as they become available—a valuable feature for businesses whose staff will have limited time or attention to devote toward updating their systems manually.

Manual updates allow users to check for new releases from within their preferred applications; this allows them greater control over when they receive these updates than would be possible through automated methods alone (if you choose this option, be sure that all instances of whatever program(s) need updating are updated at least once per week). Either way, both automatic and manual approaches should include regular checks for security vulnerabilities so that any new threats introduced into programs don’t cause downtime due solely because nobody noticed until after someone had logged into their favorite website using outdated credentials!

Use antivirus software to keep your data safe from unwanted visitors.

Antivirus software is a great way to keep your data safe from malware and other unwanted visitors. You can install antivirus software on individual computers or on a network, depending on how you want it to protect your important files. Antivirus isn’t a replacement for backups though—you still need to make regular backups of critical data just like before!

This checklist will help you protect your data

It’s important to protect your data, but not everyone knows how. This checklist will help you get started on the right foot.

• Back up regularly and in multiple locations
• Ensure backups are encrypted and stored securely
• Create a plan for backup strategy and recovery

Conclusion

We hope this checklist has given you a good idea of how to start protecting your SaaS data. If you’re not sure where to start or what tools are available, let us know in the comments below!

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