In
life and in business there are always tradeoffs. We have to consider the cost of every action
we take. Sometimes the cost is real
money, other times it could be time or opportunities. But, with everything, there is a cost. This past month I’ve been intrigued by the
cost of short-selling our organizations on technology. Technology is innately a cost center,
right? Or is it? Sure, it costs a lot of money to create the
right infrastructure for our businesses, but at what cost???
21,285... The number of photos stored on my home computer. 10
years of photos from camera's, cell phones, emails and more.. My daughter’s
first steps, the anniversary photo's, family reunion snap shots, funny things
that my nephews and nieces have done. I even have pictures from my M.B.A.
graduation (if you only knew me back when, you'd appreciate the miracle of
these particular photo's)
17TB... The amount of video files stored on a company server. To give context to this... 17TB is equal to 17,408 GB. Roughly 35 times larger than your home computer hard drive. And to make it more real... If you were recording HD video, you could get about 6 hours of video for every 1GB. Can you imagine? 100,000 Hours of video lost!!
1 The amount of seconds it takes to lose it all!!!
Over the years I've witnessed "loss" of information/photos/company IP too many times. There is a common thread at the root of each "loss".
Cost!!!
17TB... The amount of video files stored on a company server. To give context to this... 17TB is equal to 17,408 GB. Roughly 35 times larger than your home computer hard drive. And to make it more real... If you were recording HD video, you could get about 6 hours of video for every 1GB. Can you imagine? 100,000 Hours of video lost!!
1 The amount of seconds it takes to lose it all!!!
Over the years I've witnessed "loss" of information/photos/company IP too many times. There is a common thread at the root of each "loss".
Cost!!!
- "It costs too much to buy a backup service"
- "I didn't think it was worth it to spend so much on that hard drive"
- "My computer already cost a fortune, I didn't imagine that this could happen"
- My brother, while in Ireland studying for his Masters, stated, "My laptop was stolen, and I didn't have a backup. My buddy had his stolen a week later - he was my backup and I was his... It was all stolen
These are just a handful of comments that I have heard. Each, didn't
consider the cost. Cost isn't always a financial loss. Consider the
first example. Losing family photos doesn't cost you money, it just costs
you a lifetime of memories.
Cost can, however, be completely financial. Consider example #2. If your company lost thousands of hours of video files, they would have to be re-created at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. It could even cost you your business.
To be completely fair, it may not be worth saving certain things and therefore the cost is greater than the risk of loss. Only you can measure this.
Here is the question you must ask... "If I were to lose [put your valuable data here], what would be the replacement cost?
Cost can, however, be completely financial. Consider example #2. If your company lost thousands of hours of video files, they would have to be re-created at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. It could even cost you your business.
To be completely fair, it may not be worth saving certain things and therefore the cost is greater than the risk of loss. Only you can measure this.
Here is the question you must ask... "If I were to lose [put your valuable data here], what would be the replacement cost?
Now, if the cost is greater
than the risk -
1.
Do I know how to ensure that my data is backed up?
2.
Have I invested in the right solution
3.
Am I willing to "pay" for a solution that may never be
"needed"
Unlike auto or home
insurance, we are not regulated to consider the cost of our personal/company
data in most cases. So, regulate yourself and consider the cost.
Great post! Kate and I were reminded of the importance of offsite backups of all our digital stuff when that fire happened in 2012. Since then we have been backing up locally and to the "cloud".
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