Because customers typically want to understand what can go wrong without cybersecurity, Macrium marketing officer Erin Osborne has been collecting real-world stories illustrating the need for backup.


"Data disasters come in all shapes and sizes, from personal to global. From fires and floods to theft and old fashioned human error, it can feel like they lurk in the shadows waiting to pounce," she says.


For example, back in 2013 Newport-based James Howells accidentally threw out an old hard drive -- having forgotten that it stored some 7500 bitcoins worth about $465,755,250 (about £350,485,876) in today's money.


At the time the story was reported in January 2021, he had tried and failed to get permission to excavate the landfill to retrieve it.


"Rest assured, [these examples] were all entirely preventable with the right data recovery plan in place," says Osborne.


"Look no further than major broadcaster Channel 4 in the UK."


When the TV broadcast centre's fire suppression system went off in late summer 2021, many channels lost access to services such as subtitles, audio descriptions, and sign language support because of a problem with their data recovery.


"They had backups but their backups failed," Osborne says. "It’s a frightening and very public reminder to practice the industry-standard 3-2-1 backup strategy no matter how big or small you may be."


Macrium Software was shortlisted in this year's Northern Tech 100 Awards -- where QBS took away two titles for 2021 -- as one of the fastest growing technology companies in the north of England, Scotland and Ireland, she reports.


( Photo by Pepe Reyes on Unsplash )