I've been telling people to back up their data for almost fifteen years now, and I wrote about it in one of my first articles The Importance of Data Backups back in 2005. However, I still constantly run into people and businesses that fail to make frequent data backups and see stories in the news about data loss all the time.
The recent Sidekick and Snow Leopard issues that I did a post on recently also show how vulnerable we can be when we do not properly make these data backups.
Manually backing up your data can save you a lot of headaches in the long run, including issues with compliance and regulatory requirements.
Back when I wrote the article above, someone sent me an email stating that when they have a data loss, they just have the chance to do it all over again and do it better. This may be a great outlook to have, but not a very practical or cost effective one.
According to The Cost of Lost Data, a Pepperdine University report updated in 2003 (Pre-Sarbanes-Oxley) Dr. David Smith estimates the average cost of irrecoverably lost data at more than $10,000 per megabyte lost. This does not take into account the value of the lost data which on average is about $3,400.00 per incident.
In addition to backing up your data, I would also recommend making copies of your Vital records, and other business documents essential to your operations (electronically if you can) and store those off-site as well.
You also don't need an expensive solution, even if you are a small business, indivdual, or on a shoestring budget there are still steps you can take to save and backup your data without having to break the bank.
Fore More excellnet Statistics on Data Loss see this whitepaper from HP & Score:
Impact on U.S. Small Business of Natural & Man-Made Disasters