LOS ANGELES, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, fires and flooding can cause extreme damage to homes and businesses in affected areas. While physical damage to property may be unavoidable, data loss isn't. It's important for small business owners to take the necessary precautions to ensure their computer systems, filled with valuable data, are properly backed-up offsite. SOS Online Backup, a global leader in online backup technology, recently published the findings of a study revealing that nearly 50 percent of small businesses do not back-up their data regularly. Losing databases, possibly amounting to years' worth of financial, customer and other confidential information, as the result of a natural disaster could result in a bigger disaster - the failure of your small business.

According to the Institute for Business and Home Safety, an estimated 25 percent of businesses do not reopen following a major disaster. To ensure a small business does not end up in that bracket, small business owners must plan for disasters, regardless of whether or not they are forecasted.

While backing up data may not seem like a priority on a day-to-day basis, it can make a huge difference on whether or not your business can get back up on its feet if a natural disaster strikes. Backing up your computer system locally is not enough. If you have a lot of physical damage to your business, you may not be able to get to your local backup, or it may have been destroyed. This is why backing up your data continuously offsite is your safest and most secure option when it comes to protecting your data.

Small businesses put a lot of reliance on their computer and database systems. These systems usually hold vital information for daily operation such as financial data, customer data, product information, etc. All of the information stored in these systems is irreplaceable and necessary for the success of the business. Most of these systems have grown organically and have become essential to the running and organization of the business. Without properly backing up these systems, a natural disaster could wipe everything out - forcing any small business owner to have to pick up and start again from scratch.

"Small business owners must prepare for any and every situation they could encounter. Depending on location, your business may be more susceptible to different types of natural disasters. One of the more unfortunate stories coming out of Hurricane Katrina was the repeated story of business owners, who lost all their legal records from the calamity, going to their lawyers or their accountants who were retaining backup copies for them. Of course, those lawyers and accountants were just as badly affected by the calamity as their clients, and in many cases decades worth of records were irretrievably lost" said Ken Shaw, Chief Technology Officer of SOS Online Backup. "Losing all of your data is a devastating situation, one that many small businesses never recover from. This is why it is so important to back up your data offsite regularly using online backup technology."

For more information about how small businesses can leverage online backup technology to prevent catastrophic loss of data, go to SOS's Disaster Prevention web portal at www.sosonlinebackup.com/dp?Src=PR-Disaster

About SOS Online Backup

SOS Online Backup is a leading provider of cloud storage technology. SOS Online Backup delivers simple, powerful and inexpensive online data backup for consumers, small businesses and enterprises worldwide. Operating a global backup network, SOS Online Backup provides continuous protection and security for customers' valuable data investments with set apart features that include multiple redundancy and off-continental storage. SOS Online Backup has been the recipient of the PC Magazine Editors' Choice Award since 2006.

For more information or to download the program, visit

http://www.sosonlinebackup.com

SOURCE SOS Online Backup