Running a daily system backup to tapes is often routine for office managers. Although this method has worked for many years, it is not always the fastest option or even the most secure. Restoring critical patient information in today’s world is crucial and the quicker and more secure, the better. More and more data storage technologies, often referred to as data vaults, are becoming available to medical practices. Because of this, many office administrators are considering strategies to further secure data both electronically and offsite. The result is a faster and more comprehensive restoration of patient data, especially in the event of a disaster. Sent straight to a secure data recovery center, the tape-less electronic backup is also compressed and encrypted. There are several benefits of electronic data vaulting as opposed to tape backup. Some of which include: Ease and speed of recovery Speed of transmission Security Reduced Cost How does tape backup compare to data vaulting? Imagine that your Medical Manager® server crashes, taking the application down. In the case of a tape back-up, prior to the more stringent HIPAA rules, you might overnight the media to your support provider so that data could be restored from backup. Today, to prevent protected health information breach, mailing the media or hard drive is not a safe option. Rather, a technician may need to be deployed onsite to restore the data or to pick up the media to work on restoration at the office. This adds to the system downtime and expenses involved in restoring the data. In the case of Data Vaulting, the support provider could restore the data remotely as it was backed up in a secure data center versus to tape and therefore is immediately accessible to technicians. The difference in restoring from these two backup scenarios range from weeks or days for restoration from backup to days or hours for restoration from data vaulting. That’s a large cost savings should restoration of data from backup be required. A data vaulting solution saves your practice money. First, it replaces the hardware, software and tapes that come with the current tape backup system. Second, data is compressed by almost 50%, which reduces overall storage costs. If you are interested in learning more about electronic data vaulting for your medical practice, contact Harmony Healthcare IT. Your technical specifications can be reviewed and a solution for the new year can be discussed and implemented by the end of 2016.