Today’s smaller manufacturers are creating enormous amounts of data — everything from new product designs to top-secret intellectual property, as well as a constant flow of customer and sales information that must be managed and protected every day. To say that this data is vital would be understating the value of its constant use, and any loss of information could be devastating.
For small businesses in general, the value of information has never been more important. According to the Symantec 2012 State of Information Survey, the information small businesses create and manage on a daily basis constitutes 40 percent of the value of their business. The same survey revealed that information for small businesses is expected to increase by 178 percent within a year, and for those in the manufacturing space, that number could be even higher. The reality is that over the past few years, there hasn’t been a shortage of examples in the news spotlighting businesses losing critical data, whether through cyber-attacks, natural disasters or suffering regulatory fines for compliance violations related to losing customer data. The challenge today’s smaller manufacturers face: How do they maintain productivity by protecting their intellectual property from loss?