Business 2.0 is a technology business magazine published by Time. It periodically reminds readers the importance of backups, and publishes an annual list of the “101 Dumbest Moments in Business.”

On Monday, April 23, the magazine’s editorial system crashed, wiping out all the work that had been done for its June issue. Good thing they have a backup server. Oops! The backups server had never been needed before, and now that it was being called upon, it was discovered that no backups existed. It hadn’t been functioning properly.

Not all was lost. The text had been sent to the legal department, but all the layout and artwork was gone. Luckily, it’s a monthly magazine, and they still had a week until deadline. They will be able to get the issue to press.

Moral of the story? A backup plan is not enough. Periodically test it, to make sure it works. They may also have to make room in their annual list of 101 102 Dumbest Moments in Business.

Business magazine fails to heed its own tech advice [iht.com]