Remote Support
Tech Tip: Backups
Backups are one of those things we have heard about for years. We have all had the warnings. But how many of us actually backup our data the way we should? In this article I am going to discuss several backup options and things to consider when planning a backup strategy.
First off, it seems obvious why we need to backup our data, but perhaps not how we should do it. It seems almost unfathomable that a business, or a home for that matter, would not backup their data. For home users the data is usually less critical, but do you really want to lose all those digital photos and music files. For a business it is essential to backup. With today's technology, many offices are going the paperless route which means more and more data is electronic (stored on the computers) and less is stored in the file cabinet. Just like you would lose that data if you had a fire burn up your file cabinet, you could lose it all just as unexpected by a hard drive crash, theft, or other means.
We never expect to lose data, but we can prepare for it. First off you need to have some sort of backup software. You can chose to do it manually, but in my experience those who go the 'copy and past' route usually don't have time to backup often enough and end up not doing it altogether. If you have a server I would recommend some sort of automated backup software to run each night. Backup Exec is popular and easy to use. There are several other options as well. If you just have a peer to peer network, or a single computer then you can use the Windows Backup utility if you have XP Professional, or you can purchase a backup software program to run on your computer. Either way I highly recommend an automated solution.
Next you need to pick your back media. In the past most organizations used tapes. Tapes worked fine, but they were slow and went bad often. Then there was a jump to CDs. This was a good option but still took more time to setup and run and was difficult to automate. Now you can purchase one or more external hard drives to backup to. These connect by either a USB port (I recommend USB2 for speed) or a firewire port. They even have networkable drives. These drives are portable and reliable. Plus you don't need to install software unless you are still using Windows 98 or 95. With tapes, if your tape drive or server failed, you had to either get a replacement drive before you could restore data (or backup for that matter), or you had to remove the drive and set it up in another computer. With the external drives you simply plug them in. These drives are cost effective, hold more than the tapes, and are much, much faster when backing up and restoring.
Another option is to use an online backup service. This service installs a client on a computer that allows you to connect to a remote backup server. You configure your backup and then it sends all your data to a remote location. Some of the advantages of this are that you only pay for the space you need on the server, there is little to no initial investment cost, and you don't have to remember to take a tape or drive home with you because your data is already off-site.
Some other things to consider when planning your backup strategy are workstations. If you have a server you need to make sure that everyone is saving important files to the server so they get backed up. That is one of the benefits of a server, central location of you data. You can redirect "My Documents" and should backup your email to the server as well. Just make sure you get the data off the individual computers and to the server so it gets backed up.
In conclusion, if you have questions about your backup strategy then you need to talk to someone. I will use an example of someone I know (who shall remain nameless). This person ran a small business and was using a server. They changed the tapes religiously each day to make sure they were backing up. However, they never checked the backup logs to see if the backup was working. Turns out the backup had been failing for some time and so even though the tapes were being changed, nothing was getting backed up. When the server crashed, everything was gone. When you lose data like that you end up paying a data recovery center a lot of money to see what they can recover. It is always best to plan ahead and closely monitor your backups. For more information contact JNA and we can help make sure your data is safe.