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By Martin Straub , CPA, CITP
Good news – protecting your computer and network in the event of a failure or disaster has never been easier. Backup software used to be confusing and difficult to use and choosing the appropriate media (tape, CD, etc) often led to many compromises. Fortunately, those days are now behind us – backup solutions are now much more reliable and simple to implement. If you have yet to put a backup a plan into place and test its effectiveness, you no longer have a valid excuse - now is the time.
For those who aren’t convinced, let’s start by reviewing all the reasons that backing up your PC and server are absolutely necessary. Even though hardware is as reliable as ever, failures do occur – usually when you’re least expecting them. In my experience, the most common failure is hard drives – and in particular, laptop hard drives. Once your hard drive fails your options for retrieving the data are slim and expensive. Anyone who has had a drive fail while still under warranty can tell you that even though you’ll get a new hard drive – it’ll be brand new, with none of your software or important data. Also, despite the ubiquity of anti-virus software, viruses and malware still regularly wreck havoc with PCs, so being able to revert back to “before the virus” is essential. Windows and other software updates can also render your PC useless; making you wish you had opted to not install the software. Finally, disasters do happen – among them, fires, water damage, and theft – and being able to recover your critical customer data post-disaster is often the difference between staying in business and going bankrupt.
A number of factors have contributed to the improvements in backup and disaster recovery procedures, most significantly pervasive high-speed internet connections, inexpensive storage, and software usability enhancements.
High-Speed Internet
One backup option that is rapidly gaining in popularity is internet-based backup services. There are many variations, but in most scenarios, you pay a recurring service charge to a vendor who stores your backup data on their servers. Typically, the vendor provides you with software (often that you download from their site) that allows you to mark the files and folders you wanted backed up, the frequency, and other options. Data is then securely transmitted via your internet connection. The available services run from very simple (such as QuickBooks backup) to very sophisticated tools that can be used to backup entire servers and networks. Cost per month is often tiered based on the amount of data stored. Some of the more popular consumer solutions include Carbonite and SOS Online. Many of our local ISPs also offer this service so be sure to check their latest offerings.
Benefits of using an internet-based service include simplicity and peace-of-mind associated with knowing that copies of your important data files are being stored off-site. That being said, one of the most important features to test is to ensure that you can easily retrieve your data in the event of a disaster or a loss of your PC. An easy way to verify this is to make sure you access your data from a PC other than the one being backed up.
The most significant disadvantage may be cost, depending on how much data you need to back up. In time, the accumulated service fees will likely surpass the cost of a do-it-yourself solution. Some people are also concerned about the security of their data, so be sure to research any company you select for this service.
Inexpensive Storage
The same reduction in hardware costs that has enabled service providers to offer inexpensive (or even free, such as Gmail) storage is also available to consumers. For backup purposes, this is most commonly purchased as external or USB hard drives. The price per gigabyte seems to drop by the week, as does the size of the hard drives. Currently, you can purchase up to 320gb drives in small 2.5” form factors, and 1TB or larger in 3.5” drives. For home and small business networks, there are more sophisticated variations of external storage drives that provide even greater flexibility. For instance, some drives are available with a network connection (referred to as NAS or network attached storage), meaning that multiple PCs can access the same drive. Also available are redundant or even swappable hard drives. This gives you even greater protection by having your data spread across multiple hard drives and may allow you to swap drives for off-site storage.
Software Improvements
Most USB drives are now bundled with easy-to-use software for managing your backups. In some cases, the software uses the term “synching” and “backups” interchangeably, but all provide variations of the same functionality – allowing you to select files and folders to be backed up according to a schedule you determine. Some software is meant to be used specifically with a hard drive’s “one touch” button – when you press it, the backup process begins. If the bundled software doesn’t meet your needs, there are numerous free and low-cost options available for purchase. When evaluating the software, make sure you understand exactly what data is being backed up, and verify that everything that is critical to your business is included in the backup. For instance, email and QuickBooks data is often not stored in the “My Documents” folder, so check to make sure the backup all data that you need.
One of the disadvantages of most backup solutions is that they are “file” based backups. This means that while important data is being stored, in the event of a complete failure you’d still have a significant amount of effort to restore your server or PC. Software, drivers, and settings are not backed up, just files, so you’d likely have to reinstall software before you could even use your backup data!
“Imaging” software solves this issue by taking a virtual snapshot of your PC or server at specific points-in-time. An entire image of your PC can then easily be restored – even to a completely different PC, often in an hour or less! Some of the more popular imaging software includes Norton Ghost and ShadowProtect. For a small-business, this is must-have solution as you can be assured that your business will have minimal interruption in the case of a PC or server failure.
Nowadays, there are seemingly countless backup and disaster recovery strategies, many of which are a combination of file backups, imaging, and external storage. The only mistake you can make is to not have any strategy at all. Most importantly, though, regardless of what backup solution you decide to implement, be sure to test, double-test, then test it one more time. The best backup solution in the world will be of no use to you if you can’t count on it when you really need it! |
