Backup
Will your backup restore your business after a disaster?
Most likely not. Many businesses fail every year because they cannot recover from a disaster, even though they were convinced that they had “good backups”. If you are not loosing sleep over whether or not your backup will work to accurately recover your business after a catastrophe, you probably should be.
Only one proven methodology, “Disaster Recovery Confirmation” can validate your backup so you don’t loose sleep! Once a month, restore a sample of your critical business files to a computer and open them in the application that you do business with. Every month, you will be secure in the knowledge that your files are recoverable.
Home users can try out the backup-restore process with a Free 2GB Online Backup account from Mozy. Please use referral code F2YX90 when you sign up. I get a bit more space on my account that way.
Preaching Backup Again
The Western Digital My Book World Edition 4 TB (2 x 2 TB) Network Attached Storage Drive
Although the design squarely hits the home network sweet spot, it would be a great economical addition to a small office network to aggregate both computer backups and shared files to one office device. It even comes with all of the backup software.
Check out this video. Western Digital specs read:
Automatic and continuous backup for all the computers on your network
Centralize all your family’s digital content
Best-in-class performance cutting-edge technologies to deliver high performance read and write speeds ideal for the most demanding users.
Built-in media server for streaming music, photos and movies to any DLNA certified multimedia device such as Playstation 3, Xbox 360, wireless digital picture frames, and connected audio receivers. DLNA 1.5 & UPnP certified.
iTunes server support to centralize your music collection and stream to a Mac or Windows PC using iTunes software.
This drive even sports remote access to your files. It needs to find it’s way to your office.
When Is Backup Really Backup
I find myself easily drawn to new and better technology, but when does a product not quite get you there?
| The Seagate® Replica™ 500-GB System bills itself as a "complete PC backup system, Effortless, automatic backup for everything on your PC, including the operating system, programs, and settings." This sounds easy and the device looks pretty nifty. But, the devil is in the details.
Seagate tells me that the Replica will automatically backup my entire hard drive without my having to configure anything. I’m almost sold. So what pushes me over the edge? This thing is so cool looking. It will look great sitting on my desk quietly backing up all of my data. So I make the purchase, plug and play, automatically backing up my stuff so that I am completely protected from any data loss, right? |
Wrong… The Replica has it’s place, like it’s ability to save the file you accidently deleted on Friday but knew it was correct on Tuesday. So, just restore Tuesday’s copy of the file. You can also restore a complete snapshot of your computer’s drive in the event you are wiped out by a virus. But what about the really big catastrophes?
The big ones prove the need for a bullet proof backup and recovery system for not only your pc but your entire business. It’s not out of the question that when your computer is destroyed in a disaster, your cute little Seagate Replica will also be destroyed at the same time.
I would like to see this Seagate Replica device not only backup your computer automatically but also push a backup to the cloud, an off site out of region data center. Imagine loosing both your computer and Replica in a fire, but having the ability to restore your files from the cloud back to your new replacement computer.
Then you would have a true backup. Combine frequent file restores with testing of those restored files and you then have a bullet proof backup and recovery system.
No Third Rate Computer Backups Here
Opps… Sunday afternoon and I’ve just discovered that I damaged three files on my home PC. Not to fear… I have these files backed up. Mozy allows me to get the versions I know were there two weeks ago… just like on TV, right?
Unfortunately, Mozy didn’t work as advertised this time.
Here’s a picture of mozy.com when I needed it the most.
And a picture of the the Mozy blog where I went for a status update.
I gave up recovering the three text files I needed after about a half hour. I will stop trying and look at Mozy later.
Looks like I need to regroup on the backup strategy for this particular computer. Except, I’ve recovery tested random files every month on this computer. I’ve confirmed that they will open after I recover them. I’ve chosen a well known home pc backup solution from Mozy. I made the right decision. Time to back off and wait.
One hour and thirty-five minutes into this, suddenly three text files restore and I finally have my files. Guess this will serve as this month’s recovery testing. I also noticed Mozy’s website bounced back. I guess I’m not the only one with occasional systems problems.
Mozy has a great no charge to home users 2GB Online Backup plan. Give it a try. It’s never let me down, even this time. And, please use referral code F2YX90 when you sign up so I can get some more space on my account..
One Easy Way To Destroy Your Backup
As you leave the office this chilly afternoon, I’ll give you one more thing to think about, courtesy Yahoo Finance and The New York Times, "Eleven Easy Ways to Destroy Your Company". Don’t let an extension cord destroy your business data backup.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve read and heard about business people allowing their tape and disk backups to stay on top of the computer they are backing up. When your computer burns up, your backup burns up.
Please use an online, offsite backup product to backup your data. Then, recover your backup every month to demonstrate the viability of your backup-restore process.
