19 June, 2010
The response to the last few articles has been great but it is time to revisit a topic that we have already talked about, but one which is of vital importance. This is the subject of having a comprehensive backup system. There are so many hardware devices on the market today as well as so many good backup software programs that nearly every potential data loss scenario can be covered. The solutions are widely varied and range from $20 USB memory sticks that satisfy the needs of many home users (any backup is better than none) to tape libraries, network attached storage, offsite file replication & thousands of dollars’ worth of backup & disaster recovery software for large businesses. For a home user just a weekly drag and drop of their documents folder and email files onto a USB stick will often be enough to save a lot of heart ache. If you have a huge music or photo library then an external USB hard drive is the way to go but also keep in mind that if you are storing data in electronic format (on a hard drive) then it should always be on two separate devices at any one time. For example if you have a heap of photos then you should have a copy of them on your PC as well as a copy on your backup drive. If they won’t fit on your PC then you should have two backup drives with a copy on each. For businesses, network attached storage NAS devices offer incredible capacity and flexibility so if teamed with a daily backup of all important data as well as server images using disaster recovery software you are covering most bases. An offsite backup can then be added to this system to further cover the scenarios of flood, fire and theft. When considering how much time and money to dedicate to a good backup system there are two main questions to ask – how much would the loss of you data cost you & how much money would you lose per hour or per day if your network was down? Also work out what disasters you wish to cover (viruses, hacking, accidental deletion, hard drive failure, file corruption, server failure, fire, flood, theft etc.) and seek the help of an IT professional to tailor a backup solution to cover your needs. Kerr Solutions is at 128 Musgrave Street & is contactable on 49 222 400.
