Does your Backup make the Grade?

[Adam Randall]

We did a mailout a while back to our database and out of the 40 responses we got back nobody got over a 50% score for their backups.

This questionaire is targeted at above 10 PCs and a server where not having an appropriate backup strategy is definitely high stakes with no upside.

Thought it might help a few people here:

Backup test PDF

The biggest misconception I come across is that backups are like a light switch either they work or they do not, either you are covered or you are not.

Nothing could be further from reality, Backups are and will always be a cost versus the risk you are prepared to take.

Next time someone asks you if you have an effective backup think carefully before saying yes or no, chances are its neither.

[soliddata]

Nice one Adam,

I have an article that pushes a lot of those areas that I have often posted in industry magazine, but that is much more exact, and gets the point across as people do it.

Kevin

[JohnSheppard]

I reckon the biggest hassle with backups is running through reinstall of backups on a trial run. I'm not sure how big places do that.

I use acronis to backup to a USB Harddrive incrementally half daily. Then I do a bi-weekly incremental to a NAS drive. Then a half weekly incremental for critical files to an offsite FTP server. (As I'm only in a small way I only care about my files so I haven't tested for reinstalls)

If you have MS-SQL Databases and exchange servers...yuk!

[soliddata]

In the backup game we are now focussing much more on Disaster Recovery rather than just backup.

It was always the case that when someone had a big disaster I could get them their data back long before they got a new computer and their applications installed - but that means we are just doing half the solution.

What we are looking at now is a complete solution where a small business can have a full recovery solution that can be rolled over to with minimal downtime.

Kevin

[Adam Randall]

Originally Posted by soliddata

In the backup game we are now focussing much more on Disaster Recovery rather than just backup.

It was always the case that when someone had a big disaster I could get them their data back long before they got a new computer and their applications installed - but that means we are just doing half the solution.

What we are looking at now is a complete solution where a small business can have a full recovery solution that can be rolled over to with minimal downtime.

Kevin

Yes thats a classic, half a day to restore, 5 days to work out what tape drive the backup tapes use, order the tape drive and wait for it to arrive then find out it was a weird model that is not supported anymore.....

[Carbonite Australia]

Most customers that call us are very small businesses that are looking for something automatic that can replace or compliment an external hard drive.

My experience in marketing online backup has been that in most cases it needs to be sold. By that I mean, having a 3rd party involved like a reseller, who will advise the business on the options they have available to them.

Left to their own devices, most will do nothing or go to their local Dick Smith and buy a 1 Terrabyte Drive and then manually transfer data every day or week.

I agree that it is a matter of cost V risk. It is also about getting some good advice.

At Carbonite I don't have a problem telling a customer that we aren't the right solution for them.

[spotty]

Having been down the path of an external hard drive mechanical failure (after 3 months), $2,500 to restore data and eight weeks of gut wrenching waiting to see if my business was still worth something I happily signed up with Carbonite and think it is the best investment I have ever made. If I hadn't experienced the data crash I probably would never have looked at offsite backups believing that my flash drives and external hard drives had me covered.