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Our subject this
month “Selected Topics ralated to Backups.” |
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What are backups
and why do we do them |
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Ways to back
your data up |
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Off-site backups |
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Backup topics
for future newsletters |
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Featured Links:
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Our subject this month
“Selected Topics
ralated to Backups.”
May 28, 2003
Dear Subscriber,
I picked the topic of backups because there are so many small offices
that struggle with it. Large offices have the resources to hire
full-time staff dedicated to nothing but their backup infrastructure.
Small offices often just go without it, putting themselves at
significant risk.
While there isn’t enough room in this newsletter to go into great
detail, I will cover just a few important aspects.
It’s important to mention that not all offices are alike. our specific
needs will vary. While the information in this issue will be useful,
you might need to make some adjustments in order to meet your needs
perfectly.
As always, if you like this newsletter and know someone who you think
would be interested in it, feel free to forward it to them (in its
entirety). They can subscribe themselves by going to our web site and
clicking on "Newsletter". The link is in the footer. Also, if you have
topic suggestions, please email them to
newsletter@bluegraniteconsulting.com.
Enjoy!
Cyrus
What are
backups and why do we do them
This may sound
like a simple question, but it’s worth defining what we’re talking
about. Most people will make a photocopy of important documents like a
birth certificate, marriage license, or insurance paperwork in case of
loss or disaster. We also need to do this for our computer documents.
Because our computer documents are constantly changing, we must make
regular copies so that we always have a relatively current version.
Some of the things that good backups will protect us from are
accidental file deletion, file corruption, natural disasters (flood,
fire, earthquake, tornado), and computer failure. Imagine what would
happen to your business if there were a fire in your building. All
computers would be lost to fire and water damage. It might be
irrecoverable. If you had good regular backups that were stored in an
off-site location (more on that later) you would be able to rebuild you
business in a matter of hours instead of months.
Ways to back
your data up
There are two
aspects to backing up data: the interface and the hardware location.
Most large companies back their data up to large tape drive jukeboxes
using expensive enterprise backup application suites. As a small
office, the cost can be prohibitive. Her are some of the different
options available to the small office:
Tape – Much like videocassette, but designed to store large amounts of
data. As I said, this has been the method of choice for most large
companies. While this method can get expensive, used systems can be
purchased from companies that have upgraded. Software will be needed to
copy the data to the tapes and keep track of which tapes contain the
data. Once installed, it’s easily automated. All you have to do is
look at the logs occasionally to make sure there are no problems, and
physically rotate the tapes on a regular basis.
CD-R/RW – If you have less than 750 Megs of data, you can copy it to a
CD-R or CD-RW. With more data, you’ll have to do it 750 Megs at a
time. You’ll still need software to make the copy and it is very
difficult to automate. It’s not very flexible, but it is probably the
cheapest method.
Copying data to another hard drive, network, computer – The computer
should not be in the same building (never mind machine). It’s very
easy to do (just drag and drop). Software can be used to automate and
schedule it. You don’t get historical versions of the files which can
be a problem if you end up with a corrupt file and don’t notice for a
while.
Online backup services – There are services that you can get for a
monthly fee that will allow you to back up your data across the
internet. This option gets expensive if you have very much data or many
machines to backup You download a piece of software to install on your
computer and configure it for the data that you want backed up. It
then uploads that data to their servers. You get the benefit of having
the data off site (and far away). If you loose your desktop machine,
you can easily restore your files to another machine. Can be
automated. One downside is that the backup speed is limited to the
upload speed of your internet connection (fairly slow with DSL or cable
modem, cripplingly slow with dial-up). Be very careful about the
privacy and security policies of the company you are using and make
sure
you pick a reputable company. This option is expensive if you have
more than 250 MB data or many computers to backup.
Off-site
backups
Think about some
of the reasons you might need to resort to your backups. If there was a
fire or flood in your building, everything in the office might be
destroyed. If there was an earthquake or tornado, there might be a
similar outcome. That’s why it’s important that you keep a copy of
your backups somewhere else.
Ideally, you would keep one copy of your data on the moon where it
wouldn’t be susceptible to the same influences/disasters, but due to
the
cost that would be involved (and the suspended space shuttle flights)
we generally accept keeping a copy in a vault in the same state. For
very small offices, often even the same city.
There are companies that offer services for offsite backups. They send
a currier to your location every week or month to pick up your backups
and take them to their vault. They keep two or three (or more if you
want it) of the most recent backups off site before rotating them back
to your office. That way you always have a few versions off site just
in case of emergency.
One of the things we include with our All-inclusive network services
package is monthly pickup of backups that will be stored in the fire
safe in our office. This gives our small office customers the advanced
services that large companies pay dearly for, but in a cost-effective
package.
Backup topics
for future newsletters
In future
newsletters we’ll talk about other aspects of backups including:
- What to backup
- What not to backup
- Types of backups (Full, Incremental, Differential)
- More on storing data off site
- Newer types of backups including “Snapshot” technology
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