Protecting Your Business's Data

When deciding on a backup plan, the first question you need to ask is how long can I afford to out of action for? The second question is, what needs to be backed up? The third is how long it needs to be backed up for?

The answers to the above dictate the type of backup regime required.

We understand that budgets can be a constraint in a small business, however, we can not emphasise strongly enough the importance of having a backup. Even if you only have 1 PC this applies to you!

How long can my business be down for?

Backups systems vary widely - a typical file and folder backup may only be backing up your critical data. In the event of a disaster, getting back up and running may be cumbersome e.g. A replacement server may need to be ordered, windows software installed, user logons created, line of business software installed, printers installed and eventually, you get round to restoring the critical data. Therefore, the downtime is be extensive.

A better solution would be to have an image level backup solution that can be deployed onto different hardware as a "virtual machine". To the end user, there is no difference between working with a virtual machine and a physical server. There are still some hurdles to overcome in term of sourcing even temporary hardware but as a managed client of Aniar's, this is something that we can help out with. Once the replacement hardware is in-situ we can install the newly created virtual machine so downtime should be in the hours not days.

A better solution would be clustering or replication but this only works in certain environments

A couple of assumptions were made above:

1. The latest backups have been successful - something we check every morning for maintenance clients

2. That there was an off-site backup available (in the event of a fire for example) - even if this is a hard-drive that is being changed on a regular basis

 

 

                                                        

We recommend the following at a minimum for backup routines:

1. An image level on-site backup to external hard-drives or a NAS

2. A copy of this backup to be taken off-site on a regular basis

3. A secondary backup of at least the critical data (preferably on-line)

4. That test restores be performed

 

We can impliment, all of the above using tried and tested solutions. We no longer offer file and folder solutions for on-site solutions instead use the image level system. This can be implimented for both PCs and servers. We also have a variety of online backup solutions available.

Call us now on 094 90 48200 to discuss your backup requirements and we can design a solution for you