The Verse - Volume 40
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Tech Tips - Data Backup Basics

Data Backup Basics
We all have gigabytes—if not terabytes—of electronic data these days on our computers and we’ve all heard the horror stories about a company losing customer data or someone losing personal photos. Current statistics show that one in every 10 hard drives fail each year. The cost of recovering a failed hard drive can exceed $7,500, and success is never guaranteed.

How can you protect your electronic information? And, how can you store it? The answer is to back it up, of course. The types of backup devices are numerous: USB Key (a.k.a., thumb drives, flash tokens or keychain drives), external hard drives, CDs, DVDs, tapes and uploading to remote locations.

Given the nature of the world we live in, stuff happens. It can be big and bad, such as ice storms, fires, explosions, viruses, hackers or earthquakes, or it can be small and silly like spilled coffee, a dropped or lost laptop or a power surge. Whatever the cause, data sometimes disappears. The time to start thinking about how to back it up isn’t after something happens.

No Human Action Required
No matter what you do, if human intervention is required to make it work, there are times when it will not get done. To borrow a saying from Ron Popeil, “Set it and forget it!” It’s the best chance you have that the backup will be done regularly.

The right place to store your backup data is somewhere away from the computer that contains the original information. In considering backup methods, only remote backup provides the “set it and forget it” functionality along with a built-in remote data location. No one has to remember to take the storage device off the premises each night The recent decrease in prices for remote backups makes it an even easier choice.

Determining Which Data
So what kind of data do you need to back up?

If you’re backing up a home computer or personal laptop, typically all you need to back up are your data files, not the actual programs running on the PC.

For businesses, the answer is a little more complex. The reason is based on “recovery time.” If you have a server in your business that holds all of your critical data, backing up just the data is only one part of the equation. You also need to consider the applications and the complex system settings stored on the server that are required to actually get to and use the data.

If you remember how long it took to set up and install the server in the first place and all the tweaking that occurred immediately following the installation, you will know what this means. Consider the accounting system you installed and then spent several months configuring to get just the right reports. If you don’t back up the program, along with the data, you have a very lengthy recovery process.

The recommendation for a business is to create a backup that will allow you to do a “bare metal restore.” That means you can take your backup file, copy it onto a new server and be up and running in hours, not days. There is no lengthy “tweaking” process to go through, so you can be productive right away.

Remote Backup Process
What does remote backup look and feel like? It depends on the particular provider, but typically you will have access to a “dashboard” that looks a lot like Windows Explorer. It shows the files and folders being backed up, gives you options to add or remove folders from the backup process and “drag and drop” data restoration.

In business settings, where the volume of data tends to be much greater than for home users, the remote backup solution may include an on-site component that speeds up the backup and restoration process. A copy is stored locally and then “pushed” out over your Internet connection at night so it does not disrupt your office during the day.

Off-Site Options
Where do you go for this kind of service?
For personal and home computers, mozy.com (starting at $4.95/month) or carbonite.com (starting at $49.95/year) are vendors to consider.

For business backup, LiveVault.com is a reliable option. It is a division of Iron Mountain, the off-site records storage company. Pricing is based on the amount and type of data being backed up. Another option of course is to call your friendly purple guy and find out what will work best for you!

Remember, back up your data remotely. Set it and forget it. It will give you the peace of mind that you will have a backup when you need it

As always, if you have questions, please call the purple guys at Versent at 816-221-3900 or email at info@purpleguys.com and "We will do IT for you."

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