Data Backup

The ideal solution for small business is to firstly use a back-up solution - a system that is low cost, requires little or no effort and with minimal risk of failure.

The backup solution needs to be fully-featured and deliver back-up that:

  • Is fully automatic - with no effort required by the user
  • Backs up all important files - including emails, contacts, etc.
  • Can backup "on demand" - anytime of the day or night at the click of a mouse
  • Stores the data off-site in a safe and secure location
  • Backs up to "mirrored" sites - for added security
  • Keeps all data secure and confidential by encrypting the data - making it impossible for anyone to access, except for the subscriber
  • Maintains a minimum of 5 versions of the backup data at all times 
  • Allows backup data to be recovered with ease and minimum risk of failure.

That's exactly what the Backup service offers plus more.

 

Once bitten – twice shy!  Do you know someone who has implemented a backup solution after they suffered a loss of their critical business information?  eg. a hard disc failure, a stolen computer, a damaged computer in a flood or fire.

But if you have lost information crucial to your business – it’s all a bit late.

How you backup the important information on your computer could be the difference between between survival or failure for your business. 

We all have good intentions regarding the backup of critical information.  As with most good intentions, the reality is different.  What should be a daily task is either forgotten or put aside for other important priorities.  Instead of a daily backup it becomes every other day, weekly, a monthly backup, or maybe NO backup!  And we just hope that nothing bad happens.

Larger corporates don’t put the viability of their business at risk, and they don’t gamble with the valuable information held on their computers – they backup their data on a daily basis to a data centre, and it all happens without the user having to do anything!

What’s more, they don’t just backup the critical files – they backup ALL of the important information.  And they ensure they have copies of all their application programs so that if they ever had to re-install these applications, they don’t have a problem.

And finally, this information is automatically backed-up to a secure, remote data centre, and just in case, they will backup the data to a “mirrored” site – so that if the proverbial 747 takes out the first data centre, all of the data is safe and available if required.

If you take time to determine what data is critical – you could find it’s not that much.  For example, your MYOB or Quicken accounting files, including debtors list, your customer lists, product/research plans, etc.  So why not make sure that these absolutely vital files are backed-up on a daily basis?

And for those who already have some sort of backup system, they need to ask:

  • How much effort is required by the user - each day, each week, each month?
  • How safe and secure is the location where the backup data is stored?
  • If the backup data falls into the wrong hands, can it be accessed?
  • Are there enough backup versions being kept, so that if a file was corrupted 5 versions ago there would still be a good backup copy available?
  • How much trouble is it to restore the backup, and will it work, or what if the required file was not backed-up?