It seems that the only time backing up your data becomes a topic of conversation is when a computer has failed and work has been lost. Backing up is one of the most important, but also one of the most neglected areas of computing.
Loss of data can happen in many ways, the most common of which is failure of the media the data is stored on. Hard drive failures are common and if it has never happened to you, it is probably only a matter of time until it does. Power failure or power surges can also result in data loss or even failure of your entire computer.
As such, backing up your data is of huge importance to any business. Now that we have established that you need to back up, it is important to establish how best to do it. Cd’s and dvd’s are a definite no. Your options range from an external hard drive which can work well for a single PC to a dedicated back up system using tapes or mirrored drives on the network. This is best for large office set ups.
However, there is a fairly significant hardware cost associated with backing up on your own network. Recent developments in cloud computing and new service offerings now allow businesses to back up online.
Microsoft, for example, can back your data up on their data centres in the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe. There is no need for extra hardware, tapes or hard drives. Instead your entire office can be set up to back up using your office broadband connection at night. This type of backup system is extremely cost effective, secure, reliable and efficient. Perhaps online back up Is the way forward for the modern business?
Disaster recovery is also a big issue - we have recently put in place a disaster recovery system where a full image of our servers is held off site and incremental backs are done on a regular basis - and remotely monitored - so that in the event of a disaster we can be up and running again very quickly. Please contact us if you would like more information on this......
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