Best Small Business Back Up Solution

[Tesla]

Hi, one of my customers uses an XP Pro machine as a file share which is accessed by a couple of employees.

Current backup consists of manually copying some files to an external hdd.
There is no on-site redundancy.

What would you recommend implementing as a more robust means of backup?
They have around 80gb of data.

My initial thoughts are to definately introduce a RAID1 mirror array for immediate redundancy.

However, they require something that can be taken off site incase of theft, fire etc.

Thanks.

 

[TazUk]

To add fault tolerance I would add a second hard disk and a RAID controller, assuming the PC doesn't have one on-board, doesn't need to be a fancy one if you're only doing mirroring.

For backup, a couple of external USB hard disks and MS's SyncToy set to backup all their data every night. They can alternate the drives so ones left on site for the backup and the previous nights backup taken off site.

A more elaborate solution could be used depending on how much money they are willing to spend.

 

[rtrice81]

You could look in something like mozy or any other remote backup solution, I personally use Mozy and really like it for plan data files

Logmein also has a product called Logmein Backup however you will need a server to house the data as they don't offer storage.

Richie

 

[basic]

How about a NAS solution?

 

[axem56]

+1 for NAS
I have been using the following Buffalo NAS drive with Cobain backup and it works great.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822165075

 

[TazUk]

The problem with using a NAS for backup is it remains on site, so if there's a fire or burglary you lose your backup as well

 

[tymiller]

www.jungledisk.com is a good one. It is pretty darn cheap too.

 

[angry_geek]

I would recommend Acronis or even NTBackup with rotating USB HDDs.

 

[Tesla]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

[studiot]

up to 100GB of data?

How about something like this

http://cpc.farnell.com/_/hd-quadgiganas/enclosure-nas-gigabit-4x-sata/dp/CS1681805

You can hot swop the hard drive in and out so 'copy n carry' as required.

 

[Markus]

I would recommend the RAID1 setup like you were thinking plus rotating usb hard drives with Cobian Backup 9 as the backup software.

 

[Doctor Micro]

We just implemented a backup system for one of our clients. They had been using tapes, but the tape drive died and the replacement drive wasn't always kind to the tapes.

Their server already has a 3-drive RAID5 array, so redundancy is covered there, plus certain key data files are mirrored to the BDC.

We used a 500GB external USB drive with a separate folder for each day of the week and set up backup schedules to run nightly to the corresponding day folder. Once a month, a separate backup to a "Monthly" folder. This is their quick-access backup.

For secure backup storage, we installed an eSATA drop-in drive caddy and use 160GB SATA laptop drives which are setup to do duplicate backups at 4am (well after the USB backups are done). The drives are rotated once a week, with the offline drives stored in a fire-proof safe.

We discussed offline storage in the cloud (like Mozy) but they weren't comfortable with the concept, but they liked the laptop drive solution.

 

[jbutler9]

This sounds like an opportunity for you to shine, if you do it the right way.

Are there more than just a few employees for the entire company?

If so, do they have any kind of Domain setup, or is this just a workgroup?

You could recommend a total solution package such as Windows Small Business Server 2008

Now back to what you described....it sounds as if your clients want two things done:

1. A backup solution, which you have to think about company expansion, size of the data, daily, weekly, monthly, incremental, and full scenarios, as well as verification that the data that you backed up is not corrupt.

You of course will have to support this solution, so are these regular customers and do you have a service level agreement (SLA) with them?

What is your budget? Is this a one time budget, or are they willing to fork over a monthly allowance for additional driver storage and off-site storage such as a bank safety deposit box? Who is responsible for taking the backups to the bank, what happenss if you are "not available after a scheduled backup? Have you written a backup policy that you would want to hand over to the company? How long will you keep the backups? How will you verify that the data that is backup is not corrupted?

2. Disaster recovery, there is no point in having backups done if you haven't thought of Disaster Recovery, which is why we do backups...in case we lose some kind of data, which is normally a disaster of some type to someone. When you think disaster recovery, think about environmetal, physical, criminal, and unknown scenarios. How will you get them back up and running. What is the plan should one of their laptops, or perhaps the workstation that holds the shared data is fried? Will you be responisble for purchasing a new laptop, or will you commindeer (sic) someone else's for temporary use. Do they have a budget for exmergency purchases? Do they have a small business account with TigerDirect for example?

On the outset, it sounds like the business you are supporting wants a simple fix, which may be well and good until something horrible goes bad and make no mistake about it, they will come to you, whether it is wil requests for help or direction of blame. Try not to solve a broken arm with a bandaid, when they are gonna need their arm set and a cast.