Question:

I have a small business with 3 computers. Do I really need a back up system?

Answer:

It depends... But 99.9% of the time a back up system of some sort should be implemented. In today’s business environment the computer configuration is as valuable as the data it processes. So a back up strategy should include both data and system configurations. For most businesses a new computer loaded with Microsoft Office is just a starting point, you need to load the accounting application, the database application, set up and configure your email client, address books, and favorites, etc. The list of additional applications and productivity tools goes on and on. It can take longer to rebuild your computer then it takes to restore your data! So weather your business runs on a dedicated server or in a peer-to-peer network backing up your system configurations is just as important as backing up your data.

Tips for designing your backup strategy:

1. Make sure you understand the types of data you are going to back up. Word files and database files may require different options for being backed up. As with many database applications if the backup system can not get full control of the file it will be skipped and not backed up.

2. Make sure your backup schedule is based on business needs not IT needs. That is; make sure you buy a system that can backup and verify the data during the non-business hours. I have seen many small businesses that "Saved" money by buying a tape drive that is slower then what was specified and end up feeling the pain on a daily basis because the backup had not completed and was still running the next day. As you may have experienced, all your requests from a server when a back up is active are very slow. Lost productivity usually cost more then your backup will ever cost.

3. Think about using an image application for backing up PC configurations. At My digital Life Corp, we typically “Image” our Clients standard PC configuration, so if a PC was to crash we can copy the standard image back on to the computer and the client is back working with all their standard applications is less then a quarter of the time it take to reload the Operating System. Saves time… Lots’ of time.