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Getting your back up

The suddenness of the Christchurch earthquake bought home, to many small to medium business owners, the need to have a back-up regime for their data.

Unfortunately, for many, it was too late to arrange after the ground rocked and their buildings rolled, haphazardly destroying buildings and the businesses they contained all over the city and beyond.

Even businesses whose buildings and personal computer equipment were not destroyed in the quake, lost vital data when the city was cordoned off before their damaged premises were demolished.

Disaster recovery

Research carried out by the University of Wisconsin shows nearly half (43 per cent) of businesses that lose their data don’t reopen their doors, and 29 per cent are out of business in two years. A disaster both for the business, and the people it employs, and the local economy.

There are almost too many data backup regimes to go into detail in this piece, but every business needs one.

Keep back ups off site

You can back up to traditional media, such as CD-ROMS and DVD-ROMS, but remember to keep a copy off site otherwise they will be destroyed in any disaster. External hard disk drives and an automatic backup each night, is also a good idea. But you’ll need at least two drives for each machine, one on site and one off site, which you rotate each night.

It’s advisable to regularly try to access your backed up data on another machine to see if it’s backed up without any problems, as corruption is not unheard of.

Lock it away

You could also store a copy of your data, along with the media containing your personal computer software like Windows, Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop, in a fireproof safe or hand a copy over to your IT support company to store offsite. Store your data away from magnetic sources and moisture, which can both cause damage to digital information.

The best option for most businesses is some form of online backup using your broadband internet connection.

Again, there are many options, from small and manual to the big and automated.

Use SkyDrive or Dropbox

A sole trader might take advantage of the 25GB of free online storage Microsoft offers Hotmail users on its SkyDrive. Such files can be accessed anywhere on any computer. The disadvantage is that he has to remember to copy every new file online as he goes. See: explore.live.com/windows-live-skydrive

Sole traders could also set up a Dropbox account on their work and home computers and either use the internet synchronized folder as his default Documents folder or drag new work there at the end of each day. A 2GB account is free, a 50GB account is $US9.999 a month and a 100GB account costs US $19.99 a month. See: www.dropbox.com.

If a larger business has data from multiple computers that needs to be backed up each day then it is advisable to go for a different solution. You can easily back up critical business files with a server which also allows you to organise and share files, restrict employee access, enhance data security and add new employees seamlessly.

Technicians can complete most support jobs over the internet without needing to travel to the site, saving them time and you money.

If you don’t have a backup, and are not sure which option is best for you, give your favourite techie company a call.