Protect your Business Data – Use more than one Solution to Backup and Protect.

There are many backup solutions available, ranging from simple data transfer to a CD or USB drive to online backup solutions which will protect your data at a remote data centre. With such a vast array of solutions all with specific benefits and drawbacks, I still ask my self one question, why do companies only employ a single backup solution?

Putting this into context, business users usually implement various levels of security to stop hackers and viruses affecting their business, why don’t businesses apply the same multi-level theory to their backup and restore process.

Let look at a few of the many ways to protect your data-

RAID – Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. This should always be your fist line of defence, multiple drives acting as one, and should a drive fail your server will continue to run.

Backup to Tape - The most common solution by far, the main benefit is speed, you can stream data to tape from various sources at any one time at up to 80MB per second, the key point behind this is you can restore at the same speed. The major drawback is the fact you are backing up to tape. Companies usually leave the tape in the server overnight, which means should your office be affected by fire of theft for example; you will still lose your data. If you are one of the few who removes tapes offsite, are they removed to a secure location in a secure way?

Online Backup – A technology which is really maturing. This solution will automatically backup your data to a secure remote location. The downside is not the speed of backup, but the speed of restore; restore can only be as quick as your internet connection. Volume shadow copy will help eliminate this issue, but only if you are running windows.

The good points are that the process is automated so no human intervention is required. Your encrypted data will always be stored at a secure offsite location, so regardless of disaster will always be available for restore.

Companies pay hundreds of thousand for a backup solution which offers a high performing backup and restore facility which is also totally secure and always available for restore. Why spend that vast quantity when you can use tape backup and online backup solution in conjunction with each other.

For more information on online backup services, please visit www.perfectbackup.co.uk

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