Backup Now So You Don't Cry Later

Is a data backup solution part of your computer plans? Do you have a way to protect yourself if something goes wrong with your computer or data? Computers are a useful part of our lives but we don't always protect ourselves from their loss be it fire, theft or hardware failure. We often don't consider how fragile our computer data really is. Do you keep sensitive information on your computer that you would be upset if you lost it? Not sure? Consider this. If I told you that I was going to format your hard drive right now and you will lose all of the information on your computer, would you be ready? Or would you need to get a few files first... If you are in the second group, chances are you don't have a proper data backup solution in place to help you handle disasters. What happens if your computers are stolen? I recently had a business colleague of mine who's office was robbed and who had all of his computers stolen. He naturally felt helpless and victimized over the situation. What was especially frustrating was that he thought he had taken the proper measures to secure his office. He had a good security system in place, had secured his premises and yet they were still able to cut his phone lines, disable his alarm and have their way in his office. Don't think a computer theft can happen to you? Guess again. It can happen to anyone even if you don't own a business. Computer hard drives do crash If theft doesn't get your computer, a hard drive failure certainly might. Hard drives are the devices in your computer that store the information on your computer. Your computers' long term memory if you will. They are built with rotating mechanical parts. These parts break down. If they break down, your data can be gone. Are you prepared? Data on a hard drive can often be recovered by expert data retrieval houses but their prices usually start at $10,000 and up. Want to avoid such costly recovering options? Establish a data backup solution. A fire can wipe out your computers and your data If computer theft or hard drive failure don't destroy the data on your computers, a fire certainly might. This threat speaks to an off site backup storage solution. While the first two can be averted by simply burning a CD of your most critical data, fire can destroy your CD's too if they aren't stored off site. Fire is just one more reason why a data backup solution needs to be a part of your vocabulary and your action plan. Protecting your data just makes good commonsense, if you have data that you don't want to loose and most of us do you owe it to yourself to protect your data.
About the Author
Joe Camarda is an expert on data storage and backup methods. Find out more about his expertise at http://www.westcliffassociates.com

Local Vs Remote Data Backup - The Pros And Cons

Author: Niall Roche

Backing up your data should be an essential part of your daily routine. Unfortunately for many businesses this simply isn't the case. The only time data backup crosses their mind is when they have a hard disk crash or a serious spyware or virus infection. Unfortunately by this stage it's already too late to do anything about it - the data is gone and you're then looking at several hundred, if not several thousand, dollars to have the data rescued and restored.
The concept is simple - choose a data backup plan and stick to it.
The burning question on most IT managers minds is should the data be stored locally or remotely? To be fair this is the pivot point of all data backup plans. There are pros and cons to each method.
Local Data Backup
Most companies rely on either DVD, external hard disk or tape drive data backup solutions locally. These provide fast, cost effective storage for most small companies and are also very easy for even the IT novice to operate. In the case of any data being lost it's simply a matter of restoring the data from a previous backup point and the user can then continue working.
The data, however, is only as safe as the building it's in. What happens in the case of fire, burglary, flooding or storm damage? That's right you just lost all your data backups in the blink of an eye.
Remote Data Backup
As an emerging industry remote data backup has really taken off. Most commonly remote file backup services allow you to log into a remote drive and via a web based interface upload all your critical files. 5GB of storage space is the entry point for most of the remote data backup services and this is provided at a low cost. Knowing that your data is being stored in a secure facility that's deliberately protected against harm allows you much greater peace of mind.
The weak point here however is the data transfer speed. Unless you're operating a high speed LAN in your company then remote backup can be a complete waste of time as you're tied to the maximum upstream speed of your network - which can be surprisingly slow depending on your IT infrastructure. Add in the issue of firewalls blocking uploads on certain ports and it can quickly become a real IT headache.
So how do achieve a Win-Win scenario? Blended backup! Look at utilizing both of these forms of backup. In an ideal world you'd store a local copy of your data and then upload an exact copy of that data to the remote file backup server. If money is an issue then store your bulk data locally but copy your mission critical data to the remote backup service. That way in the worst of disasters you'll still have the data you need to actually function as a business. That's not to say that bulk data such as archived email is not important but that old data could be recovered in time by a data recovery specialist whereas you mission critical data needs to be available at a moments notice.

This article was written by Niall Roche and provided courtesy of BackupAdvice.com If you want to know more about computer backups this site is full of useful information.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Niall_Roche