Online backup service for small business

[rblnr]

Anyone have a rec. for an online data backup service? My wife just opened her own law firm and is looking for this. Got a quote from Barracuda -- $1200 for the backup onsite server, then $50/mo. for automated cloud backup/storage.

 

[Mark Seaton]

Does Carbonite not provide what is needed for such a situation? The business accounts are based on space used rather than what you are worried about using one day and it's easy to use the account to back up many computers and devices. I suspect it doesn't fit all needs, and I would check into security of information concerns, but certainly worth comparing. Most ISP's can or will also package an online backup option with your services.

 

[rblnr]

Thanks Mark, I'll check out carbonite.

 

[DonH50]

Barracuda also offers much more than backup, like spam filtering and such...

I use Acronis True Image, a disk-imaging program, for local back-ups. It is nice to know that if a hard drive fails I can be up and running in an hour or so just like it never happened.

 

[amirm]

There can be hybrid approach. Do disk mirroring as Don suggests and then back up online. If the data to be backed up is not huge, zip it and mail it to yourself! With large mailboxes these days, email can be a very useful back up.

 

[Vincent Kars]

http://www.backblaze.com/
Have no personal experience but I like this article: http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-how-to-build-cheap-cloud-storage/

 

[rblnr]

Thanks guys, I'll check all these out.

Given my wife's technical capabilities and that at the moment anyway she doesn't have a full time office manager (just a a couple of lawyers and secretary full-time at the moment), it needs to be as automated a process as possible. The office will also be scanning a lot of old files for cloud/local server storage to get rid of a lot of paper and the space it takes.

 

[DonH50]

I should have clarified that what I was suggesting was what Amir says -- a combination of on-site and off-site storage. Recovering a lot of data over the 'net can be painful, but if the house burns your local image is gone, too. Any of these solutions is a "set and forget" approach for automated backups after the initial set-up. An unfortunate series of events (lost main drive due to a hard crash, then the backup was corrupted by an inapproproaite power outage) now has me doing daily backups to an internal HD, and weekly to a USB drive. Acronis automatically does both for me. I am not using online but thinking about it just for user data. The disk-imaging program means I don't have to re-install apps when a drive goes, but it also takes more space. Drives are cheap, fortunately, and especially relative to the time and pain of rebuilding a system from scratch. Trust me on this... - Don

p.s. Don't forget a good, big UPS...

 

[Vincent Kars]

In Win7 I have set Backup to be performed weekly.
This is a backup to the NAS (Linux) in my house.
I have set this NAS to sync (Rsync) once a week to a NAS at my sister’s house.
Likewise the NAS in her place is set to sync her content to mine on another day.

 

[The Smokester]

Have you considered Dropbox? First 2 GB are free. Accessible from most popular platforms (including smart phones), can share access in a controlled way and accessible from anywhere.

 

[rblnr]

Looks all simple enough then, a NAS with some kind of automatic backup program, and then another auto backup onto a cloud.

Is the advantage of Acronis that it can mirror everything -- not just the data but the operating system, etc. onto another HD?

 

[The Smokester]

Looks all simple enough then, a NAS with some kind of automatic backup program, and then another auto backup onto a cloud.

Is the advantage of Acronis that it can mirror everything -- not just the data but the operating system, etc. onto another HD?

It's simple until you need to use it. Your data (documents, pictures, videos, etc) probably can be restored without a problem. But in my experience, system files and programs generally won't be restored as they were before depending on the exact nature of the DRM they use. A disk image implies hardware dependency so you may need to restore to the exact same disk which usually is impossible. I speculate that even an update in the firmware of a newer production unit of the same model disk can be enough to hose the restore of an image. Whatever the cause, I have tested my "certified microsoft" backup system (based on windows server) in this regard. It is supposed to be completely transparent but it is nowhere near perfect at restoration of the system and programs. I have a somewhat complicated system but still nothing that should give me the grief that restoring this one does. If anybody knows differently, please let me know...I've just never seen a perfect restore (except long, long ago when systems were much simpler and we had complete control over the hardware and software).

 

[DonH50]

Acronis, or any similar disk-imaging program, will restore everything. I have used it three times now (about four more than I would like!) to recover different PCs in our house from the ground up. That is, wipe or install a new disk, run Acronis (from a boot CD made when you first load the SW), and everything (OS, applications, and all user data) are there just as if it never happened. I have done this using different disks with no problem (the new one needs to have the same or more capacity than the old, natch), and have several programs using various flavors of DRM. I cannot speak to other solutions as I have not tried them. All I can say is it worked for me as advertised, much to my surprise and profound joy.

I should note I have a NAS but the local backups are to a second HD in the system (daily), and to an external direct-attached USB drive (weekly). The NAS was taking too durn long over my wireless link...

 

[rblnr]

It's simple until you need to use it. Your data (documents, pictures, videos, etc) probably can be restored without a problem. But in my experience, system files and programs generally won't be restored as they were before depending on the exact nature of the DRM they use. A disk image implies hardware dependency so you may need to restore to the exact same disk which usually is impossible. I speculate that even an update in the firmware of a newer production unit of the same model disk can be enough to hose the restore of an image. Whatever the cause, I have tested my "certified microsoft" backup system (based on windows server) in this regard. It is supposed to be completely transparent but it is nowhere near perfect at restoration of the system and programs. I have a somewhat complicated system but still nothing that should give me the grief that restoring this one does. If anybody knows differently, please let me know...I've just never seen a perfect restore (except long, long ago when systems were much simpler and we had complete control over the hardware and software).

I was unaware of this issue of being unable to restore fully to a new unit because of it's a different model, until this morning (have done one full restore on a Mac once -- all went fine. I assume it's easier when there's only one hardware/software manufacturer to deal with). Guy we spoke to from Acronis brought it up. Spoke to Carbonite too, but because it bundles both data backup and system restore under one roof, looks Acronis is the way we'll go. Costs around $1200 for backup/restore of 4 PCs and a server. Following this outlay, there's a verysmall yearly fee for cloud storage, and then around a $250/yr package of 24/7 tech support and software updates if you want it. Numbers aren't exact as my wife was writing them down, but in the ball-park. There may be better/cheaper options avail., but Acronis seems solid and price-wise and at least competitive. And I don't really have the time now for a search on the order of , say, my last pair of speakers .

Acronis guy was also more or less able to explain it all to my wife once we got him to dial it down a bit -- you should have seen her face when he asked what level of granularity did she want her protection. She's super-smart, but tech ain't her forte. A tech that can explain things has value here. And relieves the Spousal Tech Support services of such duties -- a usually thankless task

Thanks for the recs. and info guys.