Start by identifying the kinds of information you would probably store on your network. I foresee a client list, proposals, contracts, documentation, work-related pictures, and financial data. All this data probably resides on one computer and if you have a file server, you would probably store the data there.
I advocate backing up mission-critical data offsite. This protects the data in case a theft, fire, or other disaster physically strikes your office. If that happened, you could restore the data and resume operations elsewhere.
Natural disasters happen. It's time for a quiz. Which disasters happened after January 1, 2000?
· A tsunami strikes Indonesia.
· Two hijacked airplanes crash into New York City.
· A hurricane and levee failures destroy New Orleans.
· A chemical plant in Massachusetts explodes. Buildings within a half mile are knocked off their foundations.
· A power failure in the northeast U.S. affects 40 million people.
· A fire closes downtown San Diego.
· A flood closes Nashville.
The answer: all.
Nobody is isolated from natural disasters. I am in California gold country. I hope fires won't sweep down the Sierra Nevada foothills. My friends to the west hope the dams won't break and flood Sacramento County. Backing up offsite gives you one less thing to worry about if a disaster were to happen and if it did, you could easily retrieve your data.
Intentional disasters happen.
Sometimes disasters are intentional. A local business in a prestigious business park was victim to a theft. Somebody broke in, took their large-screen TVs, computers and backups, and left. This company did not have any offsite backups. I learned of this theft when sheriff's deputies asked the victim's neighbor, a customer of mine, for any outside video surveillance recordings. I do not know if that business remained in business.
Accidental disasters happen
Sometimes disasters are accidental. I once overwrote my QuickBooks company file, which holds several years' worth of financial data. I realized this mistake quickly. I merely renamed my defective QuickBooks company file, connected to my offsite backup provider, and restored a previous version of that same file. There was no need for prayer; there was no profanity involved.
I have a customer where a man with 10% ownership of the firm deleted nearly one billion bytes of data from the server and then walked out. Without backups of this data, they could have been out of business within a month. I simply connected to the customer's server and then restored the data from the firm's offsite backup provider.
Pay or free offsite backups
Offsite backups are a growing field. I use a service that charges $5 per month for each billion bytes of data. This is equal to a 50,000-page book. I've also seen some offers for free offsite backups. I have never enrolled a client in one of these services.
Would you trust your valuable business data to a free backup service?
That is what many unsuspecting small and mid-size businesses are doing these days. The promise of unlimited space for a backup at little to no cost in some instances seems too good to be true, and it is. There are many companies out there promising to back up your data for free. Now, as a small business owner yourself I ask you, what would happen if you gave away your products and services for free? You would not be in business for very long.
While some of these companies are promising to back up your data for pennies, there are other companies out there offering online backup software for a bit higher of a price, and some people just can't seem to figure out why there is such a difference.
As businesses have been seeing a rise in the need for more efficient backup and disaster recovery policies, the market has seen a number of companies rise up to help fill this void. How do you choose which company to back up your valuable business data?
Here are a few things to look for when selecting an online backup service:
Protecting data and technologies onsite. With technology there will always be a need for technical support. You need to be sure that the company you are doing business with offers technical support both over the phone and through e-mail. Although many of the cheap/free services say they offer support, good luck getting any when you need it. I know of some that back up data to Vietnam. Good luck calling them. The service I resell is the second online backup company I've used. The first could not keep track of my accounts. I was their largest reseller in California at the time...I took my business elsewhere and found a service that has proven to be very reliable.
Security. Security comes into play with online backup in many ways. First and foremost, you need to make sure that the company you choose to do business with offers high levels of encryption. Encryption can come into play when the backup is started on the end user side; it should be sent to the company using an SSL connection and the company should not keep a copy of your encryption key. You will be safest with a company that is upfront and tells you that they DO NOT keep a copy of your encryption key. This insures that they are within compliance and that nobody can access your data unless they are authorized to do so by having your encryption key. Many of the cheap or free services will maintain a copy of the encryption key within their servers, which is not considered secure at all.
Redundancy. If you are choosing a company to back up your data, wouldn't you expect that company to practice what they preach? For maximum security and protection, you should be sure that the company you have backing you up is backing up themselves. As a backup company, one data center-or in some cases, a couple of servers-in their closet is simply not enough. If you want to be sure that your data is available to you when you need it, you should work with a company that backs itself up. The service I use has redundant servers near Boston and Los Angeles.
Data retention. What would happen if you accidentally deleted a file on your computer that you were backing up and didn't realize it until a few weeks later? If you are working with a viable online backup company you would be able to get that file back. However, with many of the cheap/free online backup services, if you were to delete a file on your end, they would delete it within their servers in as little as a few weeks and sometimes days. Because these cheap services have very little revenue coming in to support the cost of doing business, they need to find ways to keep the usage down on their servers. A service that might cost a little bit more will retain data on their end until you tell the backup software it is time to delete the files.
Bandwidth utilization. Bandwidth (speed potential) has a cost. In the instance of the cheap online backup services, they limit the amount of data and speed of uploads and downloads in order to minimize cost. With a legitimate online backup service, you will be allowed to transfer as much data as you need without incurring any slowdowns or penalties.
SQL and Exchange. Many businesses today are using SQL servers and Exchange servers and require that this vital part of their business is backed up. Some services will charge additional fees for SQL and Exchange and some will not even offer them as options. You will need to find a service that supports backing up of both SQL and Exchange without additional cost.
You Need to Know When Backups Are Working
Most online backup providers these days send notifications of backups. Notifications arrive in my e-mail and look like this:
This is an automatic message from your backup service.
Username: markgermanos
Computer ID: 0000
The "Poweredge Backup" backup finished.
Files In Set: 5706
Files Backed Up: 42
Data Sent: 48.72 MB
Start Time: Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 (10:00:00 PM)
End Time: Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 (10:22:51 PM)
Runtime (h:m:s): 00:22:51
Thank you,
This simple notification tells me:
· The customer's site has power.
· The server is up and running.
· The backup software is working.
· The Internet connection is alive.
· The backup was successful.
If you are the customer, you receive the same notifications
You Need to Know When Backups Are Not Working
Seeing these successful notifications day after day, week after week, month after month, you may fall into the habit of assuming backups always work. Not so. You also need to know when backups are not working. Fortunately, the service I use also sends notifications of failed or missed backups. I think they are more valuable than the successful notifications I just finished discussing. One of these messages looks like this:
Dear Joe Smith,
This is an automatic email notification about your Online Backup Service Account: joesmith. We are writing to inform you that it has been 42 days since your last backup.
As many of our customers use our service as an archival service, this may not indicate a problem. However, if you believe your account should be performing backups at regular intervals, we recommend...
Thank you,
This tells me something is wrong. Maybe the server does not work. Maybe the company has gone 42 days without Internet access. In this case, somebody who did not know what he was doing decided to remove the backup software from the server. The company was lucky they did not need to restore any data during that time span.
How Will You Respond to a Disaster?
That's why you need a reliable solution. I've been advocating online backups for years. Here are two opposing responses to disasters.
At one customer, one of the partners said, "I blew up my database. I lost a month's work of billable work. Oh well, I have some cash." He had no backup strategy. I do not know if he is still in business.
At another client, the office manager wrote me a testimonial: "I just wanted to thank you for your quick response when I discovered that my boss had corrupted the data in our [billing] program. Thankfully, you were able to restore our data from that night's backup and we were up and running in about 2 hours. I can't imagine where we would be if not for the reliability of our backups. The service was a lifesaver. Thanks again.
Mark Anthony Germanos is a business author and speaker. He wrote Escape the Cubicle: How to leave your corporate or government job for something better after leaving corporate America and becoming happily self-employed.
He shares traits that he sees in successful businesses and bad habits he sees in those barely surviving. He helps people get over the fear of becoming self-employed. He helps people make better decisions with SWOT Analyses, utilize social media to attract customers and decide where they should focus their time, energy and attention.
For a SWOT Analysis workbook (at no charge), send an e-mail to mark@markanthonygermanos.com. Mark can be reached at http://www.markanthonygermanos.com/. You can also call 530-677-8864.
I advocate backing up mission-critical data offsite. This protects the data in case a theft, fire, or other disaster physically strikes your office. If that happened, you could restore the data and resume operations elsewhere.
Natural disasters happen. It's time for a quiz. Which disasters happened after January 1, 2000?
· A tsunami strikes Indonesia.
· Two hijacked airplanes crash into New York City.
· A hurricane and levee failures destroy New Orleans.
· A chemical plant in Massachusetts explodes. Buildings within a half mile are knocked off their foundations.
· A power failure in the northeast U.S. affects 40 million people.
· A fire closes downtown San Diego.
· A flood closes Nashville.
The answer: all.
Nobody is isolated from natural disasters. I am in California gold country. I hope fires won't sweep down the Sierra Nevada foothills. My friends to the west hope the dams won't break and flood Sacramento County. Backing up offsite gives you one less thing to worry about if a disaster were to happen and if it did, you could easily retrieve your data.
Intentional disasters happen.
Sometimes disasters are intentional. A local business in a prestigious business park was victim to a theft. Somebody broke in, took their large-screen TVs, computers and backups, and left. This company did not have any offsite backups. I learned of this theft when sheriff's deputies asked the victim's neighbor, a customer of mine, for any outside video surveillance recordings. I do not know if that business remained in business.
Accidental disasters happen
Sometimes disasters are accidental. I once overwrote my QuickBooks company file, which holds several years' worth of financial data. I realized this mistake quickly. I merely renamed my defective QuickBooks company file, connected to my offsite backup provider, and restored a previous version of that same file. There was no need for prayer; there was no profanity involved.
I have a customer where a man with 10% ownership of the firm deleted nearly one billion bytes of data from the server and then walked out. Without backups of this data, they could have been out of business within a month. I simply connected to the customer's server and then restored the data from the firm's offsite backup provider.
Pay or free offsite backups
Offsite backups are a growing field. I use a service that charges $5 per month for each billion bytes of data. This is equal to a 50,000-page book. I've also seen some offers for free offsite backups. I have never enrolled a client in one of these services.
Would you trust your valuable business data to a free backup service?
That is what many unsuspecting small and mid-size businesses are doing these days. The promise of unlimited space for a backup at little to no cost in some instances seems too good to be true, and it is. There are many companies out there promising to back up your data for free. Now, as a small business owner yourself I ask you, what would happen if you gave away your products and services for free? You would not be in business for very long.
While some of these companies are promising to back up your data for pennies, there are other companies out there offering online backup software for a bit higher of a price, and some people just can't seem to figure out why there is such a difference.
As businesses have been seeing a rise in the need for more efficient backup and disaster recovery policies, the market has seen a number of companies rise up to help fill this void. How do you choose which company to back up your valuable business data?
Here are a few things to look for when selecting an online backup service:
Protecting data and technologies onsite. With technology there will always be a need for technical support. You need to be sure that the company you are doing business with offers technical support both over the phone and through e-mail. Although many of the cheap/free services say they offer support, good luck getting any when you need it. I know of some that back up data to Vietnam. Good luck calling them. The service I resell is the second online backup company I've used. The first could not keep track of my accounts. I was their largest reseller in California at the time...I took my business elsewhere and found a service that has proven to be very reliable.
Security. Security comes into play with online backup in many ways. First and foremost, you need to make sure that the company you choose to do business with offers high levels of encryption. Encryption can come into play when the backup is started on the end user side; it should be sent to the company using an SSL connection and the company should not keep a copy of your encryption key. You will be safest with a company that is upfront and tells you that they DO NOT keep a copy of your encryption key. This insures that they are within compliance and that nobody can access your data unless they are authorized to do so by having your encryption key. Many of the cheap or free services will maintain a copy of the encryption key within their servers, which is not considered secure at all.
Redundancy. If you are choosing a company to back up your data, wouldn't you expect that company to practice what they preach? For maximum security and protection, you should be sure that the company you have backing you up is backing up themselves. As a backup company, one data center-or in some cases, a couple of servers-in their closet is simply not enough. If you want to be sure that your data is available to you when you need it, you should work with a company that backs itself up. The service I use has redundant servers near Boston and Los Angeles.
Data retention. What would happen if you accidentally deleted a file on your computer that you were backing up and didn't realize it until a few weeks later? If you are working with a viable online backup company you would be able to get that file back. However, with many of the cheap/free online backup services, if you were to delete a file on your end, they would delete it within their servers in as little as a few weeks and sometimes days. Because these cheap services have very little revenue coming in to support the cost of doing business, they need to find ways to keep the usage down on their servers. A service that might cost a little bit more will retain data on their end until you tell the backup software it is time to delete the files.
Bandwidth utilization. Bandwidth (speed potential) has a cost. In the instance of the cheap online backup services, they limit the amount of data and speed of uploads and downloads in order to minimize cost. With a legitimate online backup service, you will be allowed to transfer as much data as you need without incurring any slowdowns or penalties.
SQL and Exchange. Many businesses today are using SQL servers and Exchange servers and require that this vital part of their business is backed up. Some services will charge additional fees for SQL and Exchange and some will not even offer them as options. You will need to find a service that supports backing up of both SQL and Exchange without additional cost.
You Need to Know When Backups Are Working
Most online backup providers these days send notifications of backups. Notifications arrive in my e-mail and look like this:
This is an automatic message from your backup service.
Username: markgermanos
Computer ID: 0000
The "Poweredge Backup" backup finished.
Files In Set: 5706
Files Backed Up: 42
Data Sent: 48.72 MB
Start Time: Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 (10:00:00 PM)
End Time: Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 (10:22:51 PM)
Runtime (h:m:s): 00:22:51
Thank you,
This simple notification tells me:
· The customer's site has power.
· The server is up and running.
· The backup software is working.
· The Internet connection is alive.
· The backup was successful.
If you are the customer, you receive the same notifications
You Need to Know When Backups Are Not Working
Seeing these successful notifications day after day, week after week, month after month, you may fall into the habit of assuming backups always work. Not so. You also need to know when backups are not working. Fortunately, the service I use also sends notifications of failed or missed backups. I think they are more valuable than the successful notifications I just finished discussing. One of these messages looks like this:
Dear Joe Smith,
This is an automatic email notification about your Online Backup Service Account: joesmith. We are writing to inform you that it has been 42 days since your last backup.
As many of our customers use our service as an archival service, this may not indicate a problem. However, if you believe your account should be performing backups at regular intervals, we recommend...
Thank you,
This tells me something is wrong. Maybe the server does not work. Maybe the company has gone 42 days without Internet access. In this case, somebody who did not know what he was doing decided to remove the backup software from the server. The company was lucky they did not need to restore any data during that time span.
How Will You Respond to a Disaster?
That's why you need a reliable solution. I've been advocating online backups for years. Here are two opposing responses to disasters.
At one customer, one of the partners said, "I blew up my database. I lost a month's work of billable work. Oh well, I have some cash." He had no backup strategy. I do not know if he is still in business.
At another client, the office manager wrote me a testimonial: "I just wanted to thank you for your quick response when I discovered that my boss had corrupted the data in our [billing] program. Thankfully, you were able to restore our data from that night's backup and we were up and running in about 2 hours. I can't imagine where we would be if not for the reliability of our backups. The service was a lifesaver. Thanks again.
Mark Anthony Germanos is a business author and speaker. He wrote Escape the Cubicle: How to leave your corporate or government job for something better after leaving corporate America and becoming happily self-employed.
He shares traits that he sees in successful businesses and bad habits he sees in those barely surviving. He helps people get over the fear of becoming self-employed. He helps people make better decisions with SWOT Analyses, utilize social media to attract customers and decide where they should focus their time, energy and attention.
For a SWOT Analysis workbook (at no charge), send an e-mail to mark@markanthonygermanos.com. Mark can be reached at http://www.markanthonygermanos.com/. You can also call 530-677-8864.
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