Building Small Business Issue: Backup (LAST ISSUE)

By Dan Evans

Points Of Interest.
1 Should we back up or archive?
2 Use tapes or discs?
3 What about network-attached storage?


Storage is the cheapest it's ever been. The software is easier than ever. And there are several quality hosted options if you don't want to keep it on-site. There's simply no excuse for a business not to have a data backup plan. Heck, backup even may be mandated by the federal government, depending on the industry you're in—health care and finance are good examples. So a good backup system may not only keep you out of trouble, it might keep you out of jail.

When you back up your data, it's usually for short-term reasons, and you'll overwrite this data with updates very soon. There are three types of backup:

1.Full: Backs up everything regardless of whether it's changed.
2. Differential: Backs up only what has been changed since the last full backup.
3. Incremental: Backs up individual files that have been modified since the last backup.

Archives, on the other hand, contain static data, such as tax returns and old e-mails, which won't be overwritten.

Traditionally, IT managers archived data using tape systems, but recently businesses have been using discs for both archiving and backup. It takes much less time to recover data from a disc than from a tape. Software such as Symantec Backup Exec ($500 street, www.symantec.com/backupexec), which walks you through both archiving and recovery, is worth the money. For burning backup discs, we like the Sony DRU-710A (sony.storagesupport.com); it's only $110 (street) and will burn dual-layer discs.

Another popular backup option is network-attached storage, or NAS. NAS devices attach easily to your existing network. We like the Buffalo TeraStation Pro II ($850 street) for its ease of use and its terabyte of disc space.

Above all, no matter what system you chose, you must have some form of off-site backup, even if it involves mailing a complete backup disc once a month to your mother in Idaho.