Back-Up Solutions

Make Sure You Are Backing Up Your System.

It just amazes me how many businesses never back up their computer network, OR only keep an onsite copy of their data. Imagine this: you write the most important piece of information you could ever write on a chalk board and I come along and erase it.

How are you going to get it back? You're not.

Unless you can remember it, or if YOU MADE A COPY OF IT, you can't recover the data. It's gone. That is why it is so important to back up your network. There are a number of things that could cause you to lose data files. If the information on the disk is important to you, make sure you have more than one copy of it.

Second, it's absolutely critical that you keep an offsite copy of your data. No one expects a flood, fire, hurricane, tornado, or other natural disaster. But did you ever consider theft? What if someone breaks into your office and takes every single piece of computer equipment you have? It has happened.

What if a neighboring office catches fire or if a faulty sprinkler system waters your server room? Here's another onsite disaster most people never consider.

What if your data becomes corrupt or a tape drive hardware failure erases your data? Again, your data is nothing but a memory. That's why you need to keep an onsite copy of your data, and also an offsite copy. Your data is just too important not to do everything possible to protect it.

Perform a Complete Data Restore to Make Sure Your Backups Are Working Properly.

This is another big mistake I see. Many business owners set up some type of backup system, but then never check to make sure it's working properly. It's not uncommon for a system to APPEAR to be backing up when in reality, it's not.

Keep an Offsite Copy of Your Backups.

What happens if a fire or flood destroys your server AND the backup tapes or drive? What happens if your office gets robbed and they take EVERYTHING? Having an offsite backup is simply a smart way to make sure you have multiple, redundant copies of your data.

How Disaster-Proof Is YOUR Network?

Now you might be thinking, this is great but what is the best way to backup my data and store it offsite.

The question I ask business owners is this. How long can you afford to have your entire network down? Is it 10 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day or 1 week?

If you can tolerate being down for 1 week, then the traditional tape drive backup solution will be for you.

Here's what the scenario would look like:

Day 1: Monday 1PM - Your server crashes. You call your computer guy. He comes out the same day, works on it for several hours, and then declares it dead. It's now too late to order a new one, so he waits until the morning.

Day 2: 8AM - Your computer guy orders a server and gets a quick delivery.

Day 3: Nothing happens because the new server is probably not in yet.

Day 4: The server arrives. Your computer guy preps it and starts to load the data from your tapes.

Day 5: 8AM - Your sleep-deprived computer guy arrives and connects the new server to your PC's. You are back in business by the end of the day.

This is a realistic timeline of the steps that would occur.

What did this cost you?

Let's say you own a $1.5 million company. There are 260 business days each year. Your daily revenue is $5,769. You just potentially lost 5 days of revenue or $28,845.

Let's say your payroll expense is $700,000 a year or $2,692 per day. You just lost $13,461 in wages paid.

Between these two measurable costs you just lost $42,306.

Your computer guy worked after-hours for you and probably has no less than 40 hours getting you back up and running. If he only charges you $125 per hour, that's an additional $5,000.

Now this server crash has cost you $47,306.

This still does not include your costs to maintain the tape backup system which is:

Cost of five new tapes each year:	$1425
Cost of backup software each year:	$525
Total Cost	$1950

So that you can plug in your own numbers, use our calculator.

If you can only tolerate being down for a day, clearly the tape backup solution will not work for you. You will need a true backup and disaster recovery (BDR) device.

Here's how they work. It will look like another server in your server room. The data on your server gets pushed over to the BDR every 30 minutes or so. Then once a day the new data gets transferred to two offsite locations. This gives you offsite storage that is geographically diverse in case of a local natural disaster.

BDRs come in 2 versions. One is only a backup device. The timeline would be the same as the above tape drive example. The second version of the BDR can virtualize to become your server.

Here's what this timeline would look like with a virtualized BDR:

Day 1: Monday 1PM - Your server crashes. You call your computer guy. He comes out the same day, works on it for several hours, then declares it dead. He now switches your BDR into virtual mode. Depending on the version you purchased, this could take 5 minutes to 2 hours.

You're up and running in the same day.

The BDR will not run as fast as your server, but it will get you by for the next 3-4 days that it will take to buy a new server, prep it and install it in your network.

What did this cost you?

Let's say you own a $1.5 million company. There are 260 business days each year. Your daily revenue is $5,769. You just potentially lost a half day of revenue or $2,884.

Let's say your payroll expense is $700,000 a year or $2,692 per day. You just lost $1,346 in wages paid.

Between these measurable costs, you just lost $4,230.

Your computer guy worked 4 hours getting you back up and running. If he only charges you $125 per hour, that's an additional $500.

Now this server crash has cost you $4,730.

This still does not include your costs for the offsite storage, which is about $420 per month for 500GB of data or $5,040 per year.

So let's compare:

Tape drive that you already own
A server crash will cost	$47,306
Upkeep on the tape system cost	$1,950
Total	$49,236

BDR that you need to buy and maintain
A server crash will cost	$4,730
Estimated cost of 500GB storage	$2,900
Yearly Cost of offsite storage	$5,040
Total	$12,670

BDR the second year after you own it
A server crash will cost	$4,730
Yearly Cost of offsite storage	$5,040
Total	$9,770

Disaster recovery and the associated downtime is all about deciding what level of risk you and your business can withstand.

Here's the reality. It is an insurance policy. You decide what level of coverage you need to protect your business.

So that you can plug in your own numbers, use our calculator.