how to backup company data?

Question

Here's the deal. I am trying to back up all data on all (about 6) workstations of the company(it is a landscaping company). They do not have a server. Each computer has different files to backup. One has project diagrams where we do the designs, one has all customer information stored, one has employee information etc... The company has about 2000 customers. What would be the best way to backup all of this data?

Answer 1

It depends on what you are backing the data up for. Is this system recovery from a crash or hard drive failure? Or is it disaster recovery from flood, fire, etc.


For simple system recovery, probably the best way is to get a network storage unit. This will look like a server, but for a lot less money.

Get one that supports mirroring drives or RAID 5 so that if one of your storage drives fails you have a backup of the backup.

The alternative would be to get one or more USB hard drives and use those as a backup device. But unless you can get one each impossible to automate.

If you are really cheap and all the systems are networked, then put a shared folder on each. Machine 2 has the backup files for machine 1, 3 the files for 2, and so on. 1 as the files for machine 6.

That way unless two 'adjacent' machines fail at the same time your data is backed up.


For disaster recovery you need to look at either storing the backup data in a disaster proof location - storing USB hard drives in a fire proof safe for example. Or use an off-site facility There are a number of companies that will back up your data on their servers for the right price.

Answer 2

For this much data an external hard drive is best. At this level you may be better considering installing a server and centralising files. It makes backups faster and easier, as the server can run all the backups from one place. All my company servers have 2 external USB connected drives, set to backup overnight. This means that company owners can change drives once a week taking the other one off site.

Answer 3

I believe Mozy is a good solution. You can install one copy in each computer your company have, and the software will do all the job, renewing the backup all days/hours (according your settings) without need any user action.
Mozy will keep all versions for the files for 30 days.

Use this link to get 2.25 Gb for free for your backups:
https://mozy.com/?code=94HW8M

Create one mozy account per computer with the same link above. Extra FREE space will be added to mozy account after you do the first backup.

I am using mozy for many months and is very good, and FREE.

Answer 4

In my opinion the best way is to backup your important data incrementally on regular basis using True Image by Acronis. An off-site storage is more preferable because neither crash nor virus attack can affect an image. In case you’ll lose some files you can just browse an image created by True Image and extract them from there. Good Luck.
http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATICW/

Answer 5

I see that u have a big data to backup maybe 800 or 1100 GB in that case you have to use very big data space to store and the LTO-4 is the best it is easy to keep all data can be store on one LTO tape you can see the following link
http://www.tape4backup.com/lto-4-tapes.php

Answer 6

They have on line sites where you can apply to have your data stored on their servers for a small fee, it would be backed up every night. Not sure what our company uses, the name eludes me at the moment, I am sure with a search you can find a company suitable for your purposes.

Answer 7

It depends on how large the files are.

If it is less than 4.7Gb then you might be able to just use a normal blank DVD.

Or, you could use a Dual-layer.

Or an external hard-drive.

Answer 8

You could also use the external hard drive. Most of them are in GBs.

Answer 9

I'm not completely convinced about this

Answer 10

I was wondering much the same question