The Original Cloud Service:

So I have been thinking a lot lately about cloud computing.  The concept of data and even applications that exist outside of your local computer - relegating your pc to little more than a terminal - is the hot topic in computing.  Vendors are scrambling to position themselves – White Papers are flying around.  Microsoft is all over television, "Yeah Cloud!"  You will her much more about this in the coming months – from the vendors and yes from me.  While our company continues to develop its cloud business though I am reminded of an online service we've been selling for some time…

Online Backup Solutions:

In corporate America I was all about the magnetic tape drive.  I studied backup implementation purchased the best media I could and, yes, religiously changed tapes.  I was the resident expert in all things incremental, differential etc.  I had the very best backup software and spent countless hours poring over event logs troubleshooting problems backing up individual files and databases.  Did I mention I also changed tapes?  Well… sometimes I did.

When I started my company I was approached by a vendor who sold an online solution.  He punched many holes in my backup strategy and I have been selling online backup solutions ever since.  Here I would like to share some of the statistics he shared with me.

20% of all the data placed on magnetic media will not be restorable.

Who knows where he got the figure but it got my attention.  True or not I think every IT person who has tried it has encountered a problem restoring data from magnetic media.  The problem is there is just no predicting when this will happen.  You don't get to choose which data will be lost.  Somehow it is always the data you really need.

The success of your backup strategy is determined by its manager, not its designer.

As I alluded to earlier, I was not always completely effective at changing tapes.  I was the computer guy, so how can I expect a small business owner whose job is running a business to do a better job than I did.  The truth is most people will forget to change tapes at some point.  When this happens the same tape can end up being used continuously for days or even weeks at a time. The whole point of using multiple tapes – apart from size limitations – is to spread the risk of tape failure across many tapes.  For this reason magnetic media is just not a good solution.  This holds true for any backup that relies upon human intervention to execute. 

No matter how good my backup strategy is it is useless in the event of a fire or natural disaster unless it includes a component apart from my office.

I have run into many a manager who claims that their strategy is to remove a tape or drive from the office at some regular interval.  Let's not kid ourselves this never happens with any regularity if at all.  It certainly doesn't happen nightly.

70% percent of businesses who experience major data loss close within five years.

While I certainly can't prove this one, it is something to think about.  There are in fact many pitfalls out there that can end a business.  This just happens to one that I can anticipate and prevent.

Here are some of the features of the solution I market.  Make sure at a minimum the solution you consider boasts the following:

·         Easy-to-use interface

·         Affordable pricing

·         Redundant data centers

·         Server and network support

·         Automatic/scheduled backups

·         Powerful administrative capabilities

·         Highest security standards

·         24/7 technical support

Disaster Recovery Solutions:

The backup solution I sell works anywhere in the world.  I could collect fees online and sell it easily as my pricing is competitive.  I do not, though.  In fact I will not sell the solution outside of the metropolitan area I live in.  It is too easy for businesses to assume they are protected when in fact they may not be.  Backing up data is really only half the job.

What's the Difference?

Even if data is being backed up on a regular basis you are not impervious to data loss. If a Server hard disk or RAID crashes it can take days to restore the operating system and network infrastructure. This means that while you have the data, there is no meaningful way to access it.  A Disaster Recovery Product addresses this problem.

The Process

Use software to clone the complete operating system and data drive(s) to create a server backup drive that can be installed in place of the existing drive(s) in the event of a complete failure.

 

The Bottom Line

In the event of a server failure your business is back up and running in minutes not days.