Online data backup for a small business.

[rezn0r]

Anyone have to set one of these up? I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations. MozyPro, while not getting the best reviews across the board, is ridiculously cheap compared to the other "major" companies; I'm sure I'm missing some good ones though. We're talking hundreds of dollars a month difference though. Anyone have any tips? I think we might be going with them as long as they work with Server 2k8 x64 & live databases (awaiting a response from them on this), unless I'm suddenly convinced otherwise. It's a third-layer of backups for us so it's not as critical as it might be for some people, but it'll make the owner happy.

[SephYuyX]

Eh, it doesnt sound like it's really necessary for you.
You said you have two backups already, what are they?

Most medium size businesses ive worked with only have one back up method and thats using a fire/hazard safe box on site. Anything else is just being paranoid.

I worked with a small business once where I just used NT Backup, and backed up on to a central file server as a backup, and then id copy the stuff to an external HD and take it home with me at night as another backup precaution.

I personally would never suggest using an online backup solution.

[SnickySnacks]

Most medium size businesses ive worked with only have one back up method and thats using a fire/hazard safe box on site. Anything else is just being paranoid.

You should *always* have off-site backups. Having your tapes get cooked in a fire (despite the fire box, which happens quite often) or becoming unreadable due to re-use is very common.

I can't comment on their eVault, as we use them for tape storage, but my company (which handles records for mortgages, pharmacies, credit cards, etc. The kind of data you never ever want getting into other people's hands) uses One Safe Place for our offsite storage:

One Safe Place: America's Premiere Offsite Data Storage Company


As for price, well you get what you pay for.
Articles like this don't exactly give me confidence in MozyPro. Who wants to be without their data for "hours" or days?
http://searchdatabackup.techtarget.c...324747,00.html
http://everydaysimplicity.blogspot.c...te-backup.html

[SephYuyX]

Well, they werent exactlly those small time fire boxes for the most part. One company I worked for just had the small one, most had bigger safe like ones. This one crazy company I worked for had a 10 foot safe with foot thick walls I swear, the thing was massive.

[virusiidx]

Would a backup NAS drive be an option? Or does it need to be remote from the location. Depending on how much data you are backing up, I can't imagine backing up to an online service.

[Cephius]

Iron Mountain's tape backup is the industry standard for offsite data backup as far as I'm concerned. They pickup the tapes weekly and keep them in a secure location as long as you need. If you need to recover tapes, they deliver the tapes to you so you can restore them. It's a professional service, but it is expensive.

[Bardicrune]

The only online backup software I've used is memobackup.com. We've done business with the owner of this company for years and he knows his stuff. We currently have 5-6 servers backing up with this software (w2k3, sco unix, linux) but will be moving all of our clients servers to it within the next year (500-600 servers).

[kathyjohn2]

you should definitely have online backup bc of a few reasons:

* its always accessible
* lots of the major sites are having good promotions right now, like free trials and memory space
* bc it lives online and is extremely secure - regardless of natural disaster or manmade like theft or arson

a few other good ones beside mozy are:
* box.net
* idrive
* carbonite
* sugarsync
* elephantdrive

a good resource for all things backup is: techwizbackup.com


and an article about offsite vs. online backup: techwizbackup.com/online-backup-vs-offsite-storage/