Data Security and Backups

Tuesday 21 February 2012

5 Benefits of Branch Office Backup

I would like to discuss in this post regarding Remote Office / Branch Office Backups. Many of you have been looking for a solution for branch office data. Some of you have even stated if we can get instant access to branch office data which is reliable and cost-effective.

Branch offices may not be fully equipped with high-end servers which can cause issues related to security of data, but the information stored on those computers are equally critical. For e.g. a construction company may have multiple sites functioning at the same time. The computers at the site shall have all financial, drawings, maintenance records on their computers. The question is for an IT person or CFO sitting in their office how to get instant access to those data or get it on their servers and consolidate with their current data so that they have full picture in front.

One way to do it fast, easy and cost-effective is to go for online backup.  A piece of software is installed on those computers and once setup, it shall keep on doing backup to the remote servers. You as an administrator shall have access to those backups and get download those data on your servers. And that shall resolve your problem related to security of data and consolidation of data to get full picture.

Imagine the convenience of able to get data instantly! Rather than using USB sticks, Tape drives, External Hard drives or investing heavily in VPN setups.

Benefits of Branch Office Backup

1.       Instant Access to data
You can access data of any of your branches instantly! No need to wait for someone to send data and depend on unreliable media.

2.       Security of data
Your data is backed up and is 100% secured. No matter if your computer at branch goes down due virus, hardware failure or any other malpractice.

3.       No Capital Expenditure
No investments for servers or any other high-end network components. On top of that no maintenance specialist required. No VPN costs.

4.       No manual backups
Backups are automatic. Users do not require to remember to do backups. While they are using computer backups appear.

5.       Complete flexibility
Gather information from all branches and prepare your reports. No dependability on any branch staff.

Sunday 5 February 2012

Data Backup to Email Accounts


I have come across many small business people feeling safe to zip there important data and upload to their email accounts. According to them there are certain benefits rather than taking backup on a CD, USB stick or any other offline media.
Some of them have been listed below
·         Accessibility of data from any location with access to internet
·         Safe as hosted on external server
·         Cost effective no investment required
I would say they have thought one step ahead of people who are still using any of the offline data media to do backup but their data backed up is not safe, reliable and secure.
Backing up data to your email accounts does not give you guaranteed security. The following are features which are missing or not available for such backup.
1.      Manual Backups
Backups should be automatic else it defeats the purpose of backup. The backup process should be easy, convenient and fast. Transferring backup to email accounts is manual process, where in you have to zip files and upload, you may even miss your valuable files to be backed up.

2.      Unsecured data
Your valuable data that you have backed up has no security. There is no commitment as to your data shall be safe and shall be recovered in case of any natural disasters. Technically, your data should be encrypted before it leaves your computer and encryption technology used should be the same level as used by financial institutions.

3.      No support, nowhere to go
If you are unable to locate your uploaded files, there is no support provided. If you forgot password of your account you are locked. You can try to request for reset or alternate email address to recover [if you have set one up], but those are cumbersome processes and you may end up losing your data.

4.      Limited data backup
File uploads are limited. Some provide upto 25MB or some offer little bit more than that. But when you want to backup couple of GB’s of data that shall not work.

5.      File Versioning
No file versioning. Multiple file versions is where in you get option to save more than one copy of the same file. This can be useful in case if you have entered incorrect information in the updated data and want to restore older version of the same file.

6.      No Easy Data Restores
In case if you have to restore your data, you have to look for all the files you have uploaded. Imagine, if you have multiple files to restore its not easy. In case, of disaster your data should be available on a press of button.
I would say, if you are uploading your data better look for online backup service providers. The most important factor shall be Support provided by these providers. The Software provided by them covers almost all the important features for fast, simple and easily manageable data backups.