 | Home > Off Topic > Question for you IT guru's regarding off-site backups |
 
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| Ads90 Member Since: 16 Jun 2008 Location: Cots-on-the-Wolds Posts: 809   
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If it's numpty proof you're after, I use Dropbox - I'm sure you've come across it.
I put my important office stuff on there (under 2 gig, so its free). Syncs whichever folders you choose between Windows PCs & iProducts - it's great! If it's more business orientated, PC Pro recommends Carbonite Online Backup, though I've not used it myself: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/software/36...ine-backup I've also used Acronis (which I think they have an option for cloud backup), it's highly recommended, but I have to say I didn't get on with it. Later versions may be improved though (mine is 2010). |
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3rd Nov 2011 10:39am |
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| MartinK Member Since: 02 Mar 2011 Location: Silverdale (Lancashire/Cumbria Border) Posts: 2665 
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Working in the industry I have seen a few times where these offsite backups cannot be easily restored should you "lose everything" (say a fire or something), and disaster recovery (DR) procedures failed when used "in anger".
Personally we do both - we have removeable media, and also backup to a remote "vault". One of my colleagues lost a system, but was unable to find and retrieve the backup from the remote vault (he was forced to use new HW from a new location, and unable to locate the remote backup!). My preference would be to sync the PC's hard drives onto the server, and use the tried-and-tested backup onto removeable media and physically taken offsite (taken home, or deposited at a bank, a fair distance away so that any environmental catastrophies are unlikely to affect both sites, and render the source and backup unusable). If the worst did happen (fire/flood/aircraft land on your premises) then you have physical copy of your data which you can take elsewhere if needed and restore onto a new chunk of hardware. Whatever you do, you should rehearse to make sure it will actually work! Get a new HW, and try to restore your backup from another location, and see if you can make a useable restore process...then document it so that it can be followed if you too are personally affected by whatever incident forced you to perform a DR activity in the first place! There are also security implications with mirroring certain types of data externally. I did some work with these guys a while back - http://www.commvault.co.uk/ - this is not a recommendation, just a company I have worked with. Defender "Puma" 2.4 110 County Utility (possibly the last of the 2.4's) |
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3rd Nov 2011 11:04am |
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| party monkey Member Since: 31 Dec 2010 Location: Oxon. Posts: 1311  
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Thankyou guys for the feedback.
 Jon - 110 td5 [sold]. Currently Defenderless. |
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3rd Nov 2011 1:04pm |
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| dnorrishill Member Since: 15 Jul 2011 Location: Hampshire Posts: 615 
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I also use Dropbox for my important documents, but it's also great for many apps that support syncing data.
Seems like Dropbox is the defacto provider supported by many app developers. |
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3rd Nov 2011 1:15pm |
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| pom Member Since: 01 Jun 2010 Location: Worcester Posts: 1343 |
carbonite is good its actually a backup program with attached cloud storage. Carbonite is like time machine for the mac.
Dropbox is ok but there is no automatic process to back stuff up. |
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4th Nov 2011 8:52am |
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| dnorrishill Member Since: 15 Jul 2011 Location: Hampshire Posts: 615
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I guess the difference is that Dropbox keeps 1 copy of each file and it's automatically synced every time the file changed to the cloud and any other device that links to the same Dropbox. So you can access the same file and edit it from multiple computers, tablets, etc. without any manual intervention. TimeMachine (and I guess carbonite) will make copies of each file so you can roll back to previous versions, if required. |
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4th Nov 2011 1:59pm |
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| pom Member Since: 01 Jun 2010 Location: Worcester Posts: 1343 |
and dropbox cannot back stuff up thats in use, e.g. email.
Pom |
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4th Nov 2011 3:21pm |
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