Here are the possible problems:
1) What if your hard drive fails? Getting the data off of the hard drive takes time and money - and you still might lose some or all of the hard drive’s content.
2) What if your laptop gets lost or stolen? You have to buy a new one and start the process of rebuilding your data from that last backup you may have. You will also need to load and configure all the applications you had on the old machine.
Now you need solutions. Our best solution is Mozy because it’s a remote backup – meaning you don’t have to worry if your machine gets lost or damaged. Mozy backups without you having to remember to do it. Plus, it does versioning, meaning you can get your older versions back in case newer files get corrupted by a virus. Lastly, it’s free for up to 2 GBs.
Mozy gets you 90% of the way there. If you are willing to do a little more work, handling the loss of your machine or a hard drive failure can be much less time consuming. You should clone your hard drive. If you lose your machine or your hard drive fails, you can get the same machine or hard drive. You can put your cloned hard drive on the new unit in a matter of a few hours. Now all of your applications, settings, and data are back and all you have to do is download your most current work from Mozy. This provides a huge time saving when compared to building a hard drive from scratch.
Cloning does require some time every month or so and you have to remember to do it. A RAID system keeps a continuously updated clone on your machine at all times. If you do this, now there will be two concurrent drives on your machine that will produce two copies of the same information - all on your own machine. If one fails, your information will be still on the other one, so nothing will be lost.
RAID can be expensive but it is the holy grail of backups. You still need your Mozy remote backup. If there is a fire, loss, or theft, the second copy will be gone as well without a remote location for your information.
You have to test your backup to make sure it is doing what you want it to do. Pick files – both often used ones and not often used ones – and download them. Make sure the copy you thought was backed up is actually being backed up. Try to do this at least twice a year.
If you want more details on what we talked about, see below:
Checklist for your own backup strategy:
1. Weekly rotating offsite backup
a. Versioning or rotating backups is important because if you get a virus, you may not know when that virus got into your system. You may want to go back one, two or three versions until you have a clean copy.
Now that we have an online remote backup, manual rotating backups are not as important. Mozy is a versioning offsite backup that works automatically. You don’t need to remember to backup your work. Just make sure the auto version in Mozy keeps old enough copies (at least a month old) before you stop your old manual rotating system.
2. Keep all Work Files on a redundant RAID
a. With RAID you have zero downtime – the drive that fails is only one of two copies of your data, so you have a fall back copy available to use while you are replacing the failed drive. You can have Mozy back up every two hours – but if you are busy on the computer all day, it won’t do a backup until the machine is idle. This means you might lose a whole day’s work. RAID is immediate. Remember this is an add on to Mozy not a replacement. You still need to have some sort of offsite backup with RAID – and Mozy is a great offsite solution. You will want to use Mozy even with RAID so you have a remote backup, a timely backup, and versioning. Essentially, if you are afraid that during the day you may have disk failure, then spend the extra money for RAID and you will have a seamless recovery.
i. Costs: $1,500-$10,000 for a hardware RAID depending on size and features.
3. Nightly clone to a FireWire drive
a. This level is important to secure yourself from theft or fire. With RAID, you have a clone. If your machine gets stolen, however, the thief has both copies of your work! And if your machine gets destroyed in a fire, both copies are destroyed together. If you are concerned about these scenarios, then have an offsite clone. In general, if you have RAID, you don’t need clones. With RAID, it’s immediate and two hard drives are both working. Cloning is the same thing, but it’s only a mirror image in one moment of time – the time you clone your machine. At least with a clone, you don’t have to reload all of your data. With a clone, all of your programs are there, your settings are there, your history, etc. All you have to worry about is recovering the work you did since your last clone.
i. Costs: $200-1,000 depending on size of drive needed.
4. Perform a monthly backup audit
a. Finally, as servers and hard drives get larger, it has become increasingly clear that a creative team’s backup system requires ongoing maintenance. Offices need a monthly backup audit to confirm important data is being properly backed up and that files can be restored when needed. It is easy for problems to creep into any backup system. And unless there is regular maintenance, any backup strategy will fail over time. We recommend developing a standard weekly and monthly checklist for maintaining your team’s backup. Deputize a reliable, technically savvy person in your office to maintain the systems, or hire outside experts to help maintain this crucial system. It’s important to know your backup is working.
Let me tell you what my team does.
Once every month or so, we clone all our desktops onto a Terabit drive with Ghost. Ghost is a tool that copies the full image of the hard drive. If someone’s drive fails, we can get a new one and burn a Ghost copy on the new drive. We can have that machine back working in a few hours with all their applications and settings. The data is a month old, so that needs to be updated as well, but you would need to do that no matter what route you took.
We have one server with all of our project data. That server has Mozy unlimited so all of our work is backed up remotely. Any changes to the server are backed up every two hours. This costs us $55/year. We have used Mozy for years and it is very reliable. With unlimited backup for $55, it is the best value you will find.
All of our computers have SugarSync on them. For 2 gigs of remote backup, there is no cost – it’s free.
Users with a lot of data on their desktop (that is not on the team server) can pay $25/year for 30 gigs.
SugarSync is the same as Mozy except it also syncs your data between multiple computers. So our desktop and laptop have the same data on them always (without having to move updated files by hand). We can also give other team member access to directories we need if we are collaborating on a project.
Here are some notes on Carbonite and Retrospect, two tools I previously used, but for reasons mentioned below, no longer work with:
- Carbonite: I discontinued my use because but it didn’t offer versions and was heavy on my system. It was always running. Carbonite keeps one version of all files, including deleted ones, so when I did the complete restore after losing data on a machine, I got everything back. However, it didn’t have a way to see the progress of the restore nor did it tell me when it was done. It did, however, restore my data quickly. Now Carbonite seems to claim they hold onto two versions for 90 days. Since I am no longer using it, I can’t attest to this.
- Retrospect: Although it does backup data every day, it is NOT very easy to use. It is, however, very reliable. It is good when there are huge files being backed up every day, and it does have version files. The only way to get rid of an old version, however, is to recycle all. It has a client application that works with MAC/Unix/Linux. You don’t need to have read/write access to the drive to get the data, you only need a network connection. I know this is a very technical description, but you need to be a very technical person to manage it.
Both have version control, which is a huge plus. If I delete something, I can get it back. No more worries about permanent delete. Both do remote backup, however Mozy only keeps deleted files for 30 days, while SugarSync keeps it forever – which can be a plus or a minus on its own as well. Both backup automatically, but both want your system to be idle before they do a backup. Sugar Sync is good for single file backups, while Mozy is better for large quantities of files.
In terms of flexibility, SugarSync steals the show. I love SugarSync because I can leave my desktop, go to a meeting, and all my files are up to date on my desktop. If I am on a trip away from my laptop, I can access my files through a secure SugarSync site. My files are always available. No longer are you bound to place sync’ed files within one particular folder. SugarSync gives customers the flexibility to sync any folder between multiple computers and mobile phones, like my smart phone. Also, folders with different labels and pathways can be sync’ed together across your systems. It’s possible to sync all your files such as MS Office documents, photos, music, and media to all your computers and web-enabled mobile phones, instantly. Store your files in secure servers and access them from any web browser, everywhere, anytime. Share files with your friends, family, and colleagues. You can even stream music live.
I will admit SugarSync is more powerful but it also requires some maintenance. For example, if I leave a file open on my desktop and then modify the same doc on my laptop later that night, the next day I have two copies on both machine. I have to determine which to keep and SugarSync then removes the extra one from both computers.
The strength of Mozy is you can totally forget about it. It does its backup and never requires your attention.
While Mozy is simple to use and has an intuitive interface, it will also please the computer savvy since it provides plenty of options with which to tinker. It supports automatic, as well as scheduled, backups along with bandwidth throttling. Based on my personal experience, I won’t hesitate to recommend Mozy. It makes backing up simple and painless. The client is lightweight and intuitive. And most importantly, Mozy is owned by Decho Corporation, a subsidiary of EMC Corporation. It has over a million customers and also has a multi-million dollar contract with GE. In short, Mozy has the financial might required to survive during tough times and isn’t likely to disappear suddenly.
With both Mozy and SugarSync, you install an application on your desktop, select which folders you want to backup/sync, and let it go. Both programs then monitor the folders you specified and upload changes to the website. With either application, you can download the files either through the application or online.