Backups for startups and small companies

Do you run a small company who work in an office, but off laptops?

Here’s a typical situation you might encounter:

• You have 2 – 10 staff
• Everyone has a laptop which they take home each day
• Staff may work away from the office
• You want everyone’s work to be backed up in a reliable way, in case of a crash
• You want backups to be stored away from the laptops, in case of a disaster
• You want a solution that can grow with the company, so more space can be added as staff grow

Possible solutions:

I’ve considered the following in each option:

Backup to external media, carried with the laptop

This solution requires each employee to carry an external hard drive of some kind around alongside the laptop. They can then run a regular backup using a variety of tools, from wherever they are.

• Cost: around £60 per person for an 80GB portable hard drive – one off…1 point
• Protection level: protects against a crash only…0 points
• Backup Speed: fast…1 point
• Central store: none…0 points
• Convenience: inconvenient, the drive must be carried around with the laptop…0 points
• Flexibility: highly flexible – you just buy a new drive when new people arrive…1 point
• Security: protect the media with a strong password, else the data could be taken…0.5 points
• Ease of use: you have to carry an external drive everywhere, and remember it…0 points
• In house management: none…1 point

Score – 4.5/8

Backup to central media

Keep a large hard drive in the office, which can be connected to over the network. This could be a central server. Employees back up to a space on the disk when they are in the office.

• Cost: £1000 to £2000 for a 2TB-3TB external networkable hard drive or computer, one off cost…1 point
• Protection level: protects against a disaster only, and then only if the laptops are out of the office if a disaster occurs in the office (e.g. you go to lunch, someone steals all laptops and the backups)…0 points
• Backup Speed: fast…1 point
• Central store: Yes…1 point
• Convenience: its simple to do run the backups when in the office…1 points
• Flexibility: not overly flexible, if you run out of space you need an additional drive which splits your data, or a new one…0 points
• Security: protect the media with a strong password, else the data could be taken…0.5 points
• In house management: lots…0 points

Score – Cheap, fast, provides a central store but only protects against disaster, inflexible and inconvenient – 4.5/8

Notes -

• You should do an occasional backup onto external media which can be removed from the office using this method, thus protecting against disaster when the laptops are alongside the backup drive

Backup to external media at home, central media in the office

Give everyone their own drive which they keep with them when working from home or in other locations. When they are in the office, they use the central backup. Suggest they run a backup at home at least once a week, even if they are only working from the office that week.

• Cost: £1000 to £2000 for a 2TB-3TB external networkable hard drive or computer, one off cost + around £60 per staff member…1 point
• Protection level: protects against a disaster and a crash, as there is a backup stored in two places, one of which is bound to be away from the laptop…1 point
• Backup Speed: fast…1 point
• Central store: office backup provides the central store…1 point
• Convenience: You have to remember to back up at home, at work it should be simple…0.5 points
• Flexibility: inherits the poor flexibility of the central media, and the good flexibility of the individual media…0.5 points
• Security: protect the media with a strong password, else the data could be taken…0.5 points
• In house management: lots…0 points

Score – 5.5/8

Online backup service

Everyone backs up over the internet using one of a number of remote backup services.

• Cost: £1500 per year for 200GB with up to 100 staff with iBackup…0 points
• Protection level: protects against a disaster, a crash, and the backups are protected and themselves backed up if you pick a reliable provider…1 point
• Backup Speed: slow at first – the initial backup could take many hours – but then not so bad…0.5 points
• Central store: provided…1 point
• Convenience: you have to have internet access to backup…0 points if you aren’t always online, 1 if you are, 0.5 if it varies!
• Flexibility: very flexible, you just add space to your package as you grow…1 point
• Security: you best trust whoever you let have your data, they could lose your data, have it taken from them, or worst still – use your data!…0 points (unless you trust the company – then 1 point)
• In house management: none…1 point

Score – 4.5/8 to 6.5/8 depending on your situation

Summary

If you can find a secure company you can trust, can afford it and are online most of the time, then the online backup service will be the one, its easiest to manage, and provides great protection against a number of cirumstances. Since the initial cost is low, you could trial this.

If the online backup isn’t for you, then the hard drive at home/central store in the office should be your next choice. It provides a similar level of protection, but if you find yourself working from home for a long time you won’t be protected against disaster and might want to try an ad-hoc online solution such as saving some of the data on a private file server or opening up the networked hard drive to external connections.

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