Data Storage, Data Backup, Data Security

So you've finally made it, you've survived the taxes, the customer service issues, the employee problems. It's been ten years or more and you are still standing. It's time to stand back and look at where you've been and where you're going. As a Small to Medium Sized Business you know you have to be prepared or pay the price.

Maybe you've let your computer backup situation sit on the back burner for a while now. You have an employee that is responsible for regularly copying the critical data to CD Zip disk or possibly to a memory stick. Hopefully you are not still using the Quickbooks daily back up to floppy disk.

Have you looked at those backups lately? Have you done a test restore? We were recently at an office where the receptionist backed up the critical data nightly to a blank CD. After 4 years the system failed. We went to restore the data from the most recent CD only to find it was blank. In fact all her CD's, every one for the last four years, were blank.

It turns out no one had actually taken time to review how to back up to CD with the receptionist, and no one had EVER checked a backup CD to see if it was good.

Maybe you find that you have too much data, you really don't want to invest in a server at this point, but you have files scattered on PC's all over the office and it makes it hard to have what you need, when you need it. Again the problem with backing up is an issue because there is no central storage machine.

Maybe you find that you have a good back up, and your data is pretty much saved in one location, but have you thought about security issues? If you are in the medical profession, HIPPA requirements are pretty stiff, do you meet the minimum requirements for your customers' privacy? I know you don't want to be the next one in the news that lost a large amount of your customers private information to a hacker or thief.

In the past your only solution to all these issues was a server, and in some cases a server is still the best answer. But in a small office of 5 or less PCs it can be hard to justify.

In the recent years Intel, Iomega and others have come up with some pretty creative answers to these problems. External hard drives are becoming so inexpensive that they deserve a look to.

For a quick and easy backup solution read our articles on backing up your system. Also take a look our recent Geek's Corner Article on homemade NAS storage.