Business Backups

If you lost it, how long would it take to recreate it, and how many days could you afford to be without it? A study published by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration found that 93 per cent of businesses that lost their data for 10 days or more filed for bankruptcy within one year. It’s an alarming statistic, and it’s supported by other studies.Many unplanned business interruptions actually result from planned – though short, maintenance-related – downtime, rather than fallen telephone poles or ice storms. “Most failures occur because Joe Brown makes a small change and the next thing you know he’s brought down four applications,” says Michael Kerr, channel director for EMC Canada. “So what was planned for 30 minutes becomes two days, and that affects your business.”
Can’t afford to spend $100,000 on storage? Fortunately, there are lower-cost, lower-capacity solutions on the market for smaller businesses. At the same time, some of the big guys’ products are being tailored to meet SMB needs. EMC, for example, has rolled out pre-configured storage bundles to help SMBs archive e-mail and consolidate storage, while Veritas has bundled storage backup and management for SMBs.
In a networked environment, storage tends to be more distributed. As a small business, you may simply need to back up your e-mail and business records. If you only have a couple of servers, removable technology is an option that allows you to back up your data and take it home with you at the end of the day or week so it’s located offsite. Removable technology performs like a hard drive, which means you’re not sitting around for four hours on Friday night waiting to back up your data, says Wayne Arvidson, director of professional storage at Iomega Corp.