Online backup makes good common sense

Small businesses often struggle with data backup and recovery for a variety of reasons. For example lack of knowhow or budget.That is until now That was because finding an affordable, easy-to-use system that didn't require constant monitoring came under the heading of Mission Impossible.

But with so many options out there, how do you know which solution to choose?

Easy as pie

The best part about online backup is that the hosted service makes it the appropriate choice for small businesses, whereas enterprise-level companies would most likely buy the software and host it on their own servers. A small business owner would never have to worry about storage space.

Hosted storage solutions work on a simple basic premise. You sign up online, select a service plan, download our software and begin the initial full backup. Automated storage is a critical requirement for SMBs. Small business owners need to focus on their business, not on IT chores.

Of course the other half of the data storage coin is recovering your data in the event of a system crash or natural disaster. With online recovery, you simply use any Web browser, and select the files that you want to recover.

It's easy and it's versatile and more importantly for SMEs it's inexpensive. Get started on Gbackup for as little as R68.40 per month incl VAT.

Thanks to Small business computing for additional information

Basic factors for a Disaster Recovery plan

From W. Curtis Preston's book Unix Backup & Recovery.

There are six main steps to designing any good disaster recovery plan. These steps concentrate on how the CIO or CTO can enable the IT department to properly execute each step.

1. Define (un)acceptable loss. How does the CEO/CIO decide how much to budget for a disaster recovery project? By first deciding how much it will cost if they don't have one.

2. Backup everything. Do you know how much of your data is not being backed up and why?

3. Organize everything. Your company has everything on tape. Can you find the tape you need when disaster strikes?

4. Protect against disasters. Most people only think about natural disasters when creating a disaster recovery plan. There are nine other types of disasters and you have to protect against all of them. Learn what types of disasters strike your area and how your company can protect against them.

5. Document what you have done. Learn innovative ways that your company can document its disaster recovery plan that ensures that this documentation is available after a disaster.

6. Test, test, test. Most disaster recovery plans fail because they are not tested. Learn how other companies are testing their disaster recovery plans. There are ways to do this that won't swallow the entire IT budget!