If you’ve ever been in line at a Books-A-Million, you might have heard the phrase “I need backup!”. The lone cashier is alerting fellow employees help is needed up front. I generally giggle, flashing back to “Starsky and Hutch.” But I digress…
Recently I met with a Realtor. I mentioned she needed to backup her data. I don’t provide these kind of services, so I had nothing to gain. She went on and on how she had copies of her data all over the place. She couldn’t comprehend the impending doom of sync: if you delete something you need, the delete is synced to all your copies. Reading this fox news article revived this suppressed memory.
You need to backup your data to tape. A tape drive is not cheap, and you will need a server. Here is the concept: all of your important data should be stored on the server. This data will be archived to tape every night. You rotate tapes each day, and weekly or monthly take one tape off site.
There are other options, such as using USB memory sticks, CD’s or DVD’s as a backup medium. I prefer tape, since the backup is automated.
Whatever your choice, develop a backup plan and follow it. Test a restore of your data quarterly. These are general rules. If you are unsure, contact an IT consultant to help you develop a plan.
If you don’t have a trusted IT consultant, contact us and we’ll make a recommendation.
Stephen Tuttle
DS Technologies, Inc