There have been many statistics offered about business continuity and data loss for small businesses, mostly from companies that wants to "help" you prevent the traumatic events of moving away from business.
Mark Twain said, "There are lies, really lies, and statistics. inches
Regardless of the percentage offered for business failures, the fact is: many small businesses will not survive long after loosing all of their contracts, orders, invoices, and other records.
Backup can be easy and affordable
Fortunately, for many small businesses, it is a lot easier and much less expensive to implement a solid backup strategy today.
There are two critical steps to protect your business from a catastrophic loss of data.
Backup the information you have.
Store your backups off site.
Both of these steps can be quite a process, particularly for large companies that have a lot of data. There are some critical items of these steps for small businesses too but, for many, backup does not have to be complicated or expensive.
Digital recorded argument drives used to be the most common hardware systems for backup. However, disk storage technology has improved tremendously in speed, capacity and cost. Most companies are now using, or moving to, disk based backup systems.
Windows Server may have all the software you need
If you use Windows Server '08, or Windows Small business Server '08, you may have all the software you need already. Both come with backup software that is greatly improved over previous versions clé windows 11 pro. Add a couple of inexpensive, portable USB harddisks, and you will have everything you should to implement an effective backup strategy.
The backup software that is included with Windows Server '08 and Windows SBS '08, is a little different, but either can handle the needs of many small offices.
Three steps to burning the information you have
If you use software that will require a database (a lot of top to bottom market software does, i. e. Sybase Anywhere, SQL Express, etc. ), follow your software's instructions for burning the database. Usually, this means the database software itself will need to close the database files and copy the database to backup files. Once this is done, Windows Server Backup will backup those files, along with all your other files.
You can use one backup drive, but using two will make it much easier to move one off-site each day. Format the drives using NTFS and label them so you can identify which has which backup job. You will not be able to use them for storage other than backups. Choose a drive with at least 3 to 4 times the capacity of your total utilized disk space. For many businesses 1 TB drives will do just fine.
Using Windows Server Backup, opt for the drives or directories you would like to backup and create a schedule. If your database software allows you to schedule a backup, schedule one so it has time to complete, before your Windows Server Backup starts. Otherwise, backup up your database as recommended before your scheduled Windows Server Backup. Your backup use whichever drive is available. If you use two, just detachment one and take it home with you everyday!
The process under way get started!
Not long ago i helped complaintant implement a system like this in about two hours, and that including training them how to manage their off site rotation, backup and restore files. They used two Western Digital Passport 1 TB USB drives they purchased relating to $120 each. You will probably want to read a little more about your database software's backup procedures and Windows Server Backup, but it surely isn't that complicated!