Thursday, March 19, 2009

My History With Data Storage

Memopal is following me on twitter. One of the messages is a list of backup software on Wikipedia. I am shocked how much open source back-up software there is. Much easier (and cheaper) to outsource data storage and back-up but if you HAVE to DIY, there are many choices.

When I was a Novell VAR before telecom, we used HP tape back-up in every office we supported. It amazed me how ineffective that was.

  • No one paid attention to the error messages.
  • Tapes often were locked, so no backup occurred.
  • Unless the office manager remembered to take a tape home, no off-site backup.
  • Only one tape was used to save money. Well, it overwrites... so one failed backup means No backup.
  • The back-up software was great. User error is what messed it up.

It needs to be very simple with no user intervention. I haven't seen a solution like that yet.

Currently, I use external hard drives and burn DVD's of data. But I do not have off-site back-up any where.

Another MSP pinged me today because he has just started selling tape back-up (since being at Robin's seminar in DC) and it has been a lucrative upsell when he is closing the server maintenance contract. It is also peace of mind for him and the client. Most companies that lose data don't recover.

If you do decide to build your own back-up service, use the cloud. Amazon Web Services offers a cheap alternative to a NAS.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I also follow Memopal on Twitter, so I was courious to try it. I was very surprised about it, I like it expecially because I can share my files with all my friends doesn't matter how big this file is! I installed Memopal on alla my computers so when I need a document, I know where it is. Wonderful!