| iv> | | | | will need multiple tapes so that you will always have |
| Every business needs to backup their electronic | | | | archives to restore from if the need ever arises and |
| data. By choosing to use an online backup service | | | | you find something wrong with one of your tapes. |
| as part of your disaster recovery plan, you can | | | | If you perform onsite backups then you will need to |
| assure your data is offsite, safe and secure incase of | | | | take your media to an offsite location to store at |
| a disaster. | | | | least once each week. By storing a copy offsite, |
| Whether you have a small business or a large | | | | you make certain that if there is a disaster at your |
| corporation, one of the most valuable assets of your | | | | building then your data will still be available to you. |
| business is its electronic data. Your business's | | | | This will help you if you have to rebuild your file |
| electronic data consists of its financial information, | | | | servers from scratch. |
| documentation on clients and sales, and all other data | | | | The downside to onsite backup is that it requires you |
| stored on your computers and file servers. | | | | to have an information technology technician to |
| Have you ever thought about what would happen to | | | | physically change-out tapes. And, more importantly, |
| your company if you were the victim of any kind of | | | | they need to remember to move your media tapes |
| disaster? Natural or man-made? | | | | offsite each week. |
| How expensive would the recovery effort be? | | | | Another downside to localizing the task is that the |
| Would your business be able to recover from such a | | | | media tapes can be very expensive to purchase, and |
| loss? Where would you even begin the recovery | | | | you will probably need many of them for your nightly |
| process? All of these questions, and more, should | | | | and weekly replication tasks. |
| be addressed in your company's disaster recovery | | | | A more attractive option to using onsite data backup |
| plan. | | | | is to perform all of your replication to an offsite |
| Every single business today, large or small, should | | | | backup location. You can do this by utilizing a |
| have a disaster recovery plan in place for its | | | | professional online backup service. |
| electronic data. No matter what the size or income | | | | To use a professional online data backup service you |
| of your company is, you need to be able to recover | | | | would simply schedule a time for your server to |
| your electronic data if something happens to your | | | | connect to your backup service and duplicate your |
| servers or to your buildings. | | | | data onto their server. The data will travel over the |
| To start to build your disaster recovery plan, you will | | | | Internet, through a secure and encrypted channel. |
| have some serious choices to make about how you | | | | There are many big advantages to using an online |
| archive your data and where you will store it once it | | | | data backup service. You do not have to purchase |
| has been backed up. | | | | tapes and tape drives. You do not have to have |
| One option for backing up your data is to back it up | | | | someone remember to physically change your tapes, |
| on tapes each day. If you have a small amount of | | | | and remember to bring them to an offsite location. |
| data you can perform complete daily backups each | | | | And, your data is much safer being stored a long |
| evening when no one is in the building and using your | | | | way away from your business, in a safe and secure |
| file server. | | | | computing environment. |
| If you choose to backup your data each night, you | | | | |