What is the best procedure for creating off-site backups? -Jim

What is the best procedure for creating off-site backups?
-Jim

This question was answered on October 1, 2001. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

You should all be asking yourself on a regular basis "Is my critical data safe in the event of a catastrophic event at my home or business?"

Disaster planning is an important part of today's computing, because of everything from virus attacks to flood, fire or data corruption or just plain old equipment failure

The events of September 11th helped to emphasize the importance of an off-site data backup procedure.

The primary off-site backup procedure in the past was to have an individual take the most recent backup tape or cartridge home with them every night and bring it back the next day or week.

As long as the procedure was followed religiously and the backup media made it back to the office (without melting in the car!), it was an effective guard against critical data being lost The problem of course, is that human nature eventually takes over and in many instances the process became 'once a year' instead of daily

Since the Internet is literally the world's largest computer network, it has become a player in the data storage game Not only does it give you another way to secure your data, it also gives you instant access to that data from anywhere in the world!

Web-based storage systems range from free (advertiser supported) to several hundred dollars per month, mainly based on the amount of storage you require.

A dial-up connection will work if you are backing up a home computer or a small business system, but web-based backups are much more usable with high-speed 'always on' connections, such as a cable modem, DSL or T-1.

If you don't have a large amount of data to secure you may be able to use the free service from Yahoo! called "Yahoo!Briefcase" (<a href="http://briefcase.yahoo.com" target="_blank">briefcase.yahoo.com</a>) It is an advertiser supported system that allows up to 30 MB of simple storage but does not provide any automated procedures for daily backups.

While 30 MB may not sound like much space, remember you only want to store your data files not the programs themselves An average Microsoft Word document takes about 20K per page, which translates to roughly 1500 pages of text that can be stored in that 30MB.

If your needs are larger, you may want to consider a fee based system such as <a href="http://www.Xdrive.com" target="_blank">Xdrive.com</a>, <a href="http://www.iBackup.com" target="_blank">iBackup.com</a> or <a href="http://www.BigVault.com" target="_blank">BigVault.com</a> Not only do they allow for larger amounts of information, they also include tools that allow you to 'map' a drive letter directly to the on-line storage system and automatically backup to them.

The ability to schedule a backup to an off-site system has caused some to consider it a primary backup method, but I recommend against it An on-site backup procedure that incorporates a tape or cartridge system should still be used as the primary backup method and the off-site should be considered as a safety net in case the primary system fails.

No matter how much data you may generate, it is likely that some or all of it is critical and should be secured Take some time to review your disaster recovery plan before an unexpected event catches you off guard!