Spare Backup signs some big deals
Spare Backup (http://www.sparebackup.com) has been in the news lately, and I’m sure the investors are happy. Several deals have been signed, most recently to bundled into some Geek Squad service offerings in the UK. This is good. It means more people will have access to backups and will likely make the choice to take advantage of backups.
There is one thing about Spare Backup that makes me nervous…they are evangelists of the “set it and forget it” model. As I’ve said a number of times (click here to see the proof), deliberate backups are the best backups. It is best to understand your data, choose the right files for backup, and test that backup, by periodically restoring files (and not the same files every time, test different file restores, from different folders, etc.). Spare Backup leans heavily on the concept that their software can intelligently select the files that you need. So, hopefully this works for you. Does anyone have some experience with restoring files from their “presets” or installing programs to alternate volumes or non-standard paths?
Do you backup your cell phone data?
I, for one, remember no phone numbers. Or appointments. Or anything really. My phone does it all. I am also lucky…my phone is using Microsoft ActiveSync to keep tasks, calendar, contacts, and email current with the exchange server. Sweet for me.
Lots of phones support this (iPhone, any Windows Mobile device, Android) but the “gotcha” is that you need an exchange server on the other end…so basically that is only available if your employer provides it, except for a handful of overachieveing or thieving individuals out there.
But for those of you without this option, or with a standard cell phone, what do you do? Do you periodically back up you phone? Do you pay $2-$7 a month to have your mobile carrier do it for you? Let me suggest that you should do something…it stinks to lose all your numbers.
An old article, but it may help you:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/125519/dialed_in_back_up_your_cell_phones_address_book.html
Is your company too big?
I had a run-in with a potential customer recently. At The Backup Plan, we provide backup services as a managed service that IT solutions providers can offer to their customers. So, we approach companies that off IT support and say, “Hey, you, yeah, IT support provider…do you have a backup offering? Oh, you do, does it do versioning and imaging and continuous data protection and replication and disk to disk…” and so on. 1 in 10 listen and 1 in 10 of those sign up and offer our services to their customers. 10 in 10 of those are satisfied with their decision. 1 in 100 of those like it so much that they start their own backup plan service and stop paying us for it. What?? Yes, I’m serious.
Anyway, my real point is that there are even a few IT solutions providers that we have approached, or who have approached us, that already offer backup services. The most recent was so striking because it is a nationwide chain…and…THEY OWN a BACKUP provider?!!!? Seriously, they bought a company for millions of dollars and offer backup services through that company. But they are interested in using us to offer the same services. And when I asked about the service provider they already own, they drew a blank. Like, didn’t know about it. So the SCal regional management has no knowledge of all the offerings of the parent company. But hey, I’m not one to turn away business. I wish someone would buy my company. Any takers? $3 million and it is yours. And, I’ll we’ll all even continue working for it for a year…cannot beat that. OK, I’d only sell to the right shop, but if there are companies that are so big that they do not realize that they already own an offering, it really makes you wonder about the wisdom and waste of dealing with some large companies. More on this later. It has me thinking.
Sometimes, go with what you know
Sometimes, it is important to remember that backups are never out of reach. For example, windows 7 has them built in this way:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/features/backup-and-restore.aspx
and, don;t forget about system checkpoints and restore options.
the Mac OS has Time machine:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/what-is-macosx/time-machine.html
And Linux has…well, linux may or may not have something built-in, depending on your build and version and what day it is. so, go to sourceforge.net and search for open source backups…but nobody on linux will read this anyway.
Mozy in the UK – and – Check your Backups
I couldn’t think of 2 “issues” that go together so well. I’ll do the second one first (what?). While it may not appeal to everyone (but the subject is not the point), there exists a huge number of computer users out there who invest a lot of time in SecondLife and virtual worlds of a similar nature. The scene is huge, to the point where there are massive projects, like “Open Sim” which provide the software for hosting such a virtual worlds. In “Server crash, backup failure destroys Aesthetica build By: Maria Korolov” we learn that just last week, a “hosting” company damaged some disks during a routine move of equipment, and in doing so, lost some data. No big deal, right? Well, unfortunately, their “backups” were no good. Not only was there no known good backup to use to restore, but the backups themselves had not been checked in months! So, the customer lost many hours of work. Most tragically, he had been operating with a false sense of security for 5 months, assuming that useful nightly backups were being completed (because he was paying for it as part of his hosting plan).
What can you learn from this?
1. Check your backups. Do a test restore. I’ve said it before, and I’ll likely say it again. After all, what is a backup without a plan for recovery?
2. If you are relying on the hosting provider to also be your backup provider, CYA! That is, make at least one copy yourself from time to time.
For me, this is particularly interesting given the much bigger news that was just announced: Mozy has launched in the UK and Europe. This is a big deal, because Mozy is one of the largest players in the remote backup industry. Most troubling though is something an article by Daniel Robinson attributes to their chief marketing officer:
“This is accomplished using a “set and forget” model, according to Stockdale”
NO!!! NEVER set and forget with backups. Autosave in Excel works, too. Does that mean you shouldn’t bother to save real files? NO. If your data is important, then you, or someone you pay, should be heavily invested in testing it periodically, making sure the backups run, and understanding the recovery process. Set it and forget it is a horrible idea and Mozy should be ashamed to be linked to such an statement. As one of the largest and most influential voices in the market, they should promote better awareness. JEESH!