Most companies know they should have backups. Most people need them as well. Yet lots of people neglect to ever set it up. Everyone updates iTunes and Acrobat. Who is to blame? You, mostly. You know better, you know you need to get it done. But, you know, the OS people blow it all the time as well. Microsoft has made the built-in backup app for vista and windows 2008 server less functional. Apple has finally brought backup into the spot light with Time Machine. But, typical of Apple, they act as if they have invented backups as a concept, when they have basically come to the table pretty late in the game. And one gets the feeling that Time Machine is maybe really a tool built as a way to sell some Time Capsules, an overpriced piece of hardware that fits right into the Apple lineup. On the PC side, the PC makers try to get into it sometimes. After you set up your Dell, HP, Acer, or other PC, if it has a burner, you might be prompted to burn a backup image. Once. at the beginning. Before you have lots of personal files on the machine. Dell has gotten into the game a bit with their remote backup service, but this is overpriced as well. HP abandoned the online backup service started last year. You know who does a good job with pushing the idea of backups? Intuit. Quickbooks and the like make monthly suggestions that you back up your data. They also float the idea that you might want to use their service to do it remotely. So, good work Intuit.
Still, even if everyone else isn’t putting it right in front of our faces, we all know better. There are free tools. There are built-in tools. There are cheap tools. There are free, easy, remote services. There are better cheap, easy, remote services. So, backup already. Jeesh.
Still, again, we get news of companies that blew it: Carbonite, a respected online backup provider, loses data, blames storage vendors
And, we should all back up well. The National Archives and Records Administration apparently uses external USB drives to move data around for backup purposes. Oh, and they don’t necessarily encrypt the data. Last week the NARA offered $50,000 for the safe return of the drive, which has the social security numbers of 100,000 people, including one of Al Gore’s daughters. I know for a fact that I could offer them backup services through The Backup Plan that would completely protect the 2 TB on that drive for less that 25% of their reward as a yearly cost. Probably less than that, assuming they have more to back up. Oh, and it would be fully encrypted and automated. No drives to lose. No embarrassing press releases or rewards to offer. Or they could choose from 20 online backup service providers a simple google search would return.
If you ask my family, then they’ll tell you that I think I am the smartest person around, I am kind of a jerk about it, and I act like a know-it-all. I promise, though, that I know I am not, and that others around me are both more experienced and more intelligent. In that vein, there are hundreds (trillions?) of other resources on the web to get some info about backups. One creator of content, Sallie Goetsch, writes about backups on FileSlinger, a blog that has a deep archive and lots of useful info. I plan on posting a few of her articles here (with permission) and generally sharing the fervor of backup evangelism! Her style is friendly, the content is accessible, and the interest is clearly strong. So check out her site. And then back up your files.
Also, she gave props to the theme of the site. I wish I could take credit for more than following directions, but I saw this theme in the wordpress catalog, and installed it. It was designed by Nicki Faulk. It rules.
So, I owe some thanks to Sallie and some other thanks to Nicki. Thanx!
Everyone. Ok, maybe not everyone, but most people. Most companies experience some data loss, whether accidental file deletions or lost laptops. Some companies experience major data loss, maybe a database server crashes, or an email server dies. Ideally, they have a backup solution in place. Ideally it works. Ideally, they have tested it and are confident in it. For many companies, it isn’t a top priority, and the testing happens when they really need it, after some disaster or data loss. Even tech-heavy companies lose data or have gaps in their backup strategy. I have personally had sleepless nights trying to recover data that was backed up but untested (if you trick me into a few beers, i may even tell you about nearly losing a company’s ERP database). Some people a lot smarter than anyone writing or reading this have had data loss impact their jobs and lives. What is lame is that it could all be avoided by backing up properly. Here are some examples:
Ma.gnolia, the online bookmark competitor to delicious lost data in January ‘09.
Journalspace shut down in January ‘09 after a PO-ed ex-employee zapped their database, which wasn’t backed up.
The Linkup online storage company lost 45% of user data on 8/08/08
These are companies that specialize in tech-heavy data management, and they didn’t have themselves covered. Do you? Here comes the commercial…if you don’t, ask your IT consultant about The Backup Plan, or do what you know you need to and start backing up!
To answer this question, let’s ask another question: What are you backing up? And another: Where are you backing it up?
If you are backing your stuff up remotely, yes, absolutely, definitely. It should be encrypted as it leaves your machine, in transport, and on the service provider’s server. Luckily, this is almost always the case. Service providers do this to cover themselves. they do not want visibility into the content you are backing up. They do not want to be associated with the loss of your data should there be a security breach on their end. A common method is that the user/customer defines an encryption key (like a password) that is used to scramble all data as it is backed up. The data can only be unscrambled by using the key. The customer defines that key, so only they can unscramble their backups.
If you are backing up locally, it depends on your requirements. If your location is secure, and everyone with access to the backups is trusted, then maybe you do not need it encrypted.
What are you backing up? First off, there is some data which should always be encrypted. To meet HIPAA or SOX requirements, patient and financial data should be encypted in any state (that is in the original storage location as well as in the backup). Social security numbers, credit card numbers, anything raising privacy concerns, blackmail materials, etc. should always be encrypted. On a personal computer, keep in mind that you might have tax records, bank account info, and possibly healthcare info saved on your machine. If so, you probably want to encrypt it. If the content of your computer is limited to iTunes music and pictures of your dog in the sweater your aunt knitted, you may not need encryption. For everyone else, it would be valuable to check to see if your current backup method allows for encryption.
Oh, and don’t forget your encryption key.
FROM PCWORLD:
It can be a storage nightmare: Given expanding regulatory requirements and the key role that electronic records now play in lawsuits, some enterprises are saving every bit of data they have, just to be safe. As a gauge of storage demand, IDC says the total amount of disk storage shipped last year grew 40.5 percent from 2007.
Sure, storage media are getting less expensive. The cost of a gigabyte of disk storage fell more than 27 percent from 2007 to 2008, according to IDC. But with the storage requirements of average enterprises rapidly growing, keeping it all forever can create long-term management challenges and lead to headaches when something needs to be found. Analysts, attorneys, and vendors say enterprises are better off getting rid of some data — but doing it judiciously. For IT departments, that means planning, carefully executing, and not going it alone.
—Read the rest of the article
