Business Backup
- Construction

On-line backup for construction

The volume of data used in most industries has increased greatly for most industries over the past decade. Few have had a data management requirement increase at the level experienced by the construction industry. There are several reasons for this. Among them are the following. The economic boom since the early nineties, greatly increased general compliance requirement in areas such as health and safety, the advancement of design software demonstrated by the industry shift to 3d drawings and ubiquitous use of electronic media commercial communication of large these data types.

The benefits of these systems are enormous and abundant to the point of being absolutely necessary to remain competitive. With these information technology based competitive advantages come additional risk and risk management responsibilities. Data loss in simply not an option in the construction industry. The scale and cost of projects is far too high to expect even partial, temporary data loss to be sustained without serious consequence. In addition to using larger data storage devices, these devices have increased in speed to allow access at workable rates of today's data volumes. Hard drives now spin at in excess of 7200 r.p.m. and the increased volume and speed is accompanied by lower retail prices. In effect, the public got what the public wanted. Larger, faster, cheaper drives. Hard drives always had a mean time to failure rate but this is now more common and less predictable than before with the storage supplier attitude being replace more often with cheaper, faster, larger drives. That offers little solace if your data is lost. A trip down memory lane will bring us a time when the early pentium computers had drives measured at pedestrian speeds with storage capabilities of little more than a few 3d drawings today. Another crucial difference was the cost of these systems. They were extremely expensive by today's standards. The hard drive, while small and slow was not designed to be replaced soon and had a long life expectancy. Data backup was not the norm for end users and the hard drive was central to continuity. Manufacturers were aware of this and only purchased quality drives to ensure system brand following. All of this has changed now. Complete systems are selling for hundreds of Eros and hard drive warranties are quickly honoured with a new drive. The replacement drive is not impressive given it cost in the region of Euro 10 from a manufacture point of view and comes with none of your lost data.

So what should you do?
Well this is 2008 so you are obviously backing up. The question is, how should you backup?
You should be backing up remotely to a manually backed up power fail protected raid server in a off site location and simultaneously backing up to a mirrored server at another location. These systems should be managed and all security updates should be in place on a server specific data. You should also upgrade backup software to avail of encryption method and level updates. In addition you need to avail of expert technical support for each of these systems. The investment is huge and ongoing.

Alternatively you could avail of the functionality of the above description and only pay for the parts you use. You know where this is going. If you are not using online backup you are missing out not alone on world class data backup but on a system which is appropriate to your usage and developed as a consequence of the increased risk and risk management issues you face today.

If you have even the slightest doubt about the validity of employing online backup in your construction business, then the likelihood is that one of the following concerns you. Please read on as here we intend to answer the most important questions pertaining to online backup.

Is online backup safe?
On-line backup is significantly safer than off-line backup. This is because the data transferred and in transit is encrypted to bank level.
Can my online backup provider read my data?
Some can, if they issue you with the encryption code it is safe to say they have it and could read your data. With our system you generate the code. You can change it any time you want without involving us. We never have the code or access to the code. We can not read your data. We sign off on this manually. This is a very important difference between out system and most systems worldwide.

Is online backup expensive?
Relative to what? Compared to dumping unencrypted data on to a hard drive which has a date with the scrapheap, yes online backup is moderately expensive. Compared with manually inserting 1970s
analog tape cartridges in to a system and listening to the stress created, yes online backup does require you to put your hand in your pocket. Compared to using a U.S.B. Device which will one day (generally many times but once is enough for a disaster) flash on entry or exit even when using safe removal, yes online backup is no free lunch.
Compared to losing critical data? Keep in mind before answering, this is your data, you are the person with head in hands and serious trouble looming. No online backup is not expensive. Some people will refrain from buying it due to price. Some people do not have car insurance. A somewhat vulgar analogy but not entirely appropriate given the increased risk of off-line backup and near daily increase in Euro zone, local government and industry based compliance issues affecting data backup.

Is online backup easy to use?
The concept behind online backup is to automate the best off-line backup system, encrypt the data and send it online. It is extremely easy to use and finding data is so far ahead of tape that online backup search is akin to and easier then a windows file search.

Is online backup a bit intangible? I would be so much happier to have my data myself.
On-line backup is the most tangible data backup system in existence. When your tape is broke or your hard drive dead or your U.S.B. Drive Flashed, online backup is all you have and all you can have. In addition, all major online backup releases allow you to backup locally so if you must have a local backup you can and given it is run by the same system on the same backup, there will be no conflict.

If you have read this document to this point, it is likely that you are in the construction business and have concerns about data backup Contact backupanytime today in strict confidence and we can set you backing up with a world class system and outside single point support and responsibility tonight.

Backupanytime.com, for responsible people and their important data.