Open Forum

  • 1.  Off Site Data Back Up Options

    Posted 07-11-2017 08:08 AM
    A $4MM print and mail company in the Midwest asks about best practices for off site data back up. They are currently backing up to the cloud and find it expensive. If you have any recommendations, please reply to this post as I'm sure there are many others that would be interested in exploring their options.

    Thanks in advance for your contributions.

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    Mike Philie
    Senior Consultant
    Idealliance
    Alexandria VA
    (703) 837-1090
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  • 2.  RE: Off Site Data Back Up Options

    Posted 07-12-2017 09:14 AM

    One suggestion is to partner with another business that would allow you to put a server and/or equipment at their location as a "back-up" site.  As a contingency plan for business continuation in case of fire, natural disaster, etc. we have partnered with another business, out of state, with back-up equipment and server.  This 'partnering' can also open up business opportunities for both sites.  Carefully worded contracts should be utilized for obvious reasons.  Hope this helps.

     

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  • 3.  RE: Off Site Data Back Up Options

    Posted 07-12-2017 11:13 AM
    We have used AppAssure (now Quest Rapid Recovery) for 6 years and it has always worked well for us. However, I am afraid that backups are an insurance policy and you just have to look at the cost as cheaper than loosing everything in one of your computer systems, the downtime from that system being off, and the time to recreate it.  I would estimate with offsite backups and replication of all our servers, we have a $30-$40,000 investment over the last 6 years in avoiding more than a 1 day downtime, and we have just upgraded the system to provide as little as only a 30 minute downtime. Unfortunately, clients just won't deal with any of us not being able to move their projects for more than 24 hours.

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    John Hearn
    President
    Phillips Printing Company
    Nashville TN
    615-227-5466
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Off Site Data Back Up Options

    Posted 07-17-2017 03:21 PM

    I was in the disaster recovery industry prior to joining the print industry working with the AICPA which established SSAE 16 standards, I'm glad to see people are thinking through these issues.  There are several factors involved designing an appropriate disaster recovery protocol for your organization.  Most of them are dictated by your budget which is a usually established by the risk you're willing to take in the event of a catastrophic failure.  From there you'll what to look at your restore time objective or how much time it would take to become operational.  This is an issue that every organization should be keenly aware – a data loss of  mission critical data will put most organizations out of business.   

     If you're looking to trim your expenses with off-site backup I would take a look at what kind of data your pushing off-site and ask yourself: Is it mission critical?  Would you need it instantly in the event of a failure?  How often is the data accessed or is it strictly for archival purposes?  Depending on the answers to these question perhaps a different strategy would be more appropriate by creating protocols for non-mission critical data that are more affordable.

    While the exercise mentioned above is a good to ponder an appropriate strategy would need to be implemented to make sure established protocols are followed. The nice thing about off-site data back is it's generally inexpensive per/GB and aside from routine testing it's pretty darn close to set it and forget it.  There are plenty of decent off-site back up companies to choose from and a little shopping and research may save you some decent money.   If you're currently using a SAN or NAS you may want to look into their off-site options but using a third party service can be an option without any downside.  It's been awhile since I've been directly involved in the DR industry but at the time I thought CrashPlan (now code 42) was doing some novel and cool things and I have deep respect for the other owner/engineers I worked with that was recently acquired by Storage Craft which I would also recommend (FYI the payout is done so I won't benefit from referrals)    



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    Scott Eganhouse
    V.P. Business Development
    TEC Mailing Solutions, LLC
    Sun Prairie WI
    (608) 825-8525
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    Original Message