Are You Still Not Backing up Your Data?

You should know this by now: Computers can and do fail. And nasty viruses can take down your system by creeping through your antivirus software and firewall. The problem is that you usually get no warning before it’s too late. Puff! Your data is gone.

This has happened to more than a few businesspeople. In extreme cases, it has put companies out of business. And the worst part is this: It’s completely avoidable. By backing up your data, you can retrieve all or most of what you lose.

Yes, yes, I hear some of you snickering about the hassle involved. Indeed, there is a hassle involved. But you owe it to yourself — and your business — to take stock of your backup plan (or lack thereof) by reviewing these tips.

Most Important: Back up Your Customer Databases and Payroll Records

What’s the heart and soul of your company? People have different opinions, but certainly your customer or client database has to rank high.
Inside one or two data files are all the nitty-gritty details including what they buy, when they buy, how they pay and so forth. Contact lists also are databases, and you might have yours combined with your customer list.

So, where would you be if you lost your database? How would you feel if you attempted to open your database and it wasn’t there? Not good, I’ll bet. So you should be backing up your database.

Also mission-critical for backups are your employee payroll records. You don’t want to lose the information that you have to report to the Internal Revenue Service. Your employees don’t want problems with the IRS, either. And they certainly don’t want to be paid late.

Protect Your Registry Settings

You should be backing up all of your data. But if you don’t, a third item you should have high on your priority list for regular backups is your Windows Registry. This is the huge database that tells your computer how to run. Without it, you have an expensive paperweight.
Most backup programs allow you to back up the Registry automatically. If not, you can easily do it manually. Here’s how:
• Click Start > Run.
• In the box, enter “regedit” (without the quotes). Click OK.
• In the Registry, click File > Export (or Registry > Export Registry File in Windows 98). Navigate to your backup medium. It will probably be drive E:.
• Name the file and click Save.

You don’t need to back up Windows or your applications, such as Microsoft Word. If the worst happens, you can always re-install those programs. But the information you create must be protected.

Store Your Backups Off-Site

To really be safe, the backup medium (tape, CD or DVD, etc.) should be removed from your site. If you are backing up to tape, for instance, and you leave the tape cartridge in the machine, you’ll be protected if the hard drive fails. But if the equipment is stolen, or the office burns to the ground, the backup will be lost.

The safest procedure is to use a different tape or disk each day. Keep all but the current day’s media off-site — at your home, perhaps.

Forget About Doing Backups With Floppies

The earliest backup medium was the floppy. These are no longer practical. They hold only 1.4 megabytes of data, so a large collection would be needed for a backup. You would have to sit at the computer for hours, swapping the floppies in and out. Don’t even think about it.
Tape has been the medium of choice for a number of years. Tape backups are relatively slow, but the process can be automated. You can schedule the backup for when you’re sleeping.

Tape drives have a capacity of 10 to 40 gigabytes, with the data uncompressed. Most advertise that they’ll hold twice as much if the data is compressed. It’s true that they can hold more compressed data, but you’re unlikely to get double the storage. Some file types just don’t compress.
Most tape drives cost several hundred dollars. Tapes are relatively expensive, too. And the software can be difficult. Tape is a great backup medium, once you understand it. It has its drawbacks in terms of the time and work involved. But once you get a system down, it can go smoothly.

Here are some other options:

• Back up to a burner — a CD or DVD drive. Neither holds nearly as much data as a tape. If you decide to go this route, be sure your software allows automated backups. A CD or DVD will work well if your data is not voluminous. CDs will hold up to 700 MB; most DVDs will hold 4.7 GB.
• Use a Zip or Jaz drive. These are made by Iomega. Zips hold 250 MB of data; Jaz holds 2 GB.
• Use an external hard drive. These run U.S. $200-$300 and hold a vast amount of data. They attach to the computer via high-speed connections such as USB 2.0 or FireWire. Hard drives are fast, so the backup wouldn’t take much time. But an external hard drive is relatively bulky, so you would get tired of taking it home.

Another Option to Consider: Backing up on an Internal Hard Drive
You could use a second internal hard drive, although that would mean leaving the backup in the office. Massive hard drives can be had for less than U.S. $100. Windows automatically accommodates multiple hard drives. You could simply copy your data from the master hard drive to the second one, known as a slave.

If you’re handy, you can install a second hard drive yourself. Having a shop retrofit a computer wouldn’t be especially expensive. Or, if you’re buying a new computer, order it with two hard drives.

If having two hard drives appeals to you, consider a RAID system. RAID means Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. RAID systems can be immensely complicated. But a two-disk system is not; you set it up as a mirror.
When you save something, it automatically saves to both drives. The second drive looks just like the first. So if one fails, you have a perfect copy. And RAID will automatically switch you over to the working drive. Some motherboards have RAID capability built in. If yours doesn’t, a RAID card can be added to the computer. However, a RAID system would leave your backup inside the computer. That leaves you vulnerable to fire or theft.

Need More Security? Consider an Online Backup Service
If you’re especially concerned about safety, you might want to consider an Internet backup. There are many firms on the Web that will store your data for you, for a monthly fee. You can run the backup automatically.

Most analysts recommend that only businesses with a high-speed Internet connection consider this option, because backups by dial-up modem could tie up your phone lines for several hours at a time.

Also, Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services — which enable you to build a private intranet or extranet site for your business — offer the ability to store copies of your most-vital business documents in a secure area that you can access through the Internet.

Put simply, an IT consultant is someone who helps you figure out how to increase sales and productivity through technology and communications. To do this, they ask the questions you never thought to ask, from the most basic to the more complex: “Do you need a T1 line for high speed Internet when all you want is email?” or “How often do you need to back up your data?” and “What’s your  digital marketing vision?” and “Do you know what digital marketing is?”

They also get you thinking about your company’s IT infrastructure with questions along the lines of “What’s your data protection plan for your network and your customer database?  Where are you going to securely store your important customer information like contact information, purchase histories or even medical histories? Is a unified VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone and Internet system right for your business? Do you want a full-time IT manager to handle this stuff or do you want to outsource as much as possible to a managed service provider (MSP)?”

Done right, like the way we do it at NSP NOC, this IT consultant delivers an action plan of concrete IT solutions that allows you to concentrate on running your business to its maximum potential. Best of all, help doesn’t have to be expensive and doesn’t require someone dedicated to an IT company. In fact, help can even come free of charge.

In the last few years, cloud computing has grown from being a promising business concept to one of the fastest growing segments of the IT industry. Now, recession-hit companies are increasingly realising that simply by tapping into the cloud they can gain fast access to best-of-breed business applications or drastically boost their infrastructure resources, all at negligible cost. But as more and more information on individuals and companies is placed in the cloud, concerns are beginning to grow about just how safe an environment it is.

Every breached security system was once thought infallible

SaaS (software as a service) and PaaS (platform as a service) providers all trumpet the robustness of their systems, often claiming that security in the cloud is tighter than in most enterprises. But the simple fact is that every security system that has ever been breached was once thought infallible.

Google was forced to make an embarrassing apology in February when its Gmail service collapsed in Europe, while Salesforce.com is still smarting from a phishing attack in 2007 which duped a staff member into revealing passwords.

While cloud service providers face similar security issues as other sorts of organisations, analysts warn that the cloud is becoming particularly attractive to cyber crooks. “The richer the pot of data, the more cloud service providers need to do to protect it,” says IDC research analyst David Bradshaw.

Understand the risks of cloud computing

Cloud service users need to be vigilant in understanding the risks of data breaches in this new environment.

“At the heart of cloud infrastructure is this idea of multi-tenancy and decoupling between specific hardware resources and applications,” explains Datamonitor senior analyst Vuk Trifković. “In the jungle of multi-tenant data, you need to trust the cloud provider that your information will not be exposed.”

For their part, companies need to be vigilant, for instance about how passwords are assigned, protected and changed. Cloud service providers typically work with numbers of third parties, and customers are advised to gain information about those companies which could potentially access their data.

IDC’s Bradshaw says an important measure of security often overlooked by companies is how much downtime a cloud service provider experiences. He recommends that companies ask to see service providers’ reliability reports to determine whether these meet the requirements of the business. Exception monitoring systems is another important area which companies should ask their service providers about, he adds.

London-based financial transaction specialists SmartStream Technologies made its foray into the cloud services space last month with a new SaaS product aimed at providing smaller banks and other financial institutions with a cheap means of reconciling transactions. Product manager Darryl Twiggs says that the service has attracted a good deal of interest amongst small to mid-tier banks, but that some top tier players are also being attracted by the potential cost savings.

An important consideration for cloud service customers, especially those responsible for highly sensitive data, Twiggs says, is to find out about the hosting company used by the provider and if possible seek an independent audit of their security status.

“Customers we engage with haven’t been as stringent as we thought they would have been with this”.

How cloud hosting companies have approached security

As with most SaaS offerings, the applications forming SmartClear’s offering are constantly being tweaked and revised, a fact which raises more security issues for customers. Companies need to know, for instance, whether a software change might actually alter its security settings.

“For every update we review the security requirements for every user in the system,” Twiggs says.

One of the world’s largest technology companies, Google, has invested a lot of money into the cloud space, where it recognises that having a reputation for security is a key determinant of success. “Security is built into the DNA of our products,” says a company spokesperson. “Google practices a defense-in-depth security strategy, by architecting security into our people, process and technologies”.

However, according to Datamonitor’s Trifković, the cloud is still very much a new frontier with very little in the way of specific standards for security or data privacy. In many ways he says that cloud computing is in a similar position to where the recording industry found itself when it was trying to combat peer-to-peer file sharing with copyright laws created in the age of analogue.

“In terms of legislation, at the moment there’s nothing that grabs my attention that is specifically built for cloud computing,” he says. “As is frequently the case with disruptive technologies, the law lags behind the technology development for cloud computing.”

What’s more, many are concerned that cloud computing remains at such an embryonic stage that the imposition of strict standards could do more harm than good.

IBM, Cisco, SAP, EMC and several other leading technology companies announced in late March that they had created an ‘Open Cloud Manifesto’ calling for more consistent security and monitoring of cloud services.

But the fact that neither Amazon.com, Google nor Salesforce.com agreed to take part suggests that broad industry consensus may be some way off. Microsoft also abstained, charging that IBM was forcing its agenda.

“Standards by definition are restrictive. Consequently, people are questioning whether cloud computing can benefit from standardisation at this stage of market development.” says Trifković. “There is a slight reluctance on the part of cloud providers to create standards before the market landscape is fully formed.”

Until it is there are nevertheless a handful of existing web standards which companies in the cloud should know about. Chief among these is ISO27001, which is designed to provide the foundations for third party audit, and implements OECD principles governing security of information and network systems. The SAS70 auditing standard is also used by cloud service providers.

Local law and jurisdiction where data is held

Possibly even more pressing an issue than standards in this new frontier is the emerging question of jurisdiction. Data that might be secure in one country may not be secure in another. In many cases though, users of cloud services don’t know where their information is held. Currently in the process of trying to harmonise the data laws of its member states, the EU favours very strict protection of privacy, while in America laws such as the US Patriot Act invest government and other agencies with virtually limitless powers to access information including that belonging to companies.

UK-based electronics distributor ACAL is using NetSuite OneWorld for its CRM. Simon Rush, IT manager at ACAL, has needed to ensure that ACAL had immediate access to all of its data should its contract with NetSuite be terminated for any reason, so that the information could be quickly relocated. Part of this included knowing in which jurisdiction the data is held. “We had to make sure that, as a company, our data was correctly and legally held.”

European concerns about about US privacy laws led to creation of the US Safe Harbor Privacy Principles, which are intended to provide European companies with a degree of insulation from US laws. James Blake from e-mail management SaaS provider Mimecast suspects that these powers are being abused. “Counter terrorism legislation is increasingly being used to gain access to data for other reasons,” he warns.

Mimecast provides a comprehensive e-mail management service in the cloud for over 25,000 customers, including 40% of the top legal firms in the UK.

Customers benefit from advanced encryption that only they are able to decode, ensuring that Mimecast acts only as the custodian, rather than the controller of the data, offering companies concerned about privacy another layer of protection. Mimecast also gives customers the option of having their data stored in different jurisdictions.

For John Tyreman, IT manager for outsourced business services provider Liberata, flexibility over jurisdiction was a key factor in his choosing Mimecast to help the company meet its obligations to store and manage e-mails from 2500 or so staff spread across 20 countries. The company is one of the UK’s leading outsourcing providers for the Public Sector, Life Pensions and Investments and Corporate Pensions leading. “Storing our data in the US would have been a major concern,” Tyreman says.

Best practice for companies in the cloud

• Inquire about exception monitoring systems
• Be vigilant around updates and making sure that staff don’t suddenly gain access privileges they’re not supposed to.
• Ask where the data is kept and inquire as to the details of data protection laws in the relevant jurisdictions.
• Seek an independent security audit of the host
• Find out which third parties the company deals with and whether they are able to access your data
• Be careful to develop good policies around passwords; how they are created, protected and changed.
• Look into availability guarantees and penalties.
• Find out whether the cloud provider will accommodate your own security policies

There’s no question your systems are going to fail at some point with resulting loss of data – “it’s a 100 percent certainty.” The only question is when. And businesses that don’t adequately protect their data will inevitably suffer.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a small or mid-sized business, global enterprise, or a service provider; NSP NOC will serve you anytime and help you ensure the critical information you’re responsible for guarding will be there when it’s needed the most.
Choosing the right backup service for your business could not be simpler, our experts are on hand to discuss your requirements and understand your business needs. We will tailor a package to meet your specific backup and recovery objectives and your budget. Whether you are looking to simply backup your data securely offsite, protect multiple computers/servers from a single office or unlimited remote offices/ branches all over the world, we can provide you with the right solution.

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