What Backup Strategy is recommended?

ONLINE BACKUP SERVICE

 

We’re pleased to offer a secure ONLINE BACKUP service as part of the

ClinicOffice Support Plan

(10GB Storage Allowance on the Backup Platform).

However, even if you use this service with us, we still strongly recommend that you implement at least one other backup strategy to run alongside it.

It’s always a stressful time when you suffer a hardware failure, have a computer stolen, or suffer some other catastrophe resulting in the loss of data which is vital to your business.

This is where backups come in!

Unfortunately, some of our customers who have found themselves in the above situations have either never made a backup, or have done so only intermittently (and the backup data is out-of-date) or they have backed up onto the same computer that was stolen or crashed (rather than using an external device).

This is a pretty dire situation to find oneself in, which is why taking regular backups is essential.

So what do you recommend?

Our recommended backup strategy is :-

  1. to backup your data every day
  2. to use external media (e.g. a USB drive, external hard disk, zip disc, optical disk, tape drive etc.)
  3. to ‘rotate’ your backups by using more than one piece of media/external device (You can get more information about ‘rotational backup strategies’ here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup_rotation_scheme)
  4. to keep the external media at a different location

A backup solution need not be expensive, as USB 3.0 flash drives with high capacities now represent a very cost-effective option.
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Whichever backup method you choose, the important thing is to do it regularly. In the event of a disaster, you will probably lose all data going back to your last backup. If you took a backup yesterday then it won’t be the end of the world, whereas if you haven’t backed up for a couple of months – then it may seem like it!

If you need specific help on setting up a good backup system for your business, it may be best to speak to a local computer company who can come in and implement it for you.