So you’re already aware of the benefits of carrying out regular backups. You’re also now convinced they’re a good idea. And you want to implement a backup procedure for your business. But you’ve only got so much budget you can allocate to it. External hard drive or online? What route do you take?
It’s not always easy to decide but here are five ways online backups may save you money…
Initial set up costs: Traditional tape backups have quite a high setup cost, and external hard drives too, particularly when you realise just how quickly the number of gigabytes requiring storage mount up! In this respect, online backups are a dream solution because they have NO SET UP COST. As long as your system has access to the internet, your backup procedure can be configured and left to run when, and how often, you want it to.
Ongoing Maintenance & support costs: Traditional backups require ongoing IT support, which in effect means human intervention e.g. swapping hard drives, taking hard drives off site etc. Online backups, on the other hand, are automated and once set up just continue until a new configuration is required.
Scalability: Traditional tape and hard drive infrastructures can work up to a certain point, but once your data storage requirements exceed their capacity then often new hardware (and the associated installation costs etc.) is required. The infrastructure for online backups, however, is provided by your supplier (hopefully us!) and you are only charged per gigabyte of storage, not for new hardware!
Data security: You may not even be thinking of data security, but just imagine the potential costs involved with trying to locate a lost or stolen external hard drive?! And that’s not to mention the possible fines imposed by the Information Commissioner’s Office. With online backups, this is simply a non-issue. There is no hardware to go missing. Plus, you get peace of mind from knowing two copies of your data are stored remotely and securely.
Time: Traditional backups have to be done out of office hours because of the large quantities of data being backed up. This can have a cost from a manpower point of view, as well as limiting the hours your staff can work IN the business. The incremental nature of online backups, however, mean that backups can take place any time of day because the volume of data just isn’t as large. They are more time efficient, and as we all know – time is money.
At Blue Sky Computer Solutions, we are often asked what route to go. Of course, we support either because customers have different legacy systems in place, as well as different requirements. However, for many of the small businesses that we work with across Northamptonshire, we’ve found online backups to be the best solution. And you’ll be surprised how often our customers have needed them!
If you’re worried that you don’t yet have a backup procedure in place, or would like to switch to online backups, click here for a bit more info, or give us a call!
