Time for Plan B!

Saturday, 26 April 2008 08:39

Article Written for the Killarney Outlook 26 April 2008

A good friend of mine is a keen parachutist with enough experience to go freefall. He recounts a tale when his main canopy failed to open and he had to deploy his reserve in a hurry, heart stopping moments indeed, but it did have a happy ending in that not only did his reserve open but his main chute also decided to deploy making his descent one of the slowest on record.
Of course, having two parachutes was not always the norm but the steady increase of human-shaped holes in the turf around airfields was a good way of focusing the mind on developing a Plan B because when you are dependent on something it is nice to have more than one of them. Besides which the gardener doesn’t half complain if he keeps losing his lawnmower in holes.

Most businesses are dependent on I.T. so most have a backup regime. This regime should included off-site storage of data and the storage of any backup media on-site in a fire-proof media safe (note that fire-proof safes for documents will not prevent backup media being destroyed as the allowable temperature inside the safe will melt the media). The backup regime should be part of a Business Continuity Plan that details, among other things, how the business will return to normal quickly should, for instance, it loses the hardware it depends upon.

Flesk I.T. helps many firms develop such plans.

For home users a backup regime should seriously be considered. Most home users would benefit from a backup solution but few have them. If you’re not sure if you need one then consider this. If you lost your computer today is there anything on it that you would really miss. Home accounts perhaps, emails from friends and relatives, documents you have written or received, digital photographs, video footage or just the sear inconvenience of being without a computer. If any of these are true then you need a backup solution.

Many backup solutions exist, a removable USB attached hard disk is a common, for many home users, this is a good solution. For people who require off-site storage then some form of removable media is better; an Iomega Rev Drive, for instance, offers the speed of a hard disk with the added benefit that you can have several backup sets one of which can be stored off-site.

Rewriteable DVD and CD can provide a backup mechanism but not usually for the entire computer as the speed of the devices and the data capacity would make backups quite long winded affairs. Be aware that bit errors do occur more frequently than people think on CD and DVDs, particular rewriteable ones.

Some firms offer Storage space across the Internet. This is good for off-site backups but remember that restoring the files from such a source can take a long time and security could be an issue. Also, if your Broadband connection has a traffic cap then backup and restores could quickly use up your monthly traffic allowance.