Backup solutions for SMEs

Backing up your company's computers is absolutely essential — if you lose computer data, you could also lose your business. And the more you can do to protect against backup nightmares, the more time and resources you can invest in moving the business forward.

But there's more than one way to back up your data and your choice is likely to be dependent on budgets, the number of computers that require backup, and whether or not you use a network.

So what are realistic options for small businesses?

Use recordable media

The days of backing up onto a few floppy disks or Zip disks are long past - but now we have recordable DVDs that can hold in the region of 4.5GB. Depending on the size of your hard drive, though, you may end up spending lots of time burning multiple disks to safeguard your data. There are higher-capacity options such as ‘dual-layer’ DVDs (up to 9Gb) and Blu-Ray: 40+Gb, but they are still very expensive.

Get a second hard disk

You can install a drive that's just as big as your existing hard disk and then copy all the data onto the second drive. Hard disk prices have dropped considerably, and copying a disk makes it easy to replace lost data. But keeping all of your backup data on the same system leaves it vulnerable to the same problems that might affect your primary hard disk.

Use an online backup service

These services allow you to upload your data over the Internet to remote servers - if you need to restore lost data, you simply log on to the backup service and download your files.

Internet backup services are generally reliable and easy to use but they can be slow, you'll need Internet access to retrieve your backup files and they can be expensive.

Charged per Gigabyte, prices are typically in the £5-10 per Gb per month plus £1 for each incremental Gb per month. For a business employing 10 - 20 people and having 20 - 40Gb, annual charges could be in the £1,200 to £4,800 range.

Use an automated solution

A backup utility, like CA’s ArcServe or Symantec’s Backup Exec, can take the headache out of backing up your data as it automates the backup process. You tell it when to operate and where to place the backup.

These systems typically require an initial investment in the region of £1500 (including tapes, tape-drive and software) plus the discipline of someone changing the tapes and taking them off-site on a regular basis, ideally every day.