A few weeks back I talked about the importance of performing routine computer backups of office computers. Probably the most obvious reason for backing up information is to create redundancy in case of detrimental failure. For most businesses, having the ability to be back up and running within hours is important.
Last week I had a number of business customers ask why I suggest backing up to a hard drive rather than to the cloud. One of my customers told me his company backs up to the cloud and hasn’t had a need to recover. Another backs up to the cloud because it’s easy.
Backing up to the cloud means uploading data to someone else’s server in another part of the world. Automated backups are performed over the internet by a number of companies. Most, if not all providers, encrypt the data to reduce data breaches. And most online backups take place anytime the computer is running.
Cloud backup as the sole means is a bad idea for a business. I am partially convinced cloud backup makes a good secondary backup resource. I am not fully convinced about the security of online data storage due in part to the recent iCloud hack. I simply don’t trust others with my data.
Let’s take a closer look at the tried and true method of backing up to an external hard drive. First, I visit my local office supply store and buy an external hard drive for under $100.00. Once a week I plug in the external drive and use any number of free backup utilities. Usually, in under an hour I have a complete backup and can unplug my external drive and stash it away.
It’s hard to argue that a common failure is a computer’s hard drive. They all fail at some point so I’ll use this for my scenario. I’m going to assume the drive has failed to a point that data recovery from the drive itself is impossible. No matter, before doing any backup, a new hard drive needs to be physically installed.
If the only source of data backup was to the cloud then the target computer will need to be operational prior to recovering data. By operational I mean the operating system and drivers will need to be installed prior to performing a recovery. Only data backed up during the cloud process will be recovered.
Most computers today do not ship with recovery CD’s making a quick recovery somewhat difficult. Even with our resources, my company takes several hours to perform a complete recovery. Add onto that the time it takes to transfer data from the cloud – assuming the transfer goes perfectly – and the time it takes to reload software.
If a complete backup to an external hard drive was performed no operating system should need to be installed. Even free utilities offer some type of bootable CD option which assists in recreating a complete image of the original hard drive. With a recovery from an external hard drive all programs, drivers, utilities and hidden files should be put back where they belong.
The responsibility of holding your data is your job. Sending it to an unknown entity somewhere is cyberspace seems to me to be a copout for actually being accountable. If your business uses a computer then there needs to be a routine process of performing regular local backups. You don’t let other people handle your money, why let them manage your data?
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can call him at (978) 919-8059 or visit www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)