7 Reasons To Use Remote Backup and Recovery Services For Your Business

A little while ago, a small business owner reached out to me seeking assistance with a backup and recovery issue. The problem was that her laptop computer crashed, and she needed to retrieve her files. Although she lost the files on her hard drive, she was savvy enough to keep an extra copy of them saved on her usb thumb drive. After finding this out I thought to myself -this process should go very smoothly. Well...Things did not go smoothly at all.

The problem I ran into was that the software that she used to back up her files on her laptop before it crashed did not give me access to a very important feature: the option to restore her files that were saved at an earlier day and time. Because of this, I was not able to recover all of the files she needed to gain access to.

After this incident, I highly recommended that she should consider using a remote backup and recovery service-to ensure that she will have access to her files in the event of a future disaster.

While backing up your files on-site is a must to minimize the risk of loss, having an off-site copy of your files is equally important. Remote backup services can be used for both. This way, when disaster strikes, you'll have a peace of mind knowing that your data is stored off-site and is easily accessible to you when you need it.

Here are 7 Reasons You Should Use Remote Backup and Recovery Services for your Business:

Reason #1 You can access your files and data "Anytime, Anywhere" 24/7 via a computer with an Internet Connection

Reason #2 Remote Backup and Recovery services do not require the purchase of hardware- nor do they require software installations and onto your computer to work

Reason #3 Remote Backup Solutions are very inexpensive and cost as little as $5.00 a month

Reason #4 With Remote Backup and Recovery services, business owners experience less downtime and loss of productivity in the event of a hardware failure or virus other disaster on site.

Reason #5 Your data and other information is stored in a different location than your original data

Reason #6 Remote Backup and Recovery services work with a variety of hardware-including Computers, Laptops, and Servers

Reason #7 Remote Backup Services use 128-448 bit Security Encryption to Encrypt and Protect your data

Conclusion
It is very important for businesses to have a data backup and recovery system in place to protect their information. Remote data backup services can be used as a primary source for data storage or a secondary source for off-site data storage.

If you are a small business owner looking for an affordable-24/7 accessible backup solution, I would highly recommend implementing a remote backup service for your business.

Kimberly George is the Owner and Founder of Lab-Ratz Technical Solutions, an IT services and support company- based in Richardson TX. She has spent years in the field of Information Technology and has worked for several major corporations that include Cisco Systems, and AT&T. You can find out more about Kimberly and Lab-Ratz Technical Solutions by Visiting http://www.lab-ratztech.com/.

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What Are Cloud Services and How Can They Help Your Business?

Cloud services provide an alternative means to managing your IT infrastructure in-house. They allow you to manage your data storage and archiving, web and email hosting, databases, software applications, document storage, email, training videos and much more online.

Traditionally all this information and activity was stored and managed on your server or hard drive and you needed to install software applications onto individual computers to allow you to access them. Cloud computing takes away the need to invest in more hardware as your business expands, employ the services of IT technicians or manually install and upgrade software on individual computers.

Put simply the 'cloud' relates to the internet. By investing in cloud services you pay for space in the cloud to manage your computer data. You, and your employees, can then access the cloud as you need to, only paying for the services you use, accessing applications as you need them, and increasing or scaling down your capacity as you need to. End-users no longer need to have the technical expertise to manage, monitor, maintain or support IT.

The advantages of cloud services are that you can access your data and software applications from any computer, laptop, smartphone or other device wherever you are in the world, as long as you have access to the internet. Because cloud services work by pooling computing resources, there are reduced costs and you are no longer limited to the expertise of your own IT department or hardware capacity.

Another important advantage is disaster recovery. By storing your data in a geographically remote environment you are reducing the risk of losing it should anything happen to your business premises or server.

However you need to read service level agreements very carefully to ensure you understand what services you are paying for. There may be hidden costs for example for data transfers, meta data functions or copying and deleting files. You must ensure your cloud services provider can guarantee the necessary levels of security, privacy and data compliance for your company. Once the agreement has been terminated, what happens to your files? Who is responsible for removing the data?

Cloud services are an increasingly attractive option for small to medium sized businesses as they allow them to invest in just the right level of services they need with flexibility for growth, however for larger businesses the long-term value of pay-as-you-go services needs to be balanced against investment in in-house services.

Next Connex specialise in bespoke data centre solutions, desktop virtualisation & cloud services for businesses throughout the UK, leading the way in the next generation of data storing and connectivity. For more information on the range of services available from Next Connex visit http://www.nextconnex.com/

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Mobile Cloud Computing Changing the Face of Business

Apple has made much of iCloud's launch - and while it's easy to be wary of hype, Apple's past successes have made the world take notice of cloud services. So what does it herald for businesses?

iCloud embodies everything that Apple excels at: it's user-friendly and seamlessly integrated into Apple's product range. Microsoft's SkyDrive provides a similar service, yet despite being older, it may become just another challenger. However, like Google Android's open ethos in the mobile OS market, SkyDrive could become a more inclusive, business-friendly platform for data sharing than iCloud, which is likely to retain the 'barbed-wire fence' approach reminiscent of Apple's App Store, iTunes service and iPod digital media format.

Following typical technology trends, both iCloud and SkyDrive are set to be rapidly adopted by virtue of the wide compatibility of product ranges, from Apple's iPhone integration to the cross-platform flexibility of Microsoft's sprawling business and consumer product range. To this extent, according to a 2010 IBM survey, thanks to the success of iPhones, iPads, Windows Phone 7 and Google's Android operating system, cloud computing is on the cusp of mainstream domination. So, with mobile cloud computing set to explode in popularity, its advantages and challenges are more relevant than ever.

Advantageously, it enables cost-effective, flexible, on-the-go access, so staff will become more productive on the move, building relationships and sharing data online. Easy data manipulation via mobile devices will also allow businesses to react rapidly to customer demands. Furthermore, cloud computing will see businesses reduce costs by eliminating dedicated IT requirements and downtime on physical servers. And most importantly, the translation to mobile will make cloud computing's advantages more widely available.

Of course, it also carries its share of challenges. Foremost is security. Hosting sensitive data off-premises inevitably poses risks. Coupled with the problem of mobile device theft, many businesses are understandably reluctant. It remains to be seen what security measures will be taken, but once these are addressed, IBM found that 91% of businesses expect cloud services to become the dominant feature of IT.

Cloud computing can expect a huge surge in attention from consumers and businesses thanks to iCloud. The relentless drive for mobile innovation, alongside the launch of Google's ChromeBook, will further emphasise the clouds importance for business. However, businesses still need to adapt to survive. Cloud services mean IT is going mobile. It's those businesses that unlock its potential that will thrive.

Next Connex specialise in bespoke data centre solutions, desktop virtualisation & cloud services for businesses throughout the UK, leading the way in the next generation of data storing and connectivity. For more information on the range of services available from Next Connex visit http://www.nextconnex.com/

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How A Disaster Recovery Service Provides Business Continuity During Critical Server Failure

Computers are paramount to every successful business and the need to have a contingency plan in place should anything happen to your precious data is a necessity.

One of the worst possible incidents for a company is a server failure. Unfortunately such a disastrous thing can occur with just a little bit of bad luck. Smooth running computer systems are crucial to the everyday running of our business and on a larger scale our economies. Though there are a number of ways you can protect your precious data should your computer system fail and continue smooth running of your business.

Statistics suggest large companies put between 2-4 percent of IT budgets into disaster recovery planning in the hope of avoiding larger long term losses. How you plan for such an occurrence can have a crucial say in how you come out of it. Many of the best companies that offer a disaster recovery service will provide a disaster recovery assessment and disaster planning to show you how prepared you are and how you can be better organised if a server fails - remember prevention is the best form of cure.

Mirroring data to an offsite location or just backups onto a cloud service, another server or hard drive can be a saving grace if you suffer server failure, and will allow you to continue unharmed. The uses of simple items such as surge protectors are also a necessity and are a straightforward but vital aspect of protecting your data.

If the worse should happen there are a number of ways in which you can get back your data. Doing so is very important, companies who lose their data and end up with information find it very hard to compete and many suffer huge consequences.

Disaster recovery solutions such as data recovery will mean you can be sure you retrieve most or all of the lost data; this is a last resort but is crucial if you've lost all of your data. Emails and work place data can also be retrieved by similar methods, as can recovery of client's networks with little hassle and virtually complete continuity.

Should you fear being or be the unfortunate victim of such a failure, then many companies also offer disaster recovery validation and testing afterwards. This will help you test your recovery plans and ensure they're up to scratch before or after a nightmare scenario such as the aforementioned.

So should you suffer a failed server it is not the end of the world or your business, just think about it rationally and you can get it fixed and recover all the crucial data that your business thrives on easily and quickly with little disruption.

As you always need Business continuity then you should pick our Disaster Recovery Services and Cloud Service. To know about recovery services browse at: http://www.redstor.com/

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Backup Strategies for Home and Small Business Computing

When it comes to protecting the data stored on your home or small business computer, if you are like most of us the cheapest and easiest solution is the one you use. Unfortunately, data loss occurs much more frequently than most people realize. According to many industry researchers a complete loss of data occurs so often that it costs U.S. businesses $12 billion annually. The cost is significantly higher if the loss of home computer data is included, but detailed statistics are not comprehensive enough to provide a true impact of the problem.

Whether you have a single PC or laptop at home, or an entire department of computer systems in use at your small business, protecting the data on those systems is critically important to you and your business. While data loss can occur in any number of ways, hardware failure and accidental deletion are two key factors that contribute heavily to the statistics. Fortunately, both of these risks are easily mitigated with the use of simple, effective and reliable backup solutions for the home or small business user.

Internet-Based Online Backup Services

Online backup services are not one-size-fits-all solutions. Each backup company offers different plan types, which are often classified as Home and Business plans. Home online backup plans, also referred to as Personal plans by some service providers, are geared towards the home user whose primary concern is having a reliable and secure backup of their personal data such as documents, photos, and music. Business online backup plans, on the other hand, are designed to meet the critical advanced storage needs of small to large businesses in which data recovery must occur rapidly in order to sustain the business.

Online backup storage plans can offer from as little as 10GB of storage space to an unlimited amount, depending on the service provider and the needs of the customer. The costs for such plans vary, with home user plans ranging from $5 - $25 per month and small business plans ranging from $25 to $1,500 per month. Plans are typically priced based on storage capacity and features.

These types of services are preferable to other options because backups can be better automated, helping to ensure that routine backups are taking place. However, because data is transferred across the Internet to a remote backup device a high-speed broadband Internet connection is required to use this type of backup solution.

Local Device Backup

One of the most common methods of backing up a home or small business computer is a local device backup. Most hone desktop and small-business server operating systems provide integrated backup software that allows data to be backed up and recovered from a local device such as a CD/DVD drive or tape backup unit. Backups can also be stored in large archive files on locally attached high-capacity storage devices such as USB hard drives (although this is not an optimal backup solution).

Local backup strategies offer a lower cost and simpler approach to data protection and recovery, but require a willingness and dedication on the part of the user to ensure that backups are taking place on a routine basis. Local backup solutions also require more manual operation and a plan for storing and protecting the backup media (CDs, DVDs, tapes, etc.) once backups are complete.

Network-Attached Storage (NAS)

Network-Attached Storage is a newer backup solution that was originally intended for a different role. With NAS, a small storage device is attached to the home or small business network and acts as a file storage server. Users can read and write data to these devices just as they can local storage devices on their computer. A major benefit of NAS is that a group of users can share not only the storage capacity for backup purposes but can have access to the files collectively as a means of sharing information.

Smaller NAS units appropriate for the home user can be purchased for $90 - 150. Larger capacity and more feature-rich units well suited for a small business backup solution can cost anywhere from $350-$1500. These units can be accessed both from a wired and a wireless network, making this an appealing solution.

When considering a NAS backup solution, however, it is important to remember that the data stored on the NAS device is equally as vulnerable to a hardware failure as it is when stored on your home or business PC. The NAS solution provides a mechanism for "online" storage--where a copy of the data is stored elsewhere but available for access in real time. An offline backup of the data using CD, DVD, or tape solution would still be required to ensure the data is adequately protected.

These data backup and recovery solutions are just a few of the methods that can be used to protect your personal and business data. While other solutions exist, the reliability and effectiveness of those solutions must be considered. Although the cost of a backup system is often viewed as the most important factor the true cost is often realized only after the data has been lost.

Mike Dailey is an Information Technology Consultant with over 16 years of experience in the design, integration, and management of complex computer network and information security solutions. He can be reached through his website and blog at http://www.daileymuse.com/.

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