Exploring Backup Options For Your New Company Server

As a small business owner, expanding your infrastructure to include a network storage server can be exciting and intimidating at the same time. Once you've installed your server, it's time to start thinking about how to keep all of the information on it secure. While you're working with an IT support professional to set up that server, ask about some of these backup options to ensure that you always have something to fall back on if the server fails.    

Disk Storage

One of the most basic and easily-controlled backup systems is a disk storage system. Have your IT technician install backup software on the server to allow you a tape drive or disk storage system.

Back up the server on a regular basis (daily if the data changes consistently) onto disks or tapes, then store the tapes somewhere secure. By using a different tape or disk for every day's backup, you will have the ability to go as far back as necessary to view the data the way that it was on that day.

Network Server

Another great option for server backups is a network server that can be used as a backup server. By installing a secondary server in your system, you can do automated backups that simply archive all of the data on your active server onto the secondary server. If you're going to consider this option, you'll want sufficient drive capacity for multiple backups, otherwise you'll have to overwrite the data every day and you won't be able to look further back than the previous day if you need archived data.

Off-Site Storage

When you are looking for a backup option that stores your data in an off-site location, you'll want to consider a virtual mirror site. These systems allow you to mirror your server to a drive somewhere else in the world. That drive, a cloud storage system, will hold your data indefinitely.

If you are looking for a mirror site to store your data on, you'll want to be sure that their system can support the volume of data that you will be transmitting. You'll also need to ensure that you have plenty of bandwidth to transmit your data to their location on a daily basis.

No matter what option you choose for your server backups, an IT professional can help you get it set up. This will reduce the risk of complete data loss in the event of a hardware failure on your network.