Small business backups solutions?

[Alex Hewitt]

On Tue, 2008-02-05 at 13:00 -0500, Lloyd Kvam wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-02-05 at 12:16 -0500, Kenny Lussier wrote:
> > Well, the problem with disk to disk in general is that the space is
> > finite.
> 
> I think a second problem with backing up to disk is that it's generally
> on-site and vulnerable to fires and other threats to the original data.
> If you have the bandwidth to backup to remote disks, then you might
> choose to live with the finite disk space.  Otherwise I think you need
> backup media that can be stored off-site.
> 

When it's appropriate (the customer hasn't got terabytes of storage) I
have them purchase a 2.5 inch USB hard drive. They typically weigh 5 - 8
ozs. Today, Overstock.com has a Western Digital Passport 250 GB external
hard drive for $139.95. The customer has a regular backup running
overnight and when they come to work they run a small script which
transfers the backup to the removable hard drive. They take it with them
when they leave at the end of the day. These drives although reasonably
rugged can't take a drop while they're spinning. Furthermore I've had
one customer kick the USB connector (it was plugged into the front of
the system) and smoke the drive. On the other hand I've got a customer
who has been using the same small hard drive for about 3 years without
problems. Given how inexpensive these drives are they are certainly
cheap enough to replace should they be lost or damaged. One other caveat
is that the backup should be encrypted if there is really sensitive data
stored.

-Alex