Making regular backups of your all so important computer files is one of the most important preventive maintenance tasks we should all do. But how many of us actually have the discipline to do it on a regular basis? It’s not until your hard drive crashes, or that important presentation or thesis paper you’ve been working on for months suddenly becomes corrupt. That’s when you’ll wish you had made a recent backup.
The truth is most people DON’T perform regular backups of their data. Even most technology professionals like myself don’t do this even though we all know how costly it will be to try to recover that lost data.
So the best backup solution is really one that occurs regularly and automatically without any intervention on the part of the user. And to be be a true disaster recovery type solution, your data should be stored offsite, and not on some external hard drive in the same building. Afterall, all it takes is a fire or similar disaster to wipe out not only your data, but your backup media to boot!
Thankfully with the internet, such a solution does exist. One example of such a service is called Mozy and as a regular customer of theirs for the past few years, let me tell you, it is an awesome internet based backup service! Not only do I now use them personally, but I have referred countless clients and friends to them as well.
Mozy comes in two flavors: a personal/home version and a business version called MozyPro. They both essentially use the same configuration software it’s just a matter of what you are trying to backup up. To backup servers, you’d use the MozyPro version; to backup personal home computers, sign up for either the FREE or PAID MozyHome type account.
What I like most about Mozy is how easy it is to setup and get running. There is a lot of advanced configuration choices for pros like me, but for even the novice, the software makes it easy to select the type of data you want backed up. You don’t need to know where your Outlook Personal File Folder (PST) files are, for example. With Mozy, select Outlook Mail files and the software backs the default location for you! So the novice user should be able to go with al lthe default choices and rest assured that his/her data will be backed up properly. The software can be set to run automatically either on a daily schedule or whenever the computer is idle. Best of all, all backups are stored on Mozy servers encrypted, so you can rest assured you have a good offsite backup of your data in the event of the worst scenerio.
In a few months I will post a more thorough right up of various data backup options for the home user or small office… everything from using an external hard drive as a backup device, to installing a full blown dedicated backup server solution such as Veritas Backup Exec or CommVault. But for now, if you don’t have any backup solution currently in place for your computers, I highly recommend Mozy. Once installed and configured it should require very little maintenance … just check it occasionally to verify it is working as expected. Mozy is a great solution for anyone without in house computer support staff, and it can also serve as a complimentary secondary backup solution as well. More on that later. For now, if your most precious data is without a safety net, give Mozy a try! If you do, be sure to let me know your experiences and feedback.