Small Business Storage/Back-Up Options?

[Neil Cross]

Hello all.

I’m new to the forums and looking for a little advice regarding storage and back-up of data for my office/business.

I’m a lone worker just now out of our office, however, I am actively recruiting and as a result should have a few more bodies soon.

Currently all my business data is stored on my laptop that I back up once a week to Dropbox.

I’m looking to have a sort of network drive set up that I would save all my files (job quotes, job files, completed job files, hardware and software manuals, admin files etc) to and would act as my laptops C: drive does just now but being network available means that other employees can access required files direct rather than everything being on my laptop. Firstly I am looking for advice or recommendations to this sort of set up and best route to go down?

Secondly, this drive would have all the vitally important business files contained within it. I would look to have this backed up on a weekly basis ( every Friday evening for example). A simple mirror copy of what is contained on the drive that was simply overwritten with the new drive file image each week. Ideally if anything went wrong the most I would loss is a weeks worth of data. I could back up every evening but think this may be a bit of overkill? I’d ideally like this done automatically if possible so I don’t always need to pop in to the office every Friday evening to back up the drive.

Finally. I’ve looked in to Microsoft one drive and trying to use this as a sort of network drive. However, from what I can understand this basically keeps an copy of any file on your hard drive and syncs a copy to the cloud as a back-up. In order to edit any file you need to download it to your harddrive. What I have found though that once edited and synced back to the cloud if I delete the original file from my harddrive it also goes from the onedrive cloud.

What I am looking for in my storage is basically an independent second C drive that is networked so others in the office can access it and save their own files to it also as well as access and copy files from it to their own laptops to take to site with them when needed. This is then backed up weekly to another location for safety from data loss.

Sorry for the long post but I’m not the most knowledgable at IT.

Thanks for any advice anyone can offer?

 

[Inva]

A simple file server would do. If you can't set up one yourself, you could buy a NAS. I have the DiskStation DS918+ which can hold up to 4 disks, which i have arranged in a raid 10. It can be accessed through the Internet and has a web interface and many options/applications such as automatic syncing, for example.

Keep in mind that the main thing with backups is not network availability but data integrity. For this reason i'd strongly recommend to use a raid method geared towards that.

 

[Neil Cross]

Thank you.

I had looked at a simple NAS setup. Plugged into the office LAN via Ethernet?

Is there an easy option for a weekly back up of this. Maybe have a second NAS at home and some way of a squeduled back up say every Friday at 6pm where I could simply copy the entire contents of the office NAS on to the home NAS and overwrite the previous weeks backup? Ideally automatically asi travel with work so can’t always be at the office to do this manually.

Apologies if I’m appearing dumb but IT is not my thing. I’m fine if explained but by no means an expert.

 

[Ian Sutherland]

Hi,
It may be useful to separate out your two requirements.
One requirement is to share data with colleagues.
The second is backing that data up to protect it, either from accidentally deleting a file you wish you hadn't, to recovering everything you've ever saved in the event your data is ****** lockered by some Ransomware.
services like OneDrive are great for sharing data, especially if you work away from the office or in different locations (something a NAS on its own can't help you with). But if you get encrypted by Ransomware there's a very good chance your OneDrive sync folder will also get encrypted so encrypting the files on the cloud. You will need the professional version of OneDrive to recover from that, and it won't be instant.
So you will need to look at a backup option that can also back up OneDrive and most importantly allow you to recover both single files or your whole data set from yesterdays, or the days before's backup, as you will be backing up encrypted files potentially. If you look for cloud backups solutions this is a really important question to ask. "Can I recover all my files, in bulk from several days ago before they were encrypted."
Another solution, and apologies in advance for self promotion, but it is an appropriate solution, is the hosted remote desktop service that we do. With that service you have your applications and data on a hosted desktop, data is backed up 3 times a day and retained for 20 days. All your colleagues can run remote desktops on the same server so sharing data, applications, databases, whatever you would normally run on your PC. So this solution kills two birds with one stone, and may not me much more expensive than a good cloud backup solution.
Hope this helps
Ian

 

[Mark Dodds]

There are a few important points i'd like to mention, first, putting files into Dropbox/onedrive/google drive etc is not a backup and backing up your data once a week is nowhere near the number of times you need to do it unless your files are static and don't get updated.

In my opinion, I wouldn't bother with a NAS and working out how to back it up and what RAID levels it has, as a business owner you don't want to have to worry about this stuff.

I'd use Office 365/Google G-Suite and in terms of data storage use onedrive/google drive. I know you mentioned something about using onedrive but I didn't understand the issues you explained. You were most likely using onedrive personal rather than onedrive business. With the business version you use something called sharepoint to create "network" folders for everyone to be able to access depending on the permissions you have given.

Office 365/G-suite are perfect for small businesses as you and your team are able to access all of your information wherever you are.

In terms of backup i'd recommend a 3rd party backup cloud to cloud solution (such as skykick for Office 365) so you can back up all of your onedrive for business data

 

[estwig]

You've got onedrive wrong, it backs up on the fly to the cloud. Change something in the cloud and it changes on your hhd and vice versa, I assume the term is 'mirror'.

Googles offering does the same, it's just a bit more clunky about doing it.

Then you can share specific folders with whoever you like. I use onedrive for work and sharing files with subbies, backups, etc and google drive for Scouts, I'm a Scout leader and share folders with various people. I like the idea of keeping personal stuff, very separate from work stuff.

 

[rusty369]

Hello all.

I’m new to the forums and looking for a little advice regarding storage and back-up of data for my office/business.

I’m a lone worker just now out of our office, however, I am actively recruiting and as a result should have a few more bodies soon.

Currently all my business data is stored on my laptop that I back up once a week to Dropbox.

I’m looking to have a sort of network drive set up that I would save all my files (job quotes, job files, completed job files, hardware and software manuals, admin files etc) to and would act as my laptops C: drive does just now but being network available means that other employees can access required files direct rather than everything being on my laptop. Firstly I am looking for advice or recommendations to this sort of set up and best route to go down?

Secondly, this drive would have all the vitally important business files contained within it. I would look to have this backed up on a weekly basis ( every Friday evening for example). A simple mirror copy of what is contained on the drive that was simply overwritten with the new drive file image each week. Ideally if anything went wrong the most I would loss is a weeks worth of data. I could back up every evening but think this may be a bit of overkill? I’d ideally like this done automatically if possible so I don’t always need to pop in to the office every Friday evening to back up the drive.

Finally. I’ve looked in to Microsoft one drive and trying to use this as a sort of network drive. However, from what I can understand this basically keeps an copy of any file on your hard drive and syncs a copy to the cloud as a back-up. In order to edit any file you need to download it to your harddrive. What I have found though that once edited and synced back to the cloud if I delete the original file from my harddrive it also goes from the onedrive cloud.

What I am looking for in my storage is basically an independent second C drive that is networked so others in the office can access it and save their own files to it also as well as access and copy files from it to their own laptops to take to site with them when needed. This is then backed up weekly to another location for safety from data loss.

Sorry for the long post but I’m not the most knowledgable at IT.

Thanks for any advice anyone can offer?

We've spent upwards of a year testing different services that include
Dropbox
Google Drive
OneDrive / Sharepoint
Box.com

We needed exactly what you needed - a network storage that shows as a separate drive on each computer and updates with the cloud when any changes are made.
After trying all the above, I would recommend Dropbox.
Dropbox does all that you need it to BUT is very pricey for what it is. (£15 per user with a minimum of 3 users making it £45 per month)

We found an even better alternative, it was suggested to me a while ago and I should have paid more attention. Sharefile by Citrix.
It does exactly what you need it to for £7.90 per user per month, google it, have a good look.
The best thing about it is that it includes File Versioning so you can go back as far as you want on any files you have edited.

We are still in our testing phase on the advanced package which includes a lot more features,
£61 per month for 5 users

Let me know how you get on

 

[Inva]

Thank you.

I had looked at a simple NAS setup. Plugged into the office LAN via Ethernet?

Is there an easy option for a weekly back up of this. Maybe have a second NAS at home and some way of a squeduled back up say every Friday at 6pm where I could simply copy the entire contents of the office NAS on to the home NAS and overwrite the previous weeks backup? Ideally automatically asi travel with work so can’t always be at the office to do this manually.

Yes that's a good solution and the backup can be automated.

 

[Inva]

I strongly recommend to avoid the "cloud" solutions that everyone here seems to be suggesting. I don't understand this trend of recommending everyone to go to X big company, especially if the product is inferior.

Have 2 NAS, 1 at work 1 at backup location. You work in and share the work NAS and backup it automatically or manually to the backup NAS. It's very easy to do, requires no technical skills whatsoever.

You own the server and the backups and you don't pay every month.

 

[EmC007]

Thank you.

I had looked at a simple NAS setup. Plugged into the office LAN via Ethernet?

Is there an easy option for a weekly back up of this. Maybe have a second NAS at home and some way of a squeduled back up say every Friday at 6pm where I could simply copy the entire contents of the office NAS on to the home NAS and overwrite the previous weeks backup? Ideally automatically asi travel with work so can’t always be at the office to do this manually.

Apologies if I’m appearing dumb but IT is not my thing. I’m fine if explained but by no means an expert.

Netgear have a solution called ReadyDR which seems to work well.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

I strongly recommend to avoid the "cloud" solutions that everyone here seems to be suggesting. I don't understand this trend of recommending everyone to go to X big company, especially if the product is inferior.

Have 2 NAS, 1 at work 1 at backup location. You work in and share the work NAS and backup it automatically or manually to the backup NAS. It's very easy to do, requires no technical skills whatsoever.

You own the server and the backups and you don't pay every month.

The odds on your personal hardware solution breaking or being involved in a catastrophe need to be taken into account though?

 

[Inva]

The odds on your personal hardware solution breaking or being involved in a catastrophe need to be taken into account though?

Not gonna happen

 

[alan1302]

Not gonna happen

Why so confident?

 

[Inva]

Why so confident?

Hardware failure is rare, and that's why you have a RAID in any case. Other type of catastrophe... what can happen? Nothing that doesn't happen to big companies too. Actually i'd argue that your data is much safer in a server in your office than with a big name company who is going to be subject of targeted attacks sooner or later.

 

[ffox]

Finally. I’ve looked in to Microsoft one drive and trying to use this as a sort of network drive. However, from what I can understand this basically keeps an copy of any file on your hard drive and syncs a copy to the cloud as a back-up. In order to edit any file you need to download it to your harddrive. What I have found though that once edited and synced back to the cloud if I delete the original file from my harddrive it also goes from the onedrive cloud.

Hi Neil,

Microsoft OneDrive (even the free version) incorporates versioning. That is, it retains a copy of several previous versions of the file you are working on. On a shared OneDrive folder this will enable you to track changes across several users.

You appear to be making the same mistake as most OneDrive users in that you seem to making file changes from the version stored on your PC. This then replicates to the cloud storage.

A better way is to open OneDrive files from a browser and launch files from there. In this way changes made to the file are copied back down to each PC that has replication enabled. Whereas If the change is made to a local file on any single PC it needs to replicate up to the storage and then back down to other sharers PCs.

Having said that, it is not a true backup. Backup can be achieved by automated copy of a complete data set from a cloud resource, or a local PC where the cloud resource is replicated, to a local store, or another cloud resource. The data set copy should be date/time stamped and retained, rather than being overwritten.

There are many software applications which can do this - https://uk.pcmag.com/backup-1/8651/the-best-backup-software

You can even do it by use of a command file on a local machine.

 

[KM-Tiger]

Hardware failure is rare, and that's why you have a RAID in any case.

Hardware failure is when, not if, and RAID needs to be constantly monitored for health if you want to avoid data loss.

This is only anecdotal, but over the years I have noticed that HDDs from the same batch will often fail within a few days/weeks of each other. That's why you need to monitor RAID1 closely.

As regards the fire/flood/theft risks, then two sites is the answer. I've only ever done a full scale disaster recovery once, and that was flood. A leaking water pipe filled the ceiling void over a weekend. By Sunday night the weight of water was too great and it broke through in the equipment room. Low risk, yes. But don't think it cannot happen to you.

 

[alan1302]

Hardware failure is rare, and that's why you have a RAID in any case. Other type of catastrophe... what can happen? Nothing that doesn't happen to big companies too. Actually i'd argue that your data is much safer in a server in your office than with a big name company who is going to be subject of targeted attacks sooner or later.

That's why big companies (should) have data backed up in more than one location. If your data is all on one place and there is a fire you risk losing it all. Someone could get in the office and steal the server as well.

I'd want a full backup in the office but one off site is needed as well.

 

[Inva]

That's why big companies (should) have data backed up in more than one location. If your data is all on one place and there is a fire you risk losing it all. Someone could get in the office and steal the server as well.

I'd want a full backup in the office but one off site is needed as well.

I agree:

Have 2 NAS, 1 at work 1 at backup location. You work in and share the work NAS and backup it automatically or manually to the backup NAS.

 

[ffox]

That's why big companies (should) have data backed up in more than one location. If your data is all on one place and there is a fire you risk losing it all. Someone could get in the office and steal the server as well.

That's why a correctly utilised cloud service is a really elegant solution for small or medium sized business.

Large company security and benefits, without the overheads.

All users work on files and documents directly in the cloud and replicate down to multiple local machines. Fire, flood, theft risks are totally neutralised. The only thing missing is protection against malware and ransom ware. These require an addition backup to a third location.

This does require a stable Internet connection of course, but OneDrive, Google Drive and Box work well over 3G and 4G as well as land line BB.

 

[alan1302]

I agree:

So instead of having the one off site just use the cloud...less hassle.

 

[Inva]

So instead of having the one off site just use the cloud...less hassle.

What's the point of buying 1 server if the other one is cloud? Of course all these collaboration/sharing services have backups, so the 2nd backup server is redundant in that case.

 

[alan1302]

You would have you main server, then a local backup probably in the office and one in the cloud.

 

[Inva]

How about one in the bathroom too? The guy wants something better than his work laptop, you're suggesting stuff that are overkill and overpriced.

 

[alan1302]

How about one in the bathroom too? The guy wants something better than his work laptop, you're suggesting stuff that are overkill and overpriced.

I was replying to you where you mentioned severs .

For the OP I would just use a NAS drive for a local backup from laptop as well as a Google Drive or equivalent cloud back up . So he has data in 3 locations.

 

[jimfoxy]

Interesting reading this. The whole range of data backup, data sharing, data security cannot be summarised in a thread as your choices involve your views on various risks and your views of what the future might bring, as well as your budget. I've never had to look for one because I am familiar with it but I think what the OP is looking for is a website where all this is carefully and impartially discussed. I would recommend a good search of the web; while researching, avoid everyone trying to sell you stuff but doing that is a lot harder than it used to be.

There are pros and cons for everything. One risk of cloud use is that your data may be accessible by a malicious employee of the cloud service or it suffers a data breach. Other risks are that you lose access at a critical moment, or the cloud company folds. As well as 'natural' faults (ageing exacerbated by heat, caused by dust build up, physical wear of magnetic drives, etc) one risk of hardware in your office/home is from physical damage or fire/flood could destroy it. Others are theft and malicious software attack. Whatever the systems, there will be passwords and encryption keys whose storage need to be considered. There are subtle things; for example, buying all your NAS drives at the same time is best avoided - they are likely to start failing at the same time (buy from different vendors at the same time and you will likely get them from different batches). A NAS needs backing up for these reasons. I have automated backups onsite, to cloud and to flashsticks stored off site, and a NAS. Look at getting software specifically for backing up (I use SyncBackPro but it got fat and corporate so I don't know what the most recent permutations are like). The compromise between ease of backup and chosen security level decides your backup frequency and routine for any particular method.

Don't forget versioning. You need versioning so that you don't accidentally corrupt your backups (you could corrupt a file accidentally which is then backed up before you notice, deleting the previous backed up version - so you need historic versions of data as they get altered - but how many versions to keep?).

You need to manage your backups to check they are not running out of space and probably have to clean them up every now and again. Regularly test that you can pull a file back from whichever backup and see how easy it is to do. Sometimes, backup systems are put in place, checked early on and then never checked again. When it comes to be needed, it is found that it has not been doing what was intended for whatever reason. With multiple user access you also need to consider access rights (can others delete, modify or just read the files? Consider the chances of malicious employees, consider the chances of phishing email links being clicked on and bringing viruses into your whole online system.) Lots to think about, sorry, there is a whole industry out there.

 

[Borim]

Well for static data which is big in amounts then something like for example I don't know external USB drives out there and something like that Google Drives, One Drives, Drop Box for everything you worked on constantly. I bet it's safe solution for small thing.

 

[HostXNow]

I have been using Acronis Backup to backup several servers and it is very fast. It can be used to back up pretty much anything. It is not cheap but works very well.

With Acronis, you can use the cloud or just have it back up to your own server.