http://www.digitronix.com.auRSS feeds for DigiTronix PTY LTD60http://www.digitronix.com.au/Articles/tabid/763/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/12/The-thing-about-email-ldquobackupsrdquo-ishellip.aspx#Comments0http://www.digitronix.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=763&ModuleID=1129&ArticleID=12http://www.digitronix.com.au/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=12&PortalID=0&TabID=763http://www.digitronix.com.au/Articles/tabid/763/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/12/The-thing-about-email-ldquobackupsrdquo-ishellip.aspx…that nobody does them properly.   And it is very difficult to do, too.  Even if you were familiar with your email software (well, at least from the perspective of “driving” it) you’re still required to be expertly familiar with the many locations that it stores its files and databases in.  Then you have to consider whether the tools you’re using (hopefully not “drag & drop”) can support open files and let’s not even discuss whether that was the index or the data that you’ve just copied to a “reliable” backup media.   At the end of the day it’s just all too hard.   We won’t even discuss the reasons you chose to back-up email in the first place.  Was it because your email had undergone metamorphosis in to your central filing system or had it become your database of crucial information?   Whatever the scenario we must all accept and acknowledge that email has become a crucial aspect of daily life – just like the telephone, the car and the morning cup(s)(ss)(sss) of coffee.  So if email is that important why is it afforded lesser rights?   Why is email “backed up” using “Windows Explorer” on to a “removable” hard-drive?  I’m sure there are good intentions behind this but having good intentions is no substitute for good intent.    One of the justifications no doubt offered for the “removable” storage is that the said media can be taken “off-site” for “security” and “redundancy” (two lovely industry buzzwords right there).  Yet the said media returns the very next day (if it was ever removed the night before) with the exact same data – unchanged.   So it’s not a very good backup strategy if you bring back the exact media you sought to protect, is it?  If I was working on a document – say this article right here – and I backed it up on a “removable” device then if my PC crashed tomorrow morning at exactly 07:00am I would be sweet, right?    But the real world does not work like that (if it did I could tell Windows Vista when it would be most appropriate to crash through some drop downs and check boxes) and we should also consider the consequence of the action.   Let’s assume this article which for simplicity we will call article.doc is saved to my “removable” device.  The next “backup” I do will also be article.doc to the device and it will overwrite the first copy.  Perhaps this is acceptable to you but consider instances where you need to merge and revert changes.  Overwriting article.doc negates any past information that may have been there so you will never have backed up that data which is most important – past information.   And that, right there, is the crux of a backup.  Saving old information.  Keeping a copy of the exact information on your PC (assuming you backed up the right information) is not a backup.  It’s nothing more than a redundant copy of information.  Sure you (might) be able to fall back on it but that’s assuming that no information changed anywhere on your PC between the time it was backed up and the time it lost information.   You know it and I know it too – your “removable” hard drive will fail.  It’s a mechanical device.  Motors get worn, platters get scratched and all of a sudden you’re facing an ailing hard drive.  But this does not affect you because you have a spare one on the shelf and in any case you verify the media before you write to it and quite frequently test a restore to make sure it works.  Right?  RIGHT?!   What about the content of the email?  One of our customers lost a lawsuit of some $160,000 plus expenses (so really, their house) because they could not prove anything contrary to courts when required.  Where was the information?  You guessed it.  A string of email correspondence that went missing during a system crash.   When you have a he-said, she-said barney you really need the I-said part.   Quite clearly this is a flawed “redundant copy” strategy and very dangerous, but there are low-cost and safe options available to you.   DigiTronix PTY LTD has partnered with a prominent Australian online vendor to provide a 100% reliable back-up solution and strategy.   After careful scrutiny and a trial of the service on our own systems (heaps of GB’s) I was impressed with it’s features and performance.   Firstly there’s the question of file types and file state and if you’ve ever worked with enterprise data you’ll know what a tedious job this is.  Every file likes to be backed up differently.  Microsoft Exchange for example prefers you to back up the individual mailbox (stuck somewhere in the abyss of a large data store) through it’s API’s.  Open data files such as those from QuickBooks or MYOB normally back-up as corrupted data if the software cannot handle open files.   However the Online Backup Manager handled everything I could throw at it.  It’s also smart – just like the “big boys” software.  For example the usual “Windows Explorer” copy (or even any other bad software) makes an exact copy of the file to the media.  However the tool makes an incremental copy of the file.   And this is important because the service is an online service.  There is no need to back up the same file every night if it has not changed and the Online Backup Manager (the tool) checks every file for changes before backing it up.  Thus only changed files are backed up saving heaps of traffic with your ISP (and charges).  The Online Backup Manager backs up changed files only and never the entire file.  Only the changed data is transmitted to the service.   Even very large files that have changed do not need to be transmitted in their entirety. The Online Backup Manager compares today's file with the file on the Backup Server and then only sends the portion of the file that has changed today. This means that even your ever-increasing Outlook.pst file that would take hours to transmit in full can be backed-up in just moments as it has usually only changed by a few megabytes.   The Backup Servers keep a history of your data and can rebuild back to a previous version (days, weeks or even months before), beyond even the most recent backup. So if you have a file, for example, that developed a corruption 6 backups ago, you can restore your data backup to 7 backups ago, before the corruption occurred.   And the data is SECURE.  Triple AES secure.  This might not mean much but consider that the FBI uses the same encryption standard to encrypt all of its TOP SECRET information.  Moreover the data is stored away from your offices on buzzword-compliant hardware so you’re safe.   Just like “big boys” software the backups can be scheduled to whenever and how often you want.  A complete “set and forget” approach.   The price is what finally pushed me over.  $50 for 10GB per month and all restores are free.  They’ll even make a DVD for free.   Now is there any excuse not to back up properly?   For more information on this please Contact Us.DigiTronixMon, 19 Jan 2009 04:53:00 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:12