Mass Data Protection & Recovery

Hi Gang, I’m back… Some people have recently said that backing up 100GB is too expensive. I have two things to say to that:

1. How do you define too expensive?  If you lose that data, or are only able to recover bits and pieces of it - which may be worse than losing it all, how much will that cost you? Don’t forget to calculate lost productivity, missed billing opportunities, the hard cost of tech services personnel…
2. Why would you think that only one solution is viable?  Do you keep all of you important financial papers in your safe deposit box at the bank?  You probably only keep the most important stuff there - you can implement the same strategy with NDP.  Protect only the OS, accounting and critical files.  For most of us that will only cost about $50 per month.  Not too expensive to keep your business going when the s*** hits the fan.

There are those who backup - and those who will.

Later,
John

Hi Everyone,

When you are looking for a backup service, make sure you know what you’re comparing.  Here is my top 10 ways to make an informed choice.  Sorry Mr. Letterman!

1. Where is your data stored?  No location compares with the original “Iron Mountain” and the secondary “Class A” data centers used by Iron Mountain.
2. Who has access to it?  Believe it or not, some companies actually retain the right to review your data and even limit your access to it if they determine it’s prohibited.  Could you imagine a service provider rummaging through your data?  I wouldn’t keep my data there.  National Data Protect and Iron Mountain Digital cannot scan your information - you keep your encryption key and no-one but you can access it.
3. What kind of encryption is used and where?  You have to make sure that your data is protected all through the process, not just during transmission.  NDP protects with 256 bit AES encryption it from the time the delta is selected, through transmission and even on the destination drives.  There actually are some companies that send your restored data back to you on a CD or external hard drive in a completely open way.  Irresponsible at best!
4. Is the service backing up deltas or on a file basis?  Deltas can make the backup and restore process significantly more efficient and they minimize the bandwidth required to transmit and receive.  Compression can help make delta backups even faster.
5. Is the restore process truly web based?  Would you be surprised to know that some companies allow you to select the files to restore and then send you a CD?
6. How is the price truly calculated?  NDP / IM digital charge you for the data you are backing up.  For example, if you are backing up 5 GB for a 30 day retention at $10.45 per GB per month ($52.25 per month) - it doesn’t matter if the over 230 version actually take 100 GB you still pay only for the 5GB that comprises the files being backed up.  Many competitors charge a lower per GB per month price only to charge you for the back end usage - the same 5GB with a 30 day retention but billed at the back end GB size can quickly and permanently go well above what you expect to pay.
7. Is the service geared towards consumers?  When protecting your critical business data, consumer solutions will not protect you the way you really need - and that’s not something you want to find out after a file, email container, database or other data is lost.
   
8. Everyone hates contracts.  Why lock yourself in for between one and three years?  NDP is a month-to-month service.  What will happen when you start getting billed for that back end utilization at a much higher monthly rate than you expected?  Good luck with that!
9. What regulations and professional requirements are they compliant with?  Ask about Sarb-Ox, SAS-70, PCI & HIPAA.
10. Is there a limit on the size of individual files?  It would really stink if your 1.5 GB Outlook PST file isn’t able to be backed up!
    

That’s my top ten.  Suffice it to say that from just about every aspect, the National Data Protect / Iron Mountain Digital LiveVault service is the best solution for your most important business asset - your data.

Later!
John

Hello again, Here’s something to think about.  When you compare the price of our LiveVault service against the cost of your existing solution there are some things to keep in mind.

1. Time: Calculate the cost of the time it takes to change tapes, take them offsite and to confirm the tape’s contents.

2. Equipment: This cost includes the tape drive, software, and tapes.  Not to mention the cost of your technical services personnel maintaining the software and hardware.  There is no hardware or software cost for National Data Protect’s LiveVault - only the service itself.

3. Recoverability: It’s hard to put a price on this, but how much is it worth to you that your data is guaranteed retrievable vs. the up to 50% failure rate of tapes?

4. Versioning: With tapes, you can most commonly get back up to 10 versions (based on two - one week tape rotation).  With our LiveVault service, you can retrieve as many as 136 versions on a 30 day retention plan.

When comparing these costs you will see that is really makes sense to go with a fully automated, secure, and guaranteed solution such as National Data Protect’s LiveVault service.

Bye!