Fire. Hurricane. Theft. Tornado. Grape juice. Electrical surge. Really when you get down to it there is no end to the list of disastrous events that can beginning of the end of your workstation’s hard drive. That may seem pretty obvious, but what may not be as obvious is that there is no end to the dangers that your data must face also! Whether you are a corporate giant or a freelancing CAD professional, the danger is really the same. Any day could be the day that you lose your valuable data!

What can be done to save our precious data from the evils of the world? Should we build hurricane and nuclear proof shelters around our workstations and servers? Should be install wind turbines and storage cells to provide clean, constant electrical currents to our equipment? Should we duct tape our children to cinder blocks whilst they enjoy their afternoon juice box? Well we could do all that or … we could just back our data up.

No Safety in CDs

No I am not referring to that pathetic stack of CDs and DVDs you have haphazardly stacked by your monitor. Half of those things aren’t even labeled! If that is your backup scenario then the things are looking pretty bleak. What would happen if a disaster struck your office and destroyed workstation? If your backups are sitting right next to that workstation, they are gone too! Not much of a system, is it? They probably weren’t up to date anyway.

No, what you need is an off-site backup system. That, of course, is the system where your data is saved securely at a location away from the workstation. This is the only way you can be sure that your data is safe and you can carry on with business in the face of disaster. “Off-site backups” may sound complicated, but they aren’t. In fact there are dozens of services ready to help you get started.

Next, I'll outline specific services for different types of organizations.

Author: Curt Moreno