Online backup for client and office data

Online backup for client and office data

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Our online backup is currently managing & supplied by the company who provide all our IT services, broadband, Maintaining the Server and PC's etc. Our server is Window XP small business server a network of 5 desktops running on windows XP. At present our emails, quickbooks files, PTP database, sage payroll database, and client documents are backed up each evening and all the data is stored on the server. The back up is running at 30GB at moment.

We are paying £100 per month for this service at the moment and we have recently become concerned that this amount is rather high compared to what other users are paying for similar services. We did look at carbonite (through recommendation) but were informed by our IT guys that this is not a true "server back up service" and doesnt back up data-bases and emails properly when located on a server and they reckon that as many of the back up providers are based outside UK it can be difficult to retrive the back up quickly.

Therefore I was wondering what other users with a similar set up use to back up their client data, emails etc, costs is per month and if retreiving data has proved simple enough.

Thanks in Advance.

Replies (11)

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By [email protected]
04th Jul 2013 16:37

drop box

all the way. we have bought a subscription for 100gig of data which synchs automatically and constantly with the dropbox server. and its around £100/year. we even share certain folders with our clients who have access to copies of statutory accounts filed etc. great solution in my opinion

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By ShirleyM
04th Jul 2013 16:50

Dropbox

Won't backup Exchange server, or SQL databases. You need a backup routine for those, and then the backup file can be backed up by Dropbox.

I'm not an expert, and not sure how you do it, but I think that is a problem you need to consider.

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By Avant-Garde54
04th Jul 2013 17:15

yes...we do use dropbox to

yes...we do use dropbox to allow our clients to send us their accounts papework. The query was referring to backing up our exchange sever (emails) and SQL databases as shirley has mentioned.

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By [email protected]
04th Jul 2013 17:18

have you

considered doing a backup on your server which will be automatically backed up onto dropbox. this would easily be done by creating a routine on your server as I think Shirley suggested. also have u thought about hosted e mails solutions and sql's are so last year!

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By BigBadWolf
04th Jul 2013 17:46

Mozy

We use mozy to do our back ups - it helpfully backs up on-line and to an external usb hard-drive

It will back up SQL & Exchange.  

 

I can't remember how much we paid - but the prices are on their website.

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By c.szpak
04th Jul 2013 18:25

Dropbox

 

Although not related directly to the question.  Users here appear to be using either the free or Dropbox Pro "For Individuals" licences, that costs $9.99 per month. 

Aren't you concerned that Dropbox will cotton onto this and insist you pay the $795 per annum, entry level, fee for "companies and organisations"?

Or am I missing something?

Chris

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By DMGbus
04th Jul 2013 21:22

Sugar Sync

250gb of data back up limit, $ 124.99 for a year recently paid (said to be 50% discount off normal price).

I think that this is about £ 85 a year.

Previously I'd been using the free 5 GB of data back up service from Sugar Sync.

Compared to other online back up services that I've used what stands out with Sugar Sync is daily eMails telling me what's been backed up.

 

 

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By merlyn
05th Jul 2013 06:27

Backup of SQL and Exchange

Backing up SQL databases is fairly easy as you just set an automated backup in SQL itself which makes a copy of any databases to a standard file, this can then be replicated to Dropbox (or any other cloud storage provider you like).

Exchange is a bit more complicated, whilst all the email data lives inside one big file with a .edb extension, you can't back that up whilst exchange is running (without using 3rd party tools), also if you want to restore a single email from a backed up .edb file you need to use some special software like PowerControls.

I know you mentioned 30gig of data is backed up per night, but is that then overwritten the next night ? or retained for say a month ?

100Gig may sound like a lot, but unless you are only keeping one days worth of backups online then your weekly useage may well exceed that, let alone your monthly.

More than likely your IT support company actually use a cloud provider to store your backups and may be making something out of it, but as you rely on another company to provide your IT support I would be very wary of moving to another backup provider as no doubt your support company will either refuse to help or charge you for dealing with any issues you may have.

 

 

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By FirstTab
05th Jul 2013 11:22

Move

Have you considered moving from exchange to Gmail? Google Apps for Business. 

It will save you money and headaches. 

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Replying to rajadewan1236:
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By merlyn
05th Jul 2013 11:40

Exchange

FirstTab wrote:

Have you considered moving from exchange to Gmail? Google Apps for Business. 

It will save you money and headaches. 

 

Good idea, or if you like outlook move to hosted Exchange, we use rackspace and it costs approx £6 per user per month, with them taking care of all backups etc

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By Scotsaccount
09th Jul 2013 18:22

Exchange & MSSQL Backup

We are running a small SBS 2008 server running our Exchange server and IRIS Practice. My IT provider was using the inbuilt backup tool in SBS 2008 which is fine provided you can live with restoring the whole server no matter if it's only one drive that's gone awry.

After a bit of research I am now using Bulldog Backup's business product which I'm able to configure and use myself. It automatically detects any Exchange and SQL databases and backs them up along with the file system.

Word of warning though, initial upload was somewhat slow on my poor upstream connection! 

 

 

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