We’ve all heard the stories of people losing things on their computers after a loss of data or a corrupted hard drive, but has this happened to you yet?

The odds are it will, or if not, it will be an imminent thing that will hurt you and your business. The chances are that you’ve popped to your local IT shop and purchased an external hard drive, but did you backup yesterday? The odds are you didn’t.

What is the problem with backing up?

Backing up is a process that you have to think about. It’s one where you have to dig out the external drive, plug it in and then do something to start the backup.

Many people start with great intentions but then one-day stop doing it and think to themselves “I’ll do it tomorrow” but then they forget. The day will come where they should have backed up and didn’t and so will go through the pain of trying to get their files back.

What’s the solution?

There are two options that we recommend. Both have their merits so let’s discuss them here.

1) Network Attached Storage (NAS)

This is similar to your USB external hard drive, however it is a box that is attached to your WiFi router or network.

The benefit of this kind of solution is that you can trigger the backup to occur without you being there or doing anything to get it started. The NAS box will happily sit next to your WiFi router and when it’s ready will look at your network and then start backing up your files.

The downside of this solution is that the NAS box is still a piece of hardware and therefore can be subject to failure at some point in the future. You can ease this issue by setting up a further backup to a separate drive but the costs can then rise. That is where our next solution comes into play.

2) Cloud Backup

As Internet speeds are getting quicker and we are being offered unlimited usage from our broadband suppliers a Cloud Backup solution is becoming a popular choice for many.

The main benefit of a cloud solution is that your files are not on-site. They are securely held online in a storage centre that deploys high security features.

Only you will have access to your data, but another benefit is that you can access it from anywhere at any time. Costs are proportionate to the amount of data you are backing up. If you only need 500GB that’s all you pay for.

Some people worry about backing up their data online however these shouldn’t worry. The solution we provide offers high security and multi site backup so your data is tucked away nice and safely until you need it.

How to get setup

If you are not sure of which solution is best for you or your would like us to help you get setup all you need to do is contact us online or call us on 02920 003 313 where we’ll be happy to help you make the right decision.