Backup Solutions

About Backing Up

Having backups is like having insurance. No one wants to do it or pay for it but you're very glad you have it when you need it. Bectin recommends using an on-line backup solution and has researched the available options and selected a solution to offer to our clients.

Risk without Backups

Everyone knows they should do it frequently but most of us only back up our computers every now and then. However, the consequences to your business could be severe if you lost all the important data on your computer. For those that are diligent in performing their back-ups, they are probably done once a week. While that is commendable, it means that you could still lose a whole week's work. It also means you may have lost significant information that you may not be able to easily recreate such as e-mails, quotes from suppliers, proposals, or contracts.

Don't be caught without a good backup strategy!

Remote and Continuous Storage

Imagine if your computers were stolen or your business offices were damaged by fire. Having a backup that is stored off-site is as important as having a backup at all. The services offered by Bectin make backing up your systems easy and worry free. They monitor your files for changes and update the backups when you make changes to your files which minimizes the amount of data you could loose in the event of a system failure. Your data is securely transmitted and stored off site and can be easily retrieved when you need it from any computer.

Recommended Backup Solutions

We researched a number of backup solutions and selected the one that best met our requirements. We decided that subscription services now offered an affordable alternative to physical back up solutions like tape drives, DVD burners, or external USB drives and they offer the advantage of being off site so they are protected from fire, theft and other physical harm. There are lots of on-line solutions out there but we found that these three products came the closest to the ideal solution for us. For a description of how these services work see How On-line Backup Systems Work

Kinetic D (formerly Data Deposit Box)

KinteicD is a terrific solution and the product that we use at Bectin. It meets nearly all of our criteria and most uniquely, their data storage is in Canada. The only drawbacks to their service are: (1) they don't back up network drives (none of the solutions we tested do) and (2) they don't offer unlimited backups. However, their price is reasonable at US$2/GB/month. Most small businesses can easily back up all their data in 2 GB which would result in a US$48 per year cost and you can back up all your computers to one account. So, unless you have very large data backup requirements, click to get started backing up with KintecD.

Carbonite and Pro

Carbonite offers unlimited back-up space and a really nice interface for a flat fee of $54.95 per year. Like Mozy, it stores all of your data in the US and if you want to use it for business, you need to purchase the Pro version which charges you a $0.50 per GB premium on top of a standard monthly fee. We use KineticD for our business but you may want to consider Carbonite for personal file back-up. And if you have huge amounts of data to store (photographers and videographers take note), then Carbonite is the winner. Carbonite does not offer a Windows 2000 client so if you're still running a dinosaur server, you best choose KineticD or Mozy.

Mozy Pro and Home

Mozy also offers an excellent solution that meets most of our evaluation criteria. The biggest strike against it is that it stores all of your data in the US. For small amounts of data, Mozy Pro is more expensive than Data Deposit Box but if you have larger amounts of data (more than 2 GB), it's cheaper.

If, however, you're looking for an economical solution for backing up your personal files (the license agreements disallows using Mozy Home for business purposes), Mozy Home offers 2 GB of storage for free or 50GB storage for US$5.95 per month (which is about US$71 per year. So, if you need to back up your personal digital photos and video clips, click to Get Mozy Today!.