Identifying vendors was as easy as launching his browser and searching for "online backup." "I was looking for something that I could control and access with minimal effort, and that I could trust -- it had to be encrypted and safe," he says. He also wanted a solution that backed up any changes in his data on a daily basis. "I didn't want to have to go back on more than a day's activity," he says.
He ended up focusing on three Internet-based backup services that met his criteria: @Backup, Connected, and NovaStor. Using each company's software, Barrer could connect to the Internet and automatically back up his company's data. Further, the software allowed incremental backups to automatically launch at the same time every day (he could even choose the time) to ferret out the files that had changed in the past 24 hours.
Barrer liked the sound of that -- a workable day-to-day backup solution that would require little to no involvement from him. Now he just had to discover which one would best meet the Enterpriser's needs.
With @Backup, for a $99 annual fee, users could back up as much as 100MB of data by means of a simple Internet connection. The company also offered a deal in which users could pay $300 a year to back up 500MB of data. Although both plans would have worked for Barrer personally, neither was good enough for his business. For the Enterpriser he wanted to make sure that he could restore everything, including applications and his Windows 98 operating system -- 6.5GB of data -- since he didn't have an internal technical team to handle such a task. Besides, he didn't much cotton to the idea of signing a long-term contract.
Connected's Online Backup and NovaStor's NovaNet-Web (which is hosted by Compaq) both had the monthly, commitment-free pricing he liked -- around $20 a month. Plus, they offered enough storage space for a systemwide backup. (In NovaStor's case, if a company wants the initial backup to be done on-site, it must purchase a $200 NovaNet software package.) Price considerations alone would have made it easy to go with Connected, but Barrer was drawn to NovaStor's connection with Compaq. Although both companies backed up clients' data onto digital linear tape (DLT) at secure data facilities, NovaStor used a Compaq-owned data center whereas Connected had its own. (DLT drives start at twice the price of DAT drives, and their smallest capacity is 40GB -- which is the largest capacity for DAT drives.) Moreover, Compaq was actually the provider to whom Barrer would be paying his monthly NovaStor bill; it offered backup service with NovaStor's software through its Web site. "If it was good enough for Compaq," Barrer says, "it sure as heck was good enough for me."
"If NovaStor backup was good enough for Compaq," Matthew Barrer says, "it sure as heck was good enough for me."
The decision made, Barrer turned to an expert for the follow-through. InfoQuest, a NovaStor value-added reseller also located in Pennsylvania, installed NovaStor's NovaNet 7 onto the Enterpriser's Windows NT and oversaw the initial backup, which involved 6.5GB worth of applications and operating systems on two tapes. Two copies of the information were made. One was transferred off-site to the Compaq data bank, and the other resides at InfoQuest, where it's available for easy retrieval in case of a full-blown disaster.
The rest of the Enterpriser's data -- financial files, business correspondence, the GoldMine databases -- were backed up by InfoQuest using NovaNet-Web, NovaStor's online backup software. All Barrer had to do was install his own CD-ROM of software on the Enterpriser's server. Although he did call NovaNet's customer-service reps to guide him, he was able, with virtually no problems, to use the software's wizard to answer a series of questions that automatically set up the schedule of when he wanted his data backed up. "It passed my software test," he said. "I was able to install it without looking at a manual." Now, every night when the clock strikes 12, NovaNet-Web scans Barrer's computers for changes and performs backups of any changed files. The whole process takes about 10 minutes.
NovaNet-Web also backs up Barrer's laptop nightly. "If I'm online at that late hour, I'll get a message saying, 'Do you want to back up now?" says Barrer. "And if I miss it, I can just back up the next time I connect to the Internet."
Barrer couldn't be more pleased. Not only does he have a backup system that operates without human intervention, but he also has a system that works. In one case Barrer used NovaStor to restore his 45MB database of contacts, which, according to NovaStor, had been corrupted when something malfunctioned. Although the parties don't agree on how the data were lost or whose fault it was, Barrer doesn't particularly care. He just made sure he got a restored file, because into the void had gone the one record he'd never dare to delete: his mother's.
Mie-Yun Lee is the editorial director and founder of BuyerZone, an Internet buying service that features expert purchasing advice and tools for small and midsize businesses. You can conduct your own search for an online backup system at www.buyerzone.com/computers/backup-remote/index.html. Sandra Boncek contributed to this article.
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