Computer failures destroy business. That's why we require our clients to purchase a good backup system. Most business managers aren't aware of how crucial their computers have become, yet everyone acknowledges the amazing improvements computers have made to their business over the last few years.

Here are the reasons a complete backup solution is necessary:

• All computers eventually fail.
• Computers are the target of theft.
• Computers are destroyed by fire.
• You could be hit by a virus.
• People accidentally erase files.
• Hackers maliciously destroy files.

The only protection that always works is backup. Yet backup only works if you follow these three steps:

1.  Get robust backup software. We recommend software which can reach across your network and backup all your computers. We recommend several important features like notifications, scheduling, open file handling and others.    We recommend software which can backup your Exchange email and SQL Server databases.

2.  Get a common tape drive. You need one, common enough, that you can borrow a loaner if fire or theft was the reason for losing your files.    You need a tape drive that is reliable. You need one fast enough to complete a backup in reasonable time.  We recommend a SCSI based, higher-end tape drive.

3.  Rotate off-site. You need to rotate your tapes so that you can go back in time to find the good version of a file. You need to rotate some of your tapes to off-site storage so you can recover in event of fire or theft.

Note:  CD's are a bad backup solution. They're unreliable. A disk made in one drive often doesn't work in a different drive. Worst of all, they're too small to back up your system which means nobody is willing to sit and swap disks for enough hours to complete a full backup.