I use my laptop to do my design work as well as the use of an external hard drive, but to make life easier and access files on a cloud or some other data backup place, what do you recommend? Free is great but lets say my computer crashed, I would be back to square 1 and frankly screwed. What is out there? THANKS
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Data Backup/Ghosting or Cloud service for files?
- Thread starter Kollman32
- Start date
2B
Active Member
accessing designs via a cloud is directly related to how stable / fast your internet is both for up & down speeds.
If you are wanting a cloud based, then Google Drive, Dropbox, etc... I believe both options will allow for automatic backups
we use a NAS system for in shop designs since we have multiple designers, so all of the files are centrally located and easy to access. Then we routinely back the NAS up onto an external HD that is stored offsite just in case
If you are wanting a cloud based, then Google Drive, Dropbox, etc... I believe both options will allow for automatic backups
we use a NAS system for in shop designs since we have multiple designers, so all of the files are centrally located and easy to access. Then we routinely back the NAS up onto an external HD that is stored offsite just in case
I currently use Dropbox to transfer files, but haven't used it as a backup. I run the business from my home, and have an Apple AirPort Extreme so I was thinking about adding my external to that and just backup files weekly/monthly and could utilize Dropbox more.....Its good to see how other people do things!
jfiscus
Rap Master
We also have a NAS here for all of our data, and I also DEFINITELY recommend an offsite backup as part of your plan.
I would recommend a nightly backup service if you can afford it, and NOT doing the "take a backup drive home every week" method. We did this for almost a year without even knowing that the backup/software wasn't working correctly and if we had a virus/crash here during that time we would have lost everything!
Less than two months after we upgraded to our offsite backup an employee here got a nasty virus that corrupted EVERY computer in the office and our NAS and its local redundant backup. The offsite backup from the day before saved our 20+ years of data from total loss. We use GorillaBackups.com (a friend of mine), but you can choose whoever you want.
I would recommend a nightly backup service if you can afford it, and NOT doing the "take a backup drive home every week" method. We did this for almost a year without even knowing that the backup/software wasn't working correctly and if we had a virus/crash here during that time we would have lost everything!
Less than two months after we upgraded to our offsite backup an employee here got a nasty virus that corrupted EVERY computer in the office and our NAS and its local redundant backup. The offsite backup from the day before saved our 20+ years of data from total loss. We use GorillaBackups.com (a friend of mine), but you can choose whoever you want.
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
A NAS backup with an offsite NAS as well.
I run a couple of NAS devices for various functions here and they are offsite backup up to another couple of NAS devices.
NAS devices do a whole lot more then just backup, so I really advocate their use. Some you can even run VMs from.
Mom has used with great success Carbonite and that has helped her when she has had some crashes and that just adds another layer with their NAS as well ( I got the folks on a NAS earlier this year as well).
I like the Qnap ones, but you can also get your own box and use FreeNAS OS as well (it has it's pros and cons) and go that route.
I run a couple of NAS devices for various functions here and they are offsite backup up to another couple of NAS devices.
NAS devices do a whole lot more then just backup, so I really advocate their use. Some you can even run VMs from.
Mom has used with great success Carbonite and that has helped her when she has had some crashes and that just adds another layer with their NAS as well ( I got the folks on a NAS earlier this year as well).
I like the Qnap ones, but you can also get your own box and use FreeNAS OS as well (it has it's pros and cons) and go that route.
Ditchmiester
New Member
I also suggest going the NAS Route. I have both a Qnap and a Seagate NAS, the qnap has more bells and whistles in my opinion. I backup my NAS devices to Amazon S3 server. That is a very powerfull offsite backup that can do a lot of different things for you. I would recommend that as a Backup option. I've also used Microsoft Azure for offsite backup and had success with that as well.
Yes NAS. You can also turn a NAS into your own personal cloud and save those enterprise cloud fees and remove the bandwidth/size restrictions:
http://www.rawcomputing.co.uk/cloud-storage.html
For additional peace of mind, place one in your home or some other remote location for redundancy. This protects you from fire, lightning strike, vehicle ran through the wall etc. which could occur in one location or the other.
http://www.rawcomputing.co.uk/cloud-storage.html
For additional peace of mind, place one in your home or some other remote location for redundancy. This protects you from fire, lightning strike, vehicle ran through the wall etc. which could occur in one location or the other.
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
You can do anywhere access with a NAS as well. It does have it's drawbacks in opening up that kind of access, but it is doable.
legacyborn
New Member
I use dropbox and paid a guy on Fiverr.com $5 to do some mumbo jumbo to boost it to 22 gig. I run out of space occasionally (twice a year or so) but I just purge old client stuff and photos that I won't need.
Northern Design
Northern Design Graphics
sync
NAS for nightly back up
Sugarsync for auto sync to laptop and tablet, works great
NAS for nightly back up
Sugarsync for auto sync to laptop and tablet, works great
particleman
New Member
You should really have at least 2 backups. One being offsite (cloud). The NAS backups are nice but there are still some scenarios where the NAS box could become useless. A fire or tornado, the NAS RAID controller or mainboard can still fail, no disk redundancy (if setup this way) for example.
Depending on the amount of data you have you would have to gauge how to accomplish this. Some data may not be feasible to backup. For example I have worked with a sign company locally that I built a 7TB Synology NAS for them and they are currently expanding it to 10TB. The is RAID 10 and contains all artwork and local files. This isn't really feasible to backup to the cloud over their internet connection. So you'll have to assess the risk for your own business.
My own personal setup is an external HD that is backed up nightly (my hot backup). Then I use Crashplan to backup everything to the cloud. I have around 400 gigs backed up to the cloud.
Depending on the amount of data you have you would have to gauge how to accomplish this. Some data may not be feasible to backup. For example I have worked with a sign company locally that I built a 7TB Synology NAS for them and they are currently expanding it to 10TB. The is RAID 10 and contains all artwork and local files. This isn't really feasible to backup to the cloud over their internet connection. So you'll have to assess the risk for your own business.
My own personal setup is an external HD that is backed up nightly (my hot backup). Then I use Crashplan to backup everything to the cloud. I have around 400 gigs backed up to the cloud.
jfiscus
Rap Master
We have a very similar amount of data here so a "cloud" solution isn't possible, but making a local backup onto another drive and then moving that drive to an offsite server backup solution that only checks for updated files every night to backup only them does work well.
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
Here, off site NAS. However, most NAS devices allow you to monitor the overall health of the system, so unless something really really sudden happens, you should be able to spot the stuff that takes time. Doesn't always happen that nicely, but it helps. If you can't be in a place to always check it, you can have it to where it sends alerts via email.
Rather you do your own or your use a 3rd party, there are always going to be risks of something down the line happening. Nothing is a sure thing. What you have to do is weigh each option and assign what value you place on the pros and cons of each option and see which one comes up ahead (in your mind anyway). Most importantly (to me), it's what you want to deal with or have someone else be responsible.