Backup for small business

[gwengo]

Hi All!

I need some professional advice, mainly on behalf of the company that I work for. I have recently been appointed as the studio manager of a small design agency. At the moment we have a very dated way of backing up our files. On DVD, yes you heard that right!!! , I know. Hence why I need some advice.

The reason why we use DVD's is the fact that it's very inexpensive for a small business. Also, our company is based in Bidford-on-Avon (in the sticks basically) so our internet connection isn't brilliant at the best of times, so a cloud solution would be out of the question really.

A friend of mine suggested we use a Drobo, so work is constantly being backed up. Is this any good? and would it be simple enough to set up?

We all work on mac pros so any mac solutions would be best I think.

Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated

 

[Fishrrman]

How much data do you need to back up on a daily basis?

 

[Macman45]

Hi All!

I need some professional advice, mainly on behalf of the company that I work for. I have recently been appointed as the studio manager of a small design agency. At the moment we have a very dated way of backing up our files. On DVD, yes you heard that right!!! , I know. Hence why I need some advice.

The reason why we use DVD's is the fact that it's very inexpensive for a small business. Also, our company is based in Bidford-on-Avon (in the sticks basically) so our internet connection isn't brilliant at the best of times, so a cloud solution would be out of the question really.

A friend of mine suggested we use a Drobo, so work is constantly being backed up. Is this any good? and would it be simple enough to set up?

We all work on mac pros so any mac solutions would be best I think.

Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated

DVDs? is right. It does depend on how much data you are backing up, but whilst the Drobo would do the job, I'd be inclined to look at something a little more reliable. I am a music producer and work with video / photo and music files..my data is my life, and I entrust it to two backup solutions. Both iMac and MBA are backed up via a Time Capsule, but all mission critical data is further stored on a Promise Pegasus R4... To use this you need thunderbolt though, and if you are only working with Mac Pros this isn't an option for you. If you have an iMac or MacBook Pro of reasonably new vintage, you could use the thunderbolt solution that way.

Also take a look at some of the other USB backup solutions on the Apple store...these are not going to be fast, but they should be reliable.


Promise:


http://www.rcblogic.co.uk/m-417-mac-os-x-solutions.aspx?st=20&gclid=CMXe_OK347UCFczHtAodJ3UAqg



Apple:

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_mac/mac_accessories/storage


If you can find a way of using Thunderbolt, I can highly recommend it for speed, reliability and flexibility of configuration.


Hope some of this helps.

 

[Weaselboy]

Sounds like one of the multiple drive Synology NAS devices would be a good fit for you.

 

[blueroom]

Avoid Drobo, get a Synology NAS.

 

[DroboInc]

Drobo

Hi gwengo,

Thank you for having an interest in our Drobos. Have you signed up for a Live Demo yet? I encourage you to visit our site and sign up for one. http://www.drobo.com/solutions/more/thunderbolt.php We'll be able to answer any and all questions you have. Our BeyondRAID technology is simple to use, and start at $599. I hope this helps!

Drobo

 

[kclark]

I use the Lacie5Big Network. Ethernet and Thunderbolt enabled. Maybe more than what you want to spend about $1000 US dollars, but very reliable and can be used by windows and mac. You can use time machine if you like.

 

[Giuly]

Hi gwengo,

Thank you for having an interest in our Drobos. Have you signed up for a Live Demo yet? I encourage you to visit our site and sign up for one. http://www.drobo.com/solutions/more/thunderbolt.php We'll be able to answer any and all questions you have. Our BeyondRAID technology is simple to use, and start at $599. I hope this helps!

Drobo

You should rather fight the biases of the Drobos being slow and unreliable, because although you happen to have fixed that, people don't know about it, yet.

But yes, it boils down to the Drobo 5D or a Synology DS413J (or better), at least if you want it to be easy to use and reliable. The Drobo 5D is for a single computer, while the Synology is attached over the network and works seamlessly with multiple clients. But to be fair, there also exists a Drobo 5N, which uses Ethernet rather than USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt.

 

[glenthompson]

Regardless of which solution you go with, have you addressed the need for an off site backup? Cloud storage might be an option as you could do those backups overnight.

 

[gwengo]

wow thanks for all the advice everyone. It's really appreciated!!!

@glenthompson
Yeah we did consider this, but our internet connection really sucks so cloud storage is a no, no really, even overnight. We do have portable 1TB HDDs which constantly back up our work using Time machine throughout the day and we need to take this off site every night, so this covers our "short term" backup solutions. I just need a solution for "long term" storage and access of files.

The Synology NAS looks the business!! would this be easy to set up?

 

[Ifti]

Avoid Drobo, get a Synology NAS.

Please elaborate?

I had a Synology NAS, and Ive just got rid of it to get a full on Mac Mini Server and a Drobo.
Does much more then the NAS without the limitations, and the Thunderbolt Drobo is TONS faster when backing up.