Sometimes the most tech savvy people ending up being the worst end users. I didn't really think this was true until I entered college as a computer science major. Being from the generation on the cusp of "a PC in every home" we were constantly told by teachers and guidance counselors that a computers degree would guarantee a job. Well, I took their advice and after my first year at university I actually enjoyed learning about programming. Sorts, loops, if/else statements, and even the notorious goto function were all a joy to learn and use. Ah, but this isn't about me learning about programming. No, it's about how simple things like backup servers are often overlooked by some of the smartest people I know.

When I first began programming I kept everything I did, no matter how simple or silly, on a floppy disk. But once my projects started to get larger and more complicated, it became easier to simply save my work on the hard drive and come back to it later. Then disaster struck for me when my hard drive failed and I lost an entire semester's worth of work. No backup, nothing. Thankfully the teacher understood my plight and helped me with the project. However, that taught me a lesson worth more than my entire semesters of ceramics: back everything up.

After college I began working for a software firm that creates and manages art programs for professionals and students (the irony being I can't draw). But I instantly ran into some serious upper management problems when I learned the company's policy for data backup was nearly non-existent. I insisted constantly that we needed periodic, automated backup to an off site backup server (automated because programmers are, for the most part, bored with anything but programming). I must have looked like a harbinger of the apocalypse when the office building we worked out of along with three others were burned beyond recognition in a brush fire turned wildfire that got out of hand.

While we didn't lose everything, the majority of our newest product, Polar Shrew, was lost (Polar Shrew is the reason why programmers hire marketing managers). Even though I constantly backed up my programming we were still set back months. After Polar Shrew, commercially called Star-show, the upper management decided things needed to change. They gave me a small promotion and told me to figure out a reliable, secure, and most importantly off site, backup server problem.

I talked with a couple of my old college buddies and decided that some form of third party was the solution. The company took a pretty big hit after the fire, insurance doesn't pay for everything, and even in the most stable of times financing a separate building for racks of computer servers, technicians, and utilities to use as a backup server simply is unfeasible. Plus a third party system can install an automated backup function that forces us programmers to backup whether it bores us not.

Lost on Backup Island

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Security at the island fortress of Jimmy's Yummy Gummy Snacks is my job. After the Confection Wars three years ago the United Nations decided that all children's snack food conglomerates cannot operate within a thousand miles of any human population. So to accommodate the UN, and better protect The Recipe, Jim Jimmy moved his factory to a small island near the arctic circle. I was a captain for Mr. Jimmy during Confection Wars and as a reward for leading a successful raid to end Hobo's Homemade Honeydrops artillery on Yummy Gummy I was made the head of island security. So, when a technician busts into my command center and yells that The Recipe has been lost I made it my personal responsibility to get to the bottom of things.

Now I'm not a tech savvy person, so when technician Stibbons told me backup solution had been compromised I had him sit down and slowly explain everything to me. He told me that all computer hard drives are prone to damage or data loss, no matter how well maintained. In order to prevent valuable data from being lost, the technicians use a backup server, or a facility that houses server computers that hold all of our main facility's data. However, during a routine system backup, communication to the backup server was lost and our own computer terminals came under attack by Sally's Sour Sucker company. As a preventative measure all of our data banks were automatically wiped, but now the technicians were beginning to panic. With the backup servers unreachable and the facility's data banks wiped The Recipe was temporarily lost and it was needed to begin this month's batch of Jimmy's Yummy Gummy Snacks. Time was critical, for if batch wasn't started on time millions of children would not receive their Yummy Gummy Snacks and might do the most appalling thing possible, go to a competitor.

The technicians surmised that the loss of communication between our facility had to be carried out by a spy inside our facility. The backup server was nestled in the middle of a glacier unknown and impenetrable, so the only other copy of The Recipe was on a floppy disk somewhere in the tech lab. The spy must be after the disk to either steal The Recipe for themselves or delay our own gummy snack production. Their plan was ingenious and detrimental With only hours away from the point of no return I had my men scour the tech lab looking and checking all disks and running security checks on all personal. Finally Robertson remembered something terrible. Earlier in the week he had given Mr. Jimmy's son, Jim Jimmy junior a yellow disk to save one of his computer games on. We quickly ran to the chairman's office and asked for the yellow disk, but his son had already erased The Recipe off of it

Now with only an hour left we all hope and pray that technician Stibbons and Robertson can get communication with the backup server back online before all hope is lost.

Backup Warning

Did you know that nine out of ten businesses suffer "significant data loss" within five years of opening their doors? What's worse is that half of these companies will never recover from such a disaster and will shut down forever. Just imagine all of your client account information, product designs, or other industry secrets vanishing into thin air. Backing up data is essential to every business in the modern world, but many choose to use cheap and unreliable backup solutions. Tape backup systems fail seven out of ten times and other media like USB drives or CD run the risk of being compromised or simply misplaced and lost. Furthermore, in the event that a natural disaster or fire damages your business backup solutions like tapes, USB, and CD are more susceptible to being destroyed than the computer hard drives they are meant to protect. Thus the best solution available is safe, secure, and off site backup servers.

Using a backup server today is not the drawn out headache it once was in the past. Professional installation of all the hard and software coupled with 24 hour a day server monitoring and help desk service make backup servers a peerless choice. Even late night disasters are no problem. Still not simple enough? Most providers will even set up automated backup programs so you won't have to do anything once the installer leaves and you can sit back and feel safe. Backup Servers are also scalable, so when your company hits the big time you won't be scrambling for a new solution. Some backup server provider can also link backup data between other locations or cities. So if the Sacramento office loses power Plano won't have any problems getting their schematics. Of course, all this protection is useless if you cannot quickly access your backed up data. Thankfully, with advances in telecommunication, and a few hardware tricks, backup server providers can deliver your sensitive information nearly instantaneously.

Backup Servers are a favored choice for security as well. The servers are off site and can be continuously monitored by security and technical professionals. This is key especially when dealing with sensitive personal client information. Government acts like the Health Insurance Portability and Accessibility Act (HIPPA) make the destruction or loss of medical data punishable by law. Similarly, the Credit Card and Payment Data security standard requires businesses to adhere to specific encryption and backup data storage methods. Legal experts dealing with both aspects of the law swear by secure, off site backup server solutions.

One professional equated business data loss to being, "as devastating as losing your house, only you can't back make a backup of your house. Think of backup data as insurance for your ideas." Crippling loss of data is an inevitable reality that is preventable. Like all integral parts for your company, don't rely on systems like tape or CD that are prone to theft or failure. Research your options and find an affordable, professional backup server in your area.