Network Backup

Hello,

I,ve taken over a small net work oh about 10 PC's and 2 Server which didn't have any backup solution.

Server_1 is a domain controller sbs 2003 and everything is fine there and dont want to change anything there.

Server_2 is supposed to be a file server.

All the users store thier data on their individual PC's because they say when the data was on the server their systems used to be slow (they use software like archicad) so that the reason why everyone has their data on the PC's. The each have abot 100GB.

What I've done at the moment is I've put a big HDD in the file server and backup all the data onto the file server and then to an external HDD.

I was thinking of online backup but the speed of the internet and we get limited bandwidth from our isp. As am sending this my speed is Download: 5Mbps Upload:0.4Mbps(using speedtest.net) and if im right to backup offline we have to upload the data and that will takes us a couple of days to backup 1TB of data.

Is there a better way I can do this and any recommendation on a good backup software .

Thanks in advance

I forgot to add one thing. All the users use ms outlook (pop) so the pst files are saved on the PC's any advice on backing up these files will be appreciated

What kind of data are you supporting?


How critical is it that you do not lose your data?



How valuable is a data backup to you?


How often does data need to be backed up?


Answer those questions first. Essentially your going to use that information to decide what type of backups your going to have to put in place. For example if your storing important financial records your not only going to want to have up to date copies of transaction records but your also going to want to have quite a few offsite backups. On the other hand if your only backing up some kids homework at a small private school you can get away with a lot less.

Thanks for the reply and I'll try and answer the questions you asked


What kind of data are you supporting?

Its an architectual firm so is the drawings( eg archicad files) and pst files for the emails


How critical is it that you do not lose your data?

It is very critical, they can not afford to lose the files


How valuable is a data backup to you?

Very valuable and they are willing to spend a reasonable amount


How often does data need to be backed up?

Alteast once a day if it can be more even better

Hope i've answered your questions

If you absolutely have to back a bunch of individual pcs i'd recommend A sonicwall CDP. Tt works very well you can even pay to store data offsite as a DR solution (the cdp will send the data via vpn to their data center OR another CDP).

This is a hardware solution (some software), but it works pretty well with not alot of hassle.

I would personally try to figure out why its "slow". Then spend the money on getting the infrastructure fixed so you can house the data back on the servers and use more traditional ways to backup.

If this isn't possible then CDP is pretty nice.

Hi,

since the data is critical and .pst files need to be stored, i suggest you can go for software based backup solutions like Veritas client backup or Tivoli or Atempo.
since now you are using the file server to backup the data you can use the same server for hosting the backup software and you can backup the pc's.