backup and ftp

i recently had a nightmare about our organization data disappearing in a fire. "you know you work too much when..." :)<:LINEBREAK:>anyway. we currently tape backup our stuff and i bring the alternating set home each week. i'm wondering if anyone offers a reasonably priced backup service via ftp that i could run each night as an extra precaution. has anyone heard of anything like this?

There are plenty of online backup providers. Google lists some and I have a list of (mainly UK) providers on my site: IT For Charities.<:LINEBREAK:><:LINEBREAK:>Ivan

elannert

As Ivan mentions, there are a lot of services for online back up available. I tried "Backup service" in Google.

If you're just looking for an extra precaution, rather than using this as your main backup solution, you could simply rent space on an FTP server and set up your own encryption and compression and saving routine. No need for an expensive host with a dozen different precautions.

If you use a good online backup services you should be able to dispense with the tape back up altogether (but make sure it's a reputable company, not one that could disappear any day).

One idea I've seen bandied about the non-profit world is for similar organization's to provide back up storage for each other, so you would partner with a similar non-profit (preferably one that wasn't too close geographically) and each host the other's back up data, probably via a VPN of some sort.

If both organizations already have the WAN tools in place (high bandwidth connection; some form of secure, remote connection) this could be an inexpensive way to build a fairly robust back up service.

Helen

If you decide to explore online backup services, I can recommend Skydesk for excellent service. I've been using them for personal backup needs for years with no problems ever. I have no idea, however, what their prices are like for business-level solutions.

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Dana

thanks for the suggestions these are all great alternatives. i especially like the zero-cost band together/backup circle idea. kind of a neat twist on peer-to-peer.

The problem with 'backup circles' and backing up to a website FTP location can be the same as the old standby of tape backup. Unless it's automated, it may or may not get done.

There are some great solutions out there for backing up. There are low-cost solutions that tend to have less involved client software (not so configurable) and the high-cost solutions with high-end client software. My own company tries to find a balance between the two.

We offer 30 day trial accounts so people can get the feel of what online backup is like, ie, don't expect to run the intial backup of a 50GB server in a day!

Generally, though, once the initial backup is done, it just takes a little bit every night to backup changes.

Some, like ours, will even let you set a retention level on files. This means that you not only have last night's backup of that critical Access database, you have yesterday's, the day before, etc..