Which backup software is right for me?

[Mystic Mungis]

I recently started a new job at an office and I'm in the process of getting their stone age systems caught up with the 21st century! Currently everyone backs up their files at the end of the day if they remember, and obviously at the end of the day people are rushing to get home so more often than not it doesn't get done. We currently have two offices, each with a staff of 4 people and two layers which travel between the two offices. My plan was to connect an external HDD, or a decent sized pen drive, to the router in each office and have software run a backup at both lunchtimes and the end of the day. This gives me a few criteria that I need fulfilled:

 

• The ability for the software to turn off the machine after the second backup, but not the first at lunchtime. If this isn't a common feature or requires a much more expensive solution then one a day would be totally fine. 
• The option for more than one backup location to be selected so that if one of the lawyers is in office A it isn't trying to use the location for office B, although both routers are the same and I'll be using identical storage hardware so I think it shouldn't matter, if so I'll strike this from the list upon confirmation.
• I want to use Incremental backups, pretty sure every piece of backup software gives this feature though but I thought I'd add it to the list.

 

If anyone has any good suggestions/experiences then I'd appreciate it! 

 

Thanks in advance! 

[ncoday]

Sounds like a cloud backup option might be best if you have people traveling from one office to another.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

this really all depends on what budget you have to work with. i'd suggest you go more legit and get a backup server and some sort of dedicated storage, like a NAS or SAN.

 

ideally, you'd want backup jobs running nightly or as soon as the user connects their laptop to the network. then all the data on the centralized storage is backed up to tape and/or the cloud. you could hire an "iron mountain" service to take storage off-site.

 

the list goes on, but you get the idea...

[Mystic Mungis]

8 minutes ago, ncoday said:

Sounds like a cloud backup option might be best if you have people traveling from one office to another.

I'd thought about a cloud based solution but as we're a law firm I don't know how comfortable my employer would be with having legal files online, or even the legality of it. As far as ease goes though I've been leaning towards it, but I'll need to sit down and have a chat with him.

 

9 minutes ago, Jason S. said:

this really all depends on what budget you have to work with. i'd suggest you go more legit and get a backup server and some sort of dedicated storage, like a NAS or SAN.

 

ideally, you'd want backup jobs running nightly or as soon as the user connects their laptop to the network. then all the data on the centralized storage is backed up to tape and/or the cloud. you could hire an "iron mountain" service to take storage off-site.

 

the list goes on, but you get the idea...

Realistically I think I could push the budget to around £250 per office if I use enough fancy sounding words when I seek approval. Our firm is currently going through a period of growth at the moment and I think the move to a server based solution will happen eventually, although I could possibly expedite it by convincing them it's future-proofing! 

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

oh boy - im not even sure you can get decent backup software for £250

[Mystic Mungis]

5 minutes ago, Jason S. said:

oh boy - im not even sure you can get decent backup software for £250

Sorry, that was in reference to hardware! Software wise they'd have no idea what was a reasonable price for the software. With hardware they'd see a 2Tb HDD for £50 and I'd need an oscar winning performance to explain why we needed anything else  

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

I'm not the most experienced in this area, but could you not use something like Acronis (on each PC/laptop) to back up to a NAS/central location?

 

Edit - Even something like Synology with Cloud Station would work, right? I think that Cloud Station will backup files in a specified folder with a certain number of versions all of which can be restored. 

[Mystic Mungis]

1 minute ago, dipsylalapo said:

I'm not the most experienced in this area, but could you not use something like Acronis (on each PC/laptop) to back up to a NAS/central location?

I've looked at Acronis and checked out a few lists of the "best" but out of those I wasn't sure which would be the best and cover all of my requirements, although from reputation I know that Acronis is pretty comprehensive and well regarded! I'll look into it more and see if I can find more information on it's handling of different storage locations! 

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

What about getting a Synology NAS, build out shared drives and user permissions and have everyone work on files from that? That way, the data would have redundancy, but could also be backed up to AWS. Synology offers built-in access to AWS.

 

1. Synology NAS set up on network w/ redundant drives

2. set up user permissions

3. set up shared folders

4. back up data to AWS

5. back up data to external hard drive which could be moved off-site on a standard rotation.

 

yes, i know there was the legality issues, and it's over the £250 budget. i just dont think you can do anything worthwhile for that budget.

[xendrome]

Acronis will do everything you are asking.

 

https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/computer-backup/

[Mystic Mungis]

8 minutes ago, Jason S. said:

What about getting a Synology NAS, build out shared drives and user permissions and have everyone work on files from that? That way, the data would have redundancy, but could also be backed up to AWS. Synology offers built-in access to AWS.

 

1. Synology NAS set up on network w/ redundant drives

2. set up user permissions

3. set up shared folders

4. back up data to AWS

5. back up data to external hard drive which could be moved off-site on a standard rotation.

 

yes, i know there was the legality issues, and it's over the £250 budget. i just dont think you can do anything worthwhile for that budget.

I've looked into it and it's down to the firms discretion, there would be possible grounds for a lawsuit against us if any files were stolen but having them in cloud storage doesn't violate any laws that I can see. I read a guide for law firms which may help convince my employer to go down that road. If so then I think I might be able to go down the route of a proper backup solution.

 

7 minutes ago, xendrome said:

Acronis will do everything you are asking.

 

https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/computer-backup/

Failing what I said above I'm going to use Acronis with networked storage of some form until we outgrow it! 

 

Thanks for the advice!

[spikey_richie]

If you have a NAS, you could try using Cobian Backup with a mapped network drive.

[ncoday]

11 hours ago, Mystic Mungis said:

I'd thought about a cloud based solution but as we're a law firm I don't know how comfortable my employer would be with having legal files online, or even the legality of it. As far as ease goes though I've been leaning towards it, but I'll need to sit down and have a chat with him.

 

Realistically I think I could push the budget to around £250 per office if I use enough fancy sounding words when I seek approval. Our firm is currently going through a period of growth at the moment and I think the move to a server based solution will happen eventually, although I could possibly expedite it by convincing them it's future-proofing! 

Pretty sure most, if not all, Cloud solutions have encryption either built-in or as an add-on. 

 

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

I haven't used it, but Carbonite specifically has a package for law firms:  https://www.carbonite.com/en/cloud-backup/business/industry/legal/

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[GrayW]

Take a look at VEEAM. There is a free endpoint option which you can grab and it is packed with features. You can get it here: https://www.veeam.com/windows-endpoint-server-backup-free.html

 

Some of the relevant features for you:

 

• Scheduling: Trigger backup jobs based on specific events, such as when backup storage is connected, when the PC is locked or when a user logs off; it's smart enough not to start a backup more often than needed
• Backup: With true incremental backup, only blocks changed since the last backup are copied

 

If you can't centralise to a single server yet, grab yourself a NAS for each site with the support for at least RAID1 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels#RAID_1). Working with a generic external HDD is just shooting yourself in the foot before you start. Backing up to a single disk without any fault tolerance is asking for it :). I promise, just when you need it the most, it WILL fail on you.

 

Get the NAS on the network and mapped as a drive for each user, get the VEEAM endpoint software configured to back up to that drive.

 

As an added layer of 'just in case', you could make sure that each user has their own folder on the drive that they back up to, with no permissions (either by NTFS permissions or built in user management on the NAS) to the others. In the event of a virus getting in, it should only ravage their files, rather than everyones.

 

You should also find out if you have any Data Retention Laws / Access Management / Data Compliance / anything else rules you have to abide by too, as you're a law firm.

[bledd]

2 bay Synology NAS with WD Red hard drives.

DS216 fits the bill £230 ish

WD Red Hard drives

1TB = £70 x2

4TB = £130 x2

8TB = £260 x2

 

Then an external drive connected via USB to the Synology for an extra backup. 

 

Synology Cloud Station Drive is perfect for what you want.

 

https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/help/DSM/Tutorial/cloud_sync_files@ps

 

It will automatically backup files to the Synology without user intervention.   You can also set internal backups to run on the Synology so you can keep multiple versions of files.

 

This is a decent, cheap solution.

 

Don't even bother thinking about USB sticks into router etc..  

[Mystic Mungis]

On 9/1/2017 at 9:12 AM, bledd said:

2 bay Synology NAS with WD Red hard drives.

DS216 fits the bill £230 ish

WD Red Hard drives

1TB = £70 x2

4TB = £130 x2

8TB = £260 x2

 

Then an external drive connected via USB to the Synology for an extra backup. 

 

Synology Cloud Station Drive is perfect for what you want.

 

https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/help/DSM/Tutorial/cloud_sync_files@ps

 

It will automatically backup files to the Synology without user intervention.   You can also set internal backups to run on the Synology so you can keep multiple versions of files.

 

This is a decent, cheap solution.

 

Don't even bother thinking about USB sticks into router etc..  

I've just ordered a DS216J and 2x3TB WD Red. I've talked it over with my employer who is more than happy with this solution so tomorrow morning I'll be getting everything set up. Thanks for the advice! 

[Daedroth]

I second @GrayW's call on VEEAM. I use the enterprise version in our school, and it is great. Not cheap, but probably the best enterprise backup solution on the market. As your budget does not allow you to facilitate the enterprise version, take a look at the free workstation client that VEEAM offer.

 

Backup tips:

 

Have three separate places where your data is kept:

1) The raw data, such as on the file server or on a desktop

2) A backup to another on-site source, such as a backup server, NAS, tape or another hard drive.

3) A backup in a different physical location, such as a different building or using the cloud