Workable backups for small offices

Client: Richard Watts, Kynesim <rrw@semiramis.org.uk>

Your client’s office has half a dozen staff using networked PCs, who generate moderately large quantities of data - about 1Gb per month for each person, with permanent storage of maybe 8Tb each. They would like an off-site backup system. They are prepared to use USB hard discs to physically carry data off site, but really important data should be uplinked to somewhere in the cloud. You have to locate what has changed (these machines are in constant use, so you can’t just scan the hard disk), and decide if it is important or duplicates existing material. Remember that it takes time to transfer data on their 1Gbit network, and even more to the net, with a connection of about 200Mbit down / 20Mbit up. You need to make the backups incremental, but with a naming / navigation scheme so that they can be retrieved by reference to the originals. You should also consider security.