Backup Solutions
External Hard DrivesAs the price and physical size of these have come down they have become a very viable option for performing backups. They usually connect very easily to a workstation or server via USB or FireWire so they appear simply as another drive. Capacities range from about 20 GB on up to 300 GB. Some even come built-in with a scaled down version of enterprise backup software.
Pricing is in the $200-$300 range.
External Removable Disk CartridgesRemovable hard drive cartridges enable you to backup your data and then store the cartridge(s) off-site, away from where you do your daily business. This is a critical piece of the backup strategy that most organizations ignore.
- Iomega Rev Drive – 35 GB drive with one 35 GB removable disk drive: $399 ($11.40/GB). This solution is suitable for a single PC.
- Idealstor single drive unit plus 10 Maxtor MaXLine III 250 GB hard drives: $7,800 ($31/GB)
Tape DrivesTape drives are the traditional method of business-class data backup due primarily to cost. They have consistently been much less expensive than hard disk drives which, when coupled with their transportability, made tapes the logical backup technology choice.
- DLT VS160 (80 GB native): $4,800, $60/GB
- LTO-1 (100 GB native): $5,400, $54/GB
- SDLT320 (160 GB native): $6,400, $40/GB
- LTO-2 (200 GB native): $6,200, $31/GB
Tape drive prices are based on rack-mount Dell hardware, and include a 5-pack of tapes and a cleaning tape. You also typically need to buy third party backup software (Veritas, Dantz, etc.) to get the data onto the tapes.
Online BackupIn this scenario your data is backed up through the Internet to a data center operated by a service provider. Typically your data is encrypted and compressed for efficiency during transmission and while stored. You pay the service provider a monthly fee for storing your backups on their servers based upon the size of your backup files.
A key to making online backup work is having a high-speed Internet connection (at a minimum DSL or cable modem is required). Even with a high speed connection the initial backup will typically take a LONG time! Even if you didn't use this option for your entire data backup there might be an absolutely critical data subset (e.g. accounting data, customer lists) that it would make great sense to backup offsite in this manner.
eSureIT
Business Plan I - $24.95 per month for 5 GB
Business Plan II - $49.95 per month for 10 GB
Business Plan III: $199.95 per month for 50 GB
Note: Prices are estimates to be used for budgetary pricing only. Prices are subject to change without notice.
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