Backup options for the Small Business Owner
Video – Vlog #10
Cloud backup options and alternatives for the Small Business
Physical onsite and offsite options are discussed, and cloud options.
Be careful with realtime cloud backup.
Is your data stored encrypted in a backup set, whether in the cloud or external backup device?
Script – Vlog #10
David Logan: Hi my name is David Logan, the IT Geek, based here in Annan, Scotland, UK. I’m the IT Geek taking the complexity out of technology for the home based worker. With me this week is Willie Nicol. So Willie, how are you and where are you?
Willie Nicol: Hi, David. I’m very well, thank you. I’m in Loans near Troon, south Ayrshire, Scotland UK.
David Logan: Great. My turn to answer your question this week. I know very much last minute panic, but do you have a question for me?
Willie Nicol: Yes, I do indeed. David, I’d like you to clarify for me the concept of backing up your information from your device into the cloud or whatever else so that you keep it safe.
David Logan: OK. Good. So you are aware you should back up your stuff? Hard drives don’t keep working 24/7, they generally do.
David Logan: Do you know the difference between a solid state drive (SSD) and a normal mechanical drive?
Willie Nicol: I have a vague idea, but I’d appreciate some enlightment thinking about it.
David Logan: The solid state drive has no mechanical moving parts, therefore, it’s got a longer shelf life. The first recommendation, if anybody gets a new computer, is getting SSD drive in. Yes, I agree it is more expensive, but it will last longer. We’ll take the urgency off doing the the backups, but it is still good to do backups. Do you know why?
Willie Nicol: I’m surmising that it’s in case your device malfunctions? You have lost all your information?
David Logan: That’s one very valid reason. Another reason may be, remember earlier in the year when the NHS was nearly crippled with ransomware?
David Logan: That’s another reason why we should always back up our data. Now for the small business owner who’s working from home, working from a laptop, working from the computer, it’s not just that critical data to keep your business running. It’s your photos – your memories of family. Yes, that cost nothing to me. Costs nothing to Willie. It’s more, it’s going to be a monumental, no sentimental. It means that if you lose those photos, you’ve lost that history. There’s different ways of backing it up. One you mentioned the cloud, the cloud is great. It’s instant. You add a file to the bucket, to the folder, to where the cloud system is on your device and it will be sent up to the cloud. Real time. Now if you delete a file on your computer, it deletes it in the cloud. We’ll go back a step to the ransomware. It doesn’t need to be ransomware, it could be a virus, it could be malware which ransomware is a part of. Basically, it’s changing the look and feel of your data. As soon as that data file changes, it changes in the cloud. If your computer gets scrambled, that you can’t use it, you can’t operate it.
David Logan: There’s a good chance the data has been scrambled and corrupted, potentially, or damaged. Guess what? The same up in the cloud. So that’s real time protection. It’s good if you’re changing computer. It’s quite simple – buy a new computer, log into Dropbox account and download Dropbox files for example. That is step one.
David Logan: Step two is to have an external hard drive, a memory stick. A hard drive which once a week, you plug in, copy files across. You can do it manually or you can set up it to do it automatically on a weekly basis. I’m saying weekly. Don’t take my time-frame as gospel. You may want to do a backup daily, do it as long as you need, you need to think how long can my business exist without all these details, these documents? You could say it was bang – explodes – how long can your business run for? You the business owner need to decide that. That’s two options I’ve told you so far. The cloud – real time. Backup to an external hard drive.
David Logan: For the viewer and yourself Willie, if you want advice give me a shout. You can buy memory USB sticks for about 10 pound in Tesco. Is that data encrypted? That’s the next big thing. I’m well beyond your question, Willie, my apology.
Willie Nicol: No all good David. It certainly made it clearer for me and what what does amused me, forgive me, is you keep pointing up to the clouds. Well, as I understand, the cloud is actually a big, huge server somewhere that your information is being stored on. Is that correct?
David Logan: That’s correct. And today there is a cloud in the sky down here in Annan.
David Logan: The cloud is basically a computer, a server as you say. What is a server, a server is a big computer used to store data, storing your photos, storing your videos. Dropbox, Google, Microsoft one drive, apple i-drive . I think that’s the name. They all have their own data-servers through-out the world. The cloud is a computer that’s connected via the Internet to your computer. So when you install Google drive on your computer, I’ll use Google drive for demonstration purposes. You install and point (setup) a folder on your system – there is my Google Drive box. Drop the file into that there, then it goes automatically up to the cloud. Up to the cloud being over the internet and back down to the super server or super computer, which stores these files with super fast Internet access speeds. So the cloud is something of a computer connected Internet. Does that keep it simple, or too simple?
Willie Nicol: No, no, that’s that’s perfect. What we’re doing is we’ve got our own little box in a big, big computer server with loads of other little boxes. Where your stuff, my stuff, everyone else’s stuff is securely stored, so there should anything happen to the device we normally work on, we don’t lose all the data.
David Logan: Yes. And you said a word there, hence the reason for interrupting you there, secure. When your saving business documents, photos, videos, confidential information to the cloud ensure it is encrypted.
Willie Nicol: I see, so that’s a question for another day. How do I encrypt?
David Logan: Absolutely. Absolutely. But for the viewer feel free to contact me as well as yourself, Willie. Yes, you’re quite right, we’ll use that for another video another week. So that’s back-up to the cloud. Now just to do belt and braces, we talked about real-time backup to the cloud, you can also backup to the cloud, but not have it do real-time backup. You can do a manual one, an automatic one that does it every hour or every day. You can set it to do that.
David Logan: I backup to the cloud using Dropbox, Google drive. I have another system where I say, “OK that’s me backup’d, that’s me finished at this stage today.” Press “back up” now. It backs up to another system to the cloud, where Dropbox, Google Drive plus all the files on the system.
Willie Nicol: Right.
David Logan: There is three ways of doing it. OK, it’s simple, but you want belt and braces, so if there’s a fire that that your business can still run and think as a small business owner, do you want to lose all your family history of those photos stored in your computer? Do you want to lose them?
Willie Nicol: I would suggest not, and you don’t want to be losing all your invoices. So you know who owes you how much.
David Logan: So that is us for today. Any further questions?
Willie Nicol: No that’s me, I’m happy. Thank you, David.
David Logan: Fantastic. So, to the viewer, if you’ve got any questions fire them back to me. We also going to pre-empt the viewer now. We need a question for Willie for next week. I know when you are now on the five points now Willie, of the stress and anxiety. We’re looking for new questions. Fresh ideas to come through. Am I wrong asking for that?
Willie Nicol: Not at all. Feel free to ask me, if you like apart from next week’s lottery numbers.
David Logan: I could do with that. Great. So to the viewer have a fantastic weekend. Once again, we’re steadily increasing YouTube subscribers. Please keep subscribing. Pass the word around to your networks. Private message them. We want, we aim to get to 100. Why? Wait till next week, we’ll tell you why.
David Logan: Goodbye from me and goodbye from Willie.
Willie Nicol: Bye from me. Thank you very much.
