My point is that we're not really addressing the underlying problem at all. All we are doing is putting a "band aid" over a particular issue in a completely sub-optimal solution. Adding more steps and processes to a sub-optimal solution is just going to introduce more points at which things will inevitably fail. And I still don't see how "road warrior" type users are supposed to "offsite" the 2nd hard disk on a regular basis when their out in hotel rooms etc.
Just as IT is pushing automation in other areas, to introduce some "smarts", remove human error, increase agility/speed, why can't we apply that here? Surely this problem is the type of thing crying out for a software based solution that takes the drudgery and human element out of it? Use a high-bandwidth medium to seed an initial backup, and rely on software automation to handle the ongoing need? From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Micheal Espinola Jr Sent: Tuesday, 2 September 2014 11:51 AM To: ntsysadm Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] Remote full computer backup to cloud It is a PITA. I never claimed it was optimal. Its cheap, and efficient - when performed properly. Lots of small businesses have done it for decades. The point was, if you are worried about the issues of a single point of failure with a single drive - introduce a drive rotation. Cloud based backups are not always feasible because of bandwidth considerations, as this discussion has been dancing around the core issue of. We're all just spit-balling here. -- Espi On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 5:13 PM, Ken Schaefer <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: OP has users that are often "out of the office" - are they expected to take multiple drives with them, and rotate these "offsite"? Sounds like a huge PITA to me. Surely something that runs an agent that backs up daily deltas to an offsite location (CrashPlan, Iron Mountain), or back to "home base" via permanent connection (Direct Access + Windows Server Essentials 2012) would be a bit more robust? The admin gets reports/alerts, and you're getting software to automate an otherwise boring task that users are simply not interested in doing. Cheers Ken -----Original Message----- From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of Ben Scott Sent: Tuesday, 2 September 2014 10:06 AM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] Remote full computer backup to cloud On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 4:56 PM, Micheal Espinola Jr <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > Rotate more than one drive. Take the most recent drive off-site. > Make it a *daily* procedure/task for the user. Often times with > unprofessional people; anything less than daily will be neglected. s/less than daily//; s/unprofessional// :-) I've had the best results with having the computer send email to someone else, who's responsible for monitoring the backups, but not changing media. That way the watcher isn't watching themselves. You're still depending on the watcher to do their job, but it's better than just one party. Plus the reports can serve as a permanent record. -- Ben
