While protecting data has always been a key priority for bigger organizations, in today's data-centric and highly analytical world, it is imperative that even smaller companies take definitive steps to protect their data. Any theft or loss of data may result it days to weeks of double data entry work and cause loss of essential man-hours - thereby increasing the operating costs.
Multiple options are available ranging from low cost to paid cloud / private cloud based solutions depending the size and criticality of data. Before we begin it is always important to segregate your data into different levels of criticality so it will be easier to manage the backup solutions and invest in them.
1. Google Drive / DROPBOX / BOX / Office 365 etc.
These are standard cloud based solutions where in you can store your data if it is within the free limit of above websites. These are best solution by far as they are backed up by robust MNCs that have a strong data warehouses to store your critical data.
But more importantly in Indian SME scenario all the above cloud based solutions may not be the best ones due to the following reasons as outlined:
a) These require a stable and fast internet connection. In most tier 1 cities it may not be an issue, but tier 2 and tier 3 cities still struggle with the stability part.
b) if the file/folder size are big (For example photos/videos etc.) then even speed of syncing is an issue.
c) Another issue could be data secrecy where you or your organization may not be comfortable in putting the data on the cloud (Patent info, Product releases etc.)
d) Moreover if we imagine a scenario where big files are being continuously synced with the cloud, the overall internet speed experienced by the user at peak hours is lesser thereby hampering productivity
e) If all users within the company do not have access to the internet then this solution is not applicable.
Lets look at some other options that can be explored
2. Windows shared folders
This is another common option especially where internet connection is not deployed throughout the organization. Having a PC dedicated to document management. All users on the network use the PCs shared folders to manage their files. Further tweaks can be done to this setup to get additional mileage as follows:
a) The parent shared folder can be moved to Google Drive or any other cloud storage so that a copy of it is available online and more importantly backed-up in case something goes wrong with the said PC.
b) Users can be created on the PC (Windows Users) and each user can be assigned a particular sub-folder (inside the parent shared folder) in his name so only he/she can access the folder and no-one else. This additional level of security is useful when there are many users and we don't want that the users should access each other's data.
3.Network Shares / SMB Shares
Network shares or SMB shares are also being deployed using low-cost SOHO segment routers whereby a hard-disk can be directly hooked up to the USB port in-built into the Wi-Fi Router. Several models from TP-LINK and many other router manufacturers are available. A quick google search on USB Routers will give you many buying choices. Once a suitable USB hard drive or pen drive is connected, it may be accessed by SMB or FTP protocol inside the network. The IP Address to access the hard drive is same as that of the Router. Password protection is also available in some routers so users can be mapped to specific folders and read/write permissions can also be assigned.
This option does not require a stand-alone PC/Laptop but speed of access may be an issue over Wi-Fi if large files are being copied. Still it will give much better speed as compared to backing up on cloud as data is being saved locally.
In my future posts we will discuss few more options which are deployed in bigger corporates and data sensitive organizations namely:
4. Offline File-Sync Utilities
5. Storage Servers
For professional consulting services in areas of data backup and network storage the author can be contacted at akbar at octavesbm dot in