Online Backups as a Service

This post is related to a question that people often ask me and therefore I've spent a lot of time thinking about.

What makes online backup service x better than y?

To get the answer to this question, people often Google "Online Backup Reviews" or "Online Backups" and read articles that compare the 5 or so most popular online backup offerings. These reviews compare features like encryption, speed, ease of use, features like Continuous Data Protection, ability to backup network drives etc. Close to the end somewhere is a little blurb about support and if one support desk is better than another or something like that.

I think most reviews mislead the reader and sometimes miss the mark completely. Yes features such as speed and ease of use are important, and for a service to be considered seriously, it should meet certain criteria in these categories. But as a business person, think about the problem you want to solve with backups: You are protecting your most critical asset against loss. That's what it all comes down to. The rest is semantics.

When considering different solutions is the difference between 5 and 7 clicks to set up a backup your biggest concern or do you want to know that when you are in your time of greatest need; like when a disaster strikes, that the service you are purchasing is there to help you through it?

Online Backups are a SERVICE not just a piece of software.

If you read a few of those reviews and scroll down to the bottom to the paragraph where the reviewing contacted big box provider X, the rating is generally meets expectations down to non-existent. Often you will have to navigate past the front-line support person who is reading to a script to the next level to get any meaningful response. Is this what you want in time of disaster? Was it worth the extra pretty interface or the few dollars less a month to be left out in the cold when disaster strikes?

When shopping for an online backup service, remember that word: service

If you are in the market for someone to perform your IT management or even just manage your printers, the first item on the checklist is service. Why is it that online backups have been relegated to a set of features and upload/download speed? Backups are as much or more about service than any other part of your IT environment.

Here is a checklist that I use when shopping for an online backup service:

• Will the company help me design a backup solution that is the best for my particular business like a backup solution that ensure all critical data is backed up, and optimize use of bandwidth; taking into consideration usage patterns and current bandwidth usage?


• Will the company notify me if my backups fail and help me figure out why (as opposed to just sending automated email messages)?


• Will the company not only provide me with the option of receiving my data on hard drive or DVD in the event of disaster, but also work with me until I'm back in business?


• Where is my data stored and how long does it take to get it back?


• When I call support, am I talking to 1-800-INDIA or do I immediately connect to someone who is knowledgeable about the product and isn't reading off of a script?

By considering these items, you can begin to understand the value of spending a few dollars more on a provider that provides these services than on a provider that may be more well-known but only delivers the most basic services.

Remember that you are protecting the most critical asset that your business has. Do you really want to base that decision on the lowest price and prettiest bells and whistles?





http://www.dataknoxx.com/

A Must Read for Small Business Owners

Here is an excellent article from the New York Times that is a must-read for Small Business Owners. The discussion is important not only from a perspective of making sure that your data is backed up, but rather your Disaster Recovery Plan in general.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/business/smallbusiness/10disaster.html?_r=1

What Cloud Computing Means for Small Businesses

So you've heard this term "cloud computing" and you're thinking: Just a buzzword for something that has no impact on my life. Well, that may or may not be true.

Buzzword? Yes

Impactful? Potentially

What I will do here is describe to you what cloud computing is (or at least my take on it) and how it may be relevant to small businesses. For those that want the short answer, feel free to scroll down to Give me the SHORT ANSWER!!!.

What is Cloud Computing?
Interestingly, people are still arguing over what cloud computing is, what qualifies as cloud computing and what doesn't, and what the future of it will look like.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say: Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them.

Alright, I'm not sure that could be any more vague. But here is my $0.10 version of the definition: Cloud computing is a pay-per-use model of using services on the Internet.

This definition includes services such as Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps, Payment gateways, and online backups.

Hey! That's just another word for ASP, Software as a Service, or whatever the current buzzword is!

Pretty much. In fact, if you use the Wikipedia definition, "cloud computing" has been around since the 60s where you would purchase time slices on a mainframe.

So what's different now?

What's different is that we can now merge all of these technologies including the Internet, virtualization, web services, and higher available bandwidth to produce offerings that make business sense.

Additionally, groups such as the open cloud manifesto are working to develop standards that allow cloud services to work together!

Now you're losing me. Give me an example!

Fine. I just launched a "virtual" company called Data Knoxx. Here is the approach that I took: Invest in critical infrastructure, and go "pay per use" on everything else.

So in my case, my critical infrastructure is my backup system. I'm not going to trust someone else with that. However, the phone system, web hosting, site monitoring, document storage, and email are all items that are peripheral, but important. The cost of entry is too high for me to invest in all of these systems, but with cloud computing (or Software as a Service), I am able to enable these systems on a pay-per-use model.

Now, what would differentiate these services as cloud computing would be interoperability. Suppose my phone system, web hosting, site monitoring, document storage, and email platforms would all talk to each other on a standard protocol without custom programming? That would be POWER!

This is where it gets interesting!
Some purists will further refine the definition of cloud computing to only include data storage and computing power. So back to the main frame model, I pay for time slices on a shared server and pay by the Gig for storage used on a shared system. That's fine. I'll let the purists argue that one out.


Give me the SHORT ANSWER!!!
However you define cloud computing, what it means to the Small Business CIO is simple: LOW COST OF ENTRY for a PAY PER USE model.

You do not have to invest thousands of dollars up front for you IT infrastructure. Instead, you pay a low monthly fee that increases as your usage (and hopfeully revenue) increases.

One more example
Data Backups. Here is the traditional model of entry into data backups:

Tape Solution
- Purchase a tape drive (or multiple tape drives) - $1,000
- Purchase tapes - $350 for a 10-pack
- Purchase tape backup software - $150 (and that's low)
- Design a tape rotation system - 20hrs effort @ $20/hr = $400

So that's close to $2,000 before you even call Iron Mountain to start picking up your tapes!

USB Solution
- USB drive - $500
- Backup Software - $150
- Design and implement backup system - 20hrs effort @ $20/hr = $400

So that's a $1,000 dollar cost of entry, but make sure that your IT guy takes that drive somewhere safe every night!

Disk to Disk Solution
I won't go into details on this, suffice to say that the cost of purchasing and implementing a server and disk array is over $5,000.

Cloud Computing
- Software licensing - $0
- Set up costs - Figure 10 hrs at $20/hr = $200.
- Data storage - Depends on how much data. Most business plans start around $35/mo.

So that's $235 to get in the door and the majority of that is your person setting up and configuring the software. As your data grows, the running cost will increase, but hopefully by then your revenues are increasing accordingly.

Also, consider the effect of scaling back! Your operational costs instantly decrease as you scale back. You can't give tape drives back when you don't need them anymore!

Conclusion
So that's my take on cloud computing. I'm interested to hear other's thoughts on this new-fangled buzzword.

In the mean time, try out this model for yourself: www.dataknoxx.com

Small Business CIO First Post

Welcome to my Blog. Before we get started, let me help you decide if this blog is going to be worth following for you.

This blog is for you if:

• You make IT decisions for a small or medium sized business. As a general rule, that's anywhere from 1 to 100 employees.
• You are the IT lead for a company and make recommendations or design solutions that you bring to the CIO.
• You aren't the IT lead or decision-maker, but want to be.
• You think I'm cool and you want to read what I have to say.

OK, if you're still reading, that means that you fit one of the above criteria (hopefully the last). Now that I have told you about you, how about I tell you about me? That's what the style guides say I should do in order to build that little thing called "credibility".

Why Should I Believe anything Adam Kehler has to say?
Well, you don't have to listen to anything I say, but I do believe that I bring some pretty good experience to my writing. You see, I've been making IT decisions for small businesses for a while now. My first implementation ever was in 1993 and it was called Novell Netware 3.12 implemented on Windows for Workgroups 3.11. You youngsters may not recognize the names, but it was the prize of its time. And boy did I not know a THING! Fortunately, I kept at it, did some more system administration, then after graduating with my Bachelor of Computer Science, moved into software development for a few years.

It's when I became a consultant at one of the "BIG 5" consulting firms that I really got to see what companies were doing in IT and how they could do it better and more cost-effectively. More recently I've spent 4 years implementing and supporting data center solutions for everyone from the mom and pop shop to large credit card companies (I shouldn't say the name, but it starts with V, ends with A, and the middle is...).

Now I have launched an online backup provider which I will probably plug in some of my writings, but I'll try not to be too overt about it. www.dataknoxx.com

OK, So What?
So I have seen a lot of different solutions to a lot of different problems; some good, some bad, some terrible. All that I'm trying to do here is share my thoughts on specific IT topics that may help some of you small business IT professionals make those decisions that you have to make every day.

I hope you find what I have to say entertaining and at least somewhat informative. Please give me feedback and I would love to hear about the types of topics that you want to hear about!

My first word of advice: Have fun!

Adam